could anyone else have made tyson outside of cus...

Nope. Cus was the method behind the madness. Tyson was his frankenstein creation.

 

How good a trainer is Kevin Rooney and why did Tyson never go back to him? Was he really that good or was it more a case of him inheriting a diamond in Tyson? Would Tyson have been as good under the trainers he used if he buckled down in training?

 

Again it was more about the style and the mindset that D Amato and later Rooney had Tyson buying in to.
Rooney lived with Tyson in the same house. He was a pro that was trained by Cus D Amato. In the beginning stages of Tysons career, Rooney would fight on Tysons cards and then work his corner. Rooney if youve ever met him, is a nice guy, but a no bull**** guy, and he was a hard worker as a fighter and had Tyson a hard worker in the gym. He was inexperienced as a trainer when he took over once Atlas was gone, but he knew what was going on, and him and Tyson worked well together. He had Tyson's attention and he kept with the style of Cus D Amato, something Atlas really never did once he was gone from the picture. When Rooney worked with Vinny Paz, and Omar Sheika, you saw a lot of that D Amato style in those guys as well, Head and upper body movement and a lot of combo punching.
Rooneys problem was that he had a lot of gambling and alcohol problems. He still to this day, refuses to train fighters outside of Catskill, so he doesnt really have a lot of exposure to young fighters and the Catskills dont attract a lot of top pros because theres nothing to do there.
I think Tyson never returned to Rooney, because he never wanted to work as hard or be as disciplined as Rooney would make him be had he gone back to upstate NY.

 

Cus was the perfect guy at the perfect time. It wasn't only the boxing training that was important but also the life lessons that Mike learned from D'Amato. Tyson was completely dedicated to Cus and worked hard to prove his worth. Cus had a very shrewd team of trainers and managers that formed the framework from which Tyson developed and was brought along in the sport.

Style wise, what Cus taught Tyson worked very well for him but this was a one way street. Tyson had to be the destroyer for there was no going back. This wasn't a style that adapted well, rather it forced opponents to adapt. I think that perhaps a couple of trainers could have worked well with Tyson including Yank Durham, Eddie Futch and Gil Clancy.

 

Nice thought Seamus.

Can't help thinking how Tyson would have fought with Yank Durham barkin' out orders. No disrespect to Teddy Atlas or Kevin Rooney, but Mike Tyson before and after his exile with the Frazier team of Futch and Benton taking care of him after Yank's death could have been good for Mike.

 

With Don King in charge, that's a mistake Team Tyson made. I wasn't a big fan of Richie Giachetti to begin with and Floyd probably keeps Tyson in better shape with more head movement. Perhaps Tyson's left hook becomes that much more deadlier of a punch with the touch of Floyd Patterson teaching him.