Anyone else feel the typical Mike Tyson 'flaw' is over-exaggerated?

It will continue to be exaggerated as long as Teddy's alive.

 

Yeah, but Holy shifted his style to accommodate his regression and his, ahem, bulkier physique. Neither were at their best, Holyfield was just far better equipped to win. And Mike didn't just roll over. Even only having a few rounds in him he shipped a lot.

If he was a scared fighter he never took the easy way out until way late in his career. And I count Holyfield II in that bracket.

Yeah, Tyson lacked the intangibles to be dominant or truly relevant for years and years and years but he was one of the best fighters of all time for a few years, and at least a viable top contender at the top for many years afterward.

For a few years at least, he was amongst the best P4P I have ever seen.

 

rd 10 in the 2nd fight.

mikey boy took his lumps. :yep

rd 6 in the 1st fight as well.

and back he came. :bbb

against douglas he fought in a trance.

he never fought as subdued as that in any fight he ever had. atsch

and holyfield is holyfield. :yep

 

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Holyfield was just a better fighter imo. That's why it didn't matter if he had deteriorated somewhat. That factor reflected in the result to imo.

Some people will argue Zab Judah didn't roll over against Cotto, but to me showing heart and desire is not being accepting of your fate and letting your pride keep you in there cause your scared of criticism you'll get from quitting, its continuing to fight in the danger you might get tore up worse cause you keep trying to win. I thought Tyson visibly looked like he wanted to quit after the 6th.

I cant question that.

 

I rate Holyfield higher myself. I just can't consider it a slight on Tyson. Evander was one of the greats himself, it happens.

 

I agree with this, Holyfield can tend to get underrated to an extent, the guy had a granite chin, was generally well conditioned, could box very well, had good foot movement, had a good ring iq and could bang. He's a pretty solid all rounder. No shame in losing to Holy, its just a shame the fight didn't happen before Tyson went to jail.

 

To me if your gonna start off fast then you have to be prepared to dig deeper when you inevitably tire. Now I think you could make a case that Tyson didn't capitulate completely against Douglas, but by the same token he wasn't trying hard enough to get back into the fight. He wasn't digging deep enogh to prevail. He was just doing enough to exist in the fight. Its the same situation after the 6th round of the Holyfield fight imo. I think that is part of his mental weakness as a fighter. He will start doubting himself in those situations and beating himself up rather than maintaining the same will to win that he started the fight with. You just have to give him a reason! to doubt himself. Him gassing cause he tries to throw every punch with murderous intent just aids that process. Its much easier to show heart when your fresh than when you're tired. However fighters with big heart push through the fatigue barrier regardless imo.

If Tyson had the required heart/desire he would of dug deeper and still prevailed. Fact is he doesn't process that quality so when he does! tire, he's virtually done. Now that doesn't mean its just a stamina issue imo. Chris Eubank had stamina problems but he had a tremendous heart.

 

And yet Tyson still landed a leach and (arguably) deserved a stoppage win over Douglas. I roll with the ref', so I'll give Douglas the benefit of the doubt, but Tyson, despite being out of shape, unmotivated, having a bad training camp (not excuses: they're his problem!) still nearly pulled out the win against a guy having his best ever night and laying serious hands on Tyson and shoving a wonderful ramrod jab in his face all night.

 

He has power. His power didn't bail him out this time and he lost. That tells its own story imo.

 

Its tricky on this subject for me as well, I've not posted in the thread yet because its hard to get my opinion on the subject across without it sounding overly critical of Tyson or for it to come across as though I think he was a quitter.

 

True, I was referring more to him still being in there 'til an extent.

Do you think Douglas was down long enough that another ref' might've counted him out? Irrelevant of course, just asking :good

 

Anything after the Spinks fight does not count imo..

Far too many distractions in his life around this time .... and his life basically became a trainwreck from that point.

In my opinion ... if Holyfield had stepped into the ring instead of Spinks that night ... it would have been the same outcome ...allbeit a round or two more.

Nobody will never know how good Tyson could have become ....such a shame really.