At 37-0 who did you think was going to beat Tyson

I wouldnt be too hard on yourself here.

Holy was 5yrs later and lewis was 12yrs later

EDIT sorry, meant 7yrs

 

Somebody was going to beat him & he didn't really show the same stuff Holmes had displayed with his pretty dominating run a few years earlier. Mike had disposed of all the old name guys around, except maybe for Witherspoon and not many would have picked timmy to have done any better than maybe hanging in there.

but Tyson had been postponing fights and pulling out of fights with injuries for quite awhile. You had Evnder moving up and had that championship pedigree. Ruddock was out there but hardly considered a champion in waiting. He was an up and comer. And, of course, you had the gold medal olympic champ and the silver medalist off to undefeated records early in their pro careers. And Foreman getting the wins of course and always calling out for a tyson fight for anyone who would listen.

So it was going to become a case of beating young reflexes with the up and comers and not the old reflexes of the old guys. The thought by most folks was that it was going to be another year or 2 for the young up and comers and the wear and tear of tough matchmaking that would lead to a loss.

I sure didn't know anyone thinking he had a shot at Marciano or Holmes' lengthy undefeated streak and felt the next 10 fights would include something other than 10 wins.

Buster sure changed a lot of that, didn't he? And then Evander getting rid of Douglas easily just showed there was a changing of the guard as far as top heavies was concerned.

 

I thought Holyfield was the one with the best chance. Tucker should have stuck around and tried to get a rematch but he didn`t.

I certainly did not think Douglas had a prayer even though people were saying Tyson was ready to come unstuck. It did not look that way to me,he was winning fights easily and looked good.

Tim Witherspoon was a name some people mentioned as someone in with a shout as well but I was only young back then and thought that his 1st round farce v Smith made him useless,looking back on it now he probably was a good candidate for beating a Tyson in decline.

 

Someone who wasn't afraid of him...someone who would punch him back...that was...of all
people...Buster Douglas...

 

I remember after the Spinks fight, a commentator suggesting that the potential Tyson conqueror has just chosen the NFL/NBA over the sport.

In other words there was no one, not even someone on the horizon with a hope...

Hindsight proved otherwise, but at the time that piece of commentary seemed fair to me and I dare say to many others too.

 

Thats pretty much how i seen it too. There was nobody at all jumping out. All this talk of holyfield is revisionism....at that point in time

 

I would have given George Foreman during his comeback which started in 1987 to have a reasonable shot at beating him prior to the Douglas loss. Big George had the power, size, and chin to compete. I know people will say that's ridiculous because he had only faced blown-up cruiserweights at the time, however, when the stakes were raised ala Bert Cooper, Gerry Cooney he upped his game. He'd have done the same and more so if he had faced Iron Mike.

 

No offence but at the time the Cooper win meant nothing more than any other victory of his at the time, like you suggest, a victory over a 'blown up Cruiserweight' (which Cooper was the 'poster boy' of). The Cooney fight was called 'Two geezers at Caesars', that showed the contempt people had for the fight. Foreman only started getting 'real' credibility post Holyfield. Tyson/Foreman pre Douglas was nothing but a fantasy match-up featuring 70s Foreman...

 

Remember those days well.Nobody,absolutely nobody said at that time that there was anybody around to beat Tyson.Similarly,after Foreman bounced Norton and Frazier around,there was nobody to beat him,somebody was gonna get seriously hurt he was so superior to the others.Clay was,I think 20 to one against Liston.Hed got no chance,gonna get hurt badly the poor kid.Must be a lesson here.

 

Thinking about it now Foreman isnt a bad suggestion. Nobody would have entertained the idea at the time though,I think only big George himself believed his comeback could be such a success.

 

Tyson was hitting his peak right when he fired Rooney. Had he stayed with his original team with the same discipline, I think it would have been hard for any fighter to beat him. He was better than Bowe, Holyfield and Lewis but it would have made for some great fights. Wouldnt be surprised him running right through Lewis and Holyfield. Bowe had the size and skillset for Tysons style, but I dont think he could have won.

 

Those who can't think for themselves or just simply hate the guy make those idiotic statements. People were hyping Tyson as not only the best heavyweight of all time but the best fighter to ever lace em up. He fell far from that but in 1988 there was not one fighter on the horizon given a snowflake's chance in hell of even coming close to extending Tyson. Not. One.

If he stayed with his original team there was the world tour Cayton had planned. Bruno in England, Damiani in Italy, Adilson Rodrigues in Brazil, a mega fight with Holyfield, Ruddock in Canada and a mega fight with Foreman was the course Tyson were to take.

 

I DIDNT THINK BUSTER DOUGLAS WOULD....i thought razor ruddock was gonna beat tyson

 

I was reasonably certain Holyfield would.

Tyson was getting shaky in training, the word around was that he was getting lazy, and Holyfield was extremely good and the hardest worker in boxing.

You don't take him lightly, and undertrain, and win, so I thought Evander would beat him when they fought. Then Douglas screwed that up and got there first.

The writing was on the wall, though. Nobody could objectively see it, because Tyson had such a reputation and an aura, but hindsight, as much as I loathe it, shows us that he wasn't going to go unbeaten for much longer if he somehow got by Douglas.

 

Yep.

Remember all those championship fights Mike was postponing after that Spinks fight? The Bruno fight itself was postponed like 4 or 6 times. Always Mike being the guy pulling out--never the opponent. Then there was the Ruddock thing and all of a sudden it's a guy like Douglas with a title shot.

Like you said, the training and pre-fight preperation stories were out there. And 1 of the challengers on the horizon was Holyfield who was the polar opposite of that.

But the 1991 heavyweight scene was looking a lot better than the landscape Tyson had fought thru in that 85-88 timeframe. A whole different level of opposition and pedigree on the horizon.

It's funny how often we see that changing of the guard thing with the popular champions. 1 key ingredient is pedigreed up and comers and then within a like 2 year span, the division topography changes and the previous champ is in the rearview mirror.

that's kind of the thing lacking in today's heavyweight scene is the evolution of the pedigreed up and comers. It used to be about every 4 years, with an occasional hiccup. But that early 90's heavyweight snapshot was formidable.