Anyone here alive & remember 80's Tyson's reign and...

Yeah anyone who watched Tysons career knew things were headed south. The wreck in his car, street fight with Green and the new cast of hoodlums that King assembled in his corner. He was just so dominate noone expected Douglas to do it but a lot felt Holyfield would be a true challenge.

 

Tyson and I are 11 months apart in age. I lived through the entire ordeal of the Tyson saga.

I first saw Tyson appear on ESPN in 1985 with a KO over Donnie Long. Next up was his KO over Mark Young..

Tyson's decline began when he sided with Don King immediately following his KO over Spinks in June 1988. Once Kevin Rooney and Bill Cayton were fired, it went downhill from there...

The late night brawl with ***** Green in Harlem was a message in disguise that Tyson was losing focus.

Bottom Line: Once the chemistry between "D'Amato, Jacobs and Cayton" was dissolved, Tyson was on his way down......

Tyson managed to hold on until 1991, but even then he was slipping.... Beating "Dull" Razor Ruddock two times was not vintage Tyson.....

The 1995 version of Tyson and beyond was a sad story and a mockery........

MR.BILLhat

 

Also, having Rory Halloway and John Horne as your co-managers was / is completely asinine to the max....... That was just lame planning.........

I recall reading a KO interview with John Horne as to how he's the business-man of the team, while Rory Holloway was the fitness planner........... JESUS H. CHRIST!!

Them two fools couldn't manage a kids little league baseball team..........

MR.BILLatsch:-(

 

Horne was a stand up comedian and Holloway was a ghetto childhood friend of Tysons. Certainly they were qualified to manage the heavyweight champ of the world.

 

John Horne's post-fight interivew in 1997 with Jim Grey is part classic and part pathetic....

I understand being bummed that your man has just lost to Evan Fields for the second time and all, but Horne showed the class of a moron in the eye of the public that night on PPV-Showtime......

MR.BILL

 

That's because they knew their careers were officially over. King left those clowns high and dry. Horne was hocking his rolex and trying to get into acting six months later.

 

To be 100% honest, i dont remember anyone thinking Holyfield would be a true challenge,certainly not in this part of the world, as not everyone was convinced of his abilities at heavyweight,myself include (how wrong was i?). Bill and yourself are spot on about his constant changing of trainers and managers and ****. I think that at the time Tyson and the people around him, in fact most of the boxing world, just could not see anyone on the horizon good enough to beat him, so as far as Tyson was concerned he didnt give a **** who looked after him or who was in his corner,as he fully expected to be champ for as long as he wanted. Complacency placed a huge factor in Tysons demise IMO. Certainly the women, brawling, car-crashing madness of his private life didnt help either ha!

 

Mike Katz the crotchety boxing writer with the neckbrace felt Holy would give him a run for his money. Tyson was just so dominant noone thought anyone could compete with him. The brawl happy Holy of the late 80's early 90's would have gotten flattened by the best Tyson IMO.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_poRu1e9I0[/ame]

 

I dont think that some people realise just how highly thought off Tyson was at this time, unless you lived through it. I agree with you about the outcome IF they had fought then.
As for mike katz im sure you are correct but back here in the mid-late 80s we had no satellite tv and had to make do with with the odd fight on 'World of sport' (which main sport was shitty wrestling), and sometimes 'Sportsnight' and 'Grandstand' (which always seemed to concentrate on the UK/European scene) and after that you just made do with whatever boxing mag you could get your hands on like 'Boxing news' or 'Ring'. So the only opinions i can remember hearing were from the likes of Reg Gutteridge, harry carpenter and maybe harry mullan. 3 wise men indeed but we still werent really privvy to the consensus of our friends over in the States.

 

I lost a mug bet like the mug i am saying that berbick would beat him He just blasted onto the scene like a monster & became an instant global icon who would never get beat such was the hype & buzz of the time......I think here in the UK it was the Marvis Frazier massacre that was our 1st introduction to Tyson on World of Sport saturday 2pm

Totally KING KOOL & what with great statements such as "I can beat any man of the planet & half the Gorillas too great while it lasted & it goes without saying that the Douglas hammering was & has to be the biggest shock/upset in my lifetime or any other IMO.

He was what boxing needed at that time in chopping down all the dead wood & taking away Don King's control of the Heavyweight scene....for a while:smoke

 

This is the first time ive seen this and it is hard to fathom how this man got involved in the sport with the amount of stupidity spewing out of his mouth. I didnt know wether to laugh or cringe

 

yes i remember tyson well at school - kids who didn't watch boxing watched tyson - everyone wanted to see him fight - biggest heavy since ali easy and there's been no one since that big) yes he started slipping after spinks due to cutting down on training and getting too cocky - being with robin givens didn't help him one bit - she was trouble). tyson was incredible 86-88 - not many heavies would beat that version - he was totally dedicated to his boxing then. ali is one cuz he did well against that type - liston, foreman. 1973 foreman has a punchers chance. not many others i would pick to beat him - he would KO most in 2 or 3 rounds. any that can last more than 6 has a good chance but i can't see many doing it against the peak tyson - he was really fast&deadly.

 

I love the part where he says Holyfield's only got a little nip on his ear.