Did people think Mike Tyson would beat Rocky Marciano's record?

Prime Tyson KO Liston and Ali

 

Holmes watched many promising HWs of his era flame out due to substance abuse, sheer laziness, domestic problems, problems with the police. He'd seen that **** up close. (hell, he'd been the beneficiary of it) Not surprising he'd recognize it in the process.

 

Haha, that made me chuckle. Johnny Shkor?? Big Johnny couldn’t even handle that little fella Rocky whatsisname.
And what on earth did that little guy ever achieve in HW boxing….?!?

 

He would have gone to 200-0 if all he had to fight was tiny geriatrics, Don Coc kell and Harry Matthews.

 

It’s funny how many people cite it being discussed in magazines (they had an interesting in hyping hot, high-profile fighters — I doubt they’d have sold many with cover stories like ‘Mike Tyson is very good but he hasn’t fought the best opposition ever’ or ‘Leonard, Hagler, Duran and Hearns are good, but let’s not get carried away’).

We could do a 100-page thread on things speculated about in boxing magazines that never played out. It was a way to invoke Tyson and Marciano (one of the most popular fighters from a previous era, and a bit of a mythic creature due to that 49-0) in a story and capture the attention of the many casuals who jumped on the boxing bandwagon because of Tyson by basically speculating that he might be the best ever.

Likewise, saying you could get odds on it is another fairly meaningless bit of trivia — you can get odds on how long the national anthem will take at the Super Bowl or just about anything else. I was in Las Vegas this summer and the ‘sheet’ on NFL futures/scenarios you could bet was like 20-30 pages of various propositions … didn’t make those things on the verge of becoming reality. All that means is a book would take your money because they either (a) thought there were some people who would bet on it, (b) figured someone on TV or radio would mention those odds and they’d get a plug, i.e. ‘Caesars is offering 20-1 that Tyson won’t break Marciano’s 49-0 record,’ or (c) a combination of a and b.

 

I hear you but there were still ppl betting on an upset to happen eventually but understand he was a HIGH favourite each time rightfully so. If I'm not mistaken he still was a favourite going into Holyfield 1 but tbf ppl did question Holyfields heart condition too. Then he recently got stopped for the first time against Bowe in their conclusion to their trilogy.

 

Buster Douglas was around a 38-1 underdog against Tyson

 

The boxing magazines of the time...(1989)...kept saying "Let's see what happens when Tyson gets into a real fight...what happens when he gets hurt or knocked down!" Well...we know now what happens when you knock him down...you've got him!

 

I know but that still implies a few knew he was gonna pull off the upset

 

I think that the boxing public felt that IBF Champion Larry Holmes would have eventually broken Rocky Marciano's perfect 49-0, 43 KO's record, especially on the 30th anniversary of Marciano's last title bout, a TKO 9 of World Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore on Sept 21 1955. Holmes fought and lost to World Light Heavyweight Champion Michael Spinks on Sept 21 1985. There was more prestige on seeing Holmes breaking the record.

 

Tyson has more 1st round KOs than Marciano and Holmes combined, it wasn't just that Tyson was winning, it was the manner in which he was doing it

 

No. What that Implies is that for every 38 people there was one dude who figured he had a 100 bucks he could throw to the wind and if he got lucky then he got lucky. If he didn’t then no big deal.

 

Prime Tyson can somehow get 200 wins in 49 fights. What a h2h monster he is!

 

it generally took a sustained beating over many rounds to get him to that point though. And Douglas got dropped once himself along the way.

 

People thought Mike Tyson would beat Buster Douglas.

So much for what people think (or thought).