An unbiased evaluation of Tyson.

you are right in saying his development kind of stopped, you could say his real prime would have been the few years after 88, maybe into early 90s as he looked to be improving and was introducing subtle things every fight. personally I think his prime would always have been short and without his youthful physical gifts he would just have been a short fighter like other short guys. I think half of it was his physical gifts and knowing precisely how to use them. He could be vulnerable without one of those ingredients he had, speed, power, footwork, timing, stamina etc. I'm not sure he would have carried all that even into his late 20s. Also he would need every one of those skills against big guys like Bowe, he really needed them against Douglas. I think Bowe is the guy Tyson would have had the most trouble with in the 90s.

In terms of what he was missing I think it goes beyond technique. When I compare greats I look at how they handled certain things mentally, such as facing a real challenge but not being discouraged, going down but not being discouraged. I always had the feeling that Tyson felt nothing short of excellence was failure, losing a round was his worst nightmare, or even being hit a few times, so when that happened he became discouraged, he seemed very deflated after Tucker. I think he was less discouraged in his prime but we wont know how an in shape Tyson would have dealt with an all time great in front of him. I guess that what I mean when I say he is missing something, that great challenge.

I am not one of these people that things Mike crumbled when someone stood up to him though, I think when you look at his early career you can see some evidence, especially the Ruddock fight where Mike had to tough it out a bit, problem is that Ruddock wasn't an all time great. I think Lewis had a similar issue as I don't think he really faced a great in his prime, but he did prove a few move things than Mike, that he could come back from defeat. I guess every great is missing something but Tyson did himself no favours in that post prison comeback, it kind of tarnished his legacy. You wonder how people would regard him if he never came back after prison?

 

I need to read that book

 

300 plus pages. I finished in two..two in a half weeks. For me, that is fast. I picked it up at the library.

Great page turner. I saw it and was like, wow that looks interesting. All I really wanted to know was his Brooklyn backround but, I deeper into it because the read was so honest and funny. It made me a fan of Mike the fighter and a respecter of Mike the persons. I had to go back a do more study of his fight style. I found that I was being too hard on his as a fighter. He was much better and greater than I gave him credit for. I still rank him where I rank him but with much more esteem as a fighter.

I also learned of the depths it takes become a great harded warrior in the ring. It is something that not many men, no matter what they think they are have.

 

Funny that the book is called "Undisputed Truth" and people are giving it so much credit for being 'honest'. I think most of the stuff in it should be taken with a pinch of salt. Over the years, and still, Tyson made so many contradictory statements from one interview to another. He's probably not even sure what's real any more. What's true is irrelevant too. The thing that matters here is book sales, a good story.

Sometimes I think boxers in general are the least reliable witnesses to their careers. And Tyson's forever trying to revise the testimony about his life outside the ring as well, making an old story new with some other 'shocking confession' or 'shocking revelation' (not).

As a boxer he was awesome though. His opposition may not have been the best but he swept most of them aside easily, that's the point.

 

The 86-89 untamed version of Mike is the Alpha Male Silverback Gorilla that took the best attributes of all the past greats and put them into one. It's hard to make the argument that Foreman, Ali, Holyheadbutterfield,Frazier,Lewis,Holmes,Marciano,Klit and co, Louis, Liston, Patterson,Dempsey,Johnson, Lyle,Shavers or anyone else wouldn't have their hands full with this version of Tyson . Who had all of the attributes maxed out like Tyson did? He had speed,power, durability, stamina, attitude and refusal of nothing less than Victory. It was a short lived time that Mike seemed invincible but in order to maintain all these attributes in the state and level that they were in is a task that only a mutant could do. Mike was reveled to be human to much of the public's disbelief and his abilities declined just as they do for any mortal being . I truly believe that we will never see anything like this again in our lifetime.

 

Thank you for the response. I have two quick questions and a statement.

1. I have not read through all of the post on this thread to know if you have read the book are not. I am assuming you have since you know it contradicts previous statements by Mike.

2. What are some of the examples where Mike switches his story up on major events in his life?

Mike Tyson always claimed that he loved and never abused Robin Givens. He has always claimed that he was innocent of ****. He always claimed to be a criminal from the begining and the Cus saved him and he owed a great deal to him. He always admitted to having depression issues and that he just "snapped" when hit bit Holyfield. He always, to my knowledge, gave Buster Douglas credit for getting the better of him that night. He has backed up in the ring the violence he claimed to be about.

Seriously, in the book he even admits to being a life-long drug addict and that his "humilty" throughout his career was all a joke, that he never believed any of it. He was just a street thug doing what he expected people wanted him to do, and he hated doing that.

 

Was tyson bigger than jordan in the 90s?

 

Is this a real question?

 

a quote taken from a Tyson documentary

'Tyson was doing ads with Pepsi when Michael Jordan, the great basketball star was just a rookie, and Tiger Woods was sucking his thumb, Tyson was huge'