Did Tyson come back markedly a different fighter after prison?

Tysons best victories.
Spinks
Holmes
Ruddock II
Ruddock I
Smith
Tucker
Bruno I
Bruno II
Golota
Thomas
Tubbs
Seldon

Now tell me what are Vitalis greatest victories?
Sam Peter? Danny Williams? or ancient Corrie Sanders?

 

Sorry, my mistake. I didn't mean that it literally started as soon as King took over. What I wanted to say is that D'Amato had the least time in Tyson's career.

This is the basic mistake of all comparisons. The record at the time of bout is nearly meaningless. All top boxers were once "0-0-0" thus by your assumption beating them would not mean much. You have to consider the WHOLE CAREER not at the time of bout. The record at the time of the bout is only valuable when you want to known whether an opponent is undefeated.

Yup, exactly as I wrote: Mike Tyson ran into better opposition after jail. That's why he lost more and couldn't get more title shots.

Moreover "world title" fights are of limited meaning. They are NAMES for a fight. Not much more.

Records tell you more than somebody's opinion.

Nothing wrong with head hunting.

Obviously it does. Moreover YOU YOURSELF claim that Tyson was better when younger. I just pointed out that interesting fact that ALL of Tyson's pre-jail opponents were OLDER, whereas after-jail some were younger and some older. In other words Tyson didn't have his youth advantage anymore.

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Sure it matters. Mike had more experience (= more fights) than Lewis at that point.

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It's so easy to CLAIM "Mike was shot" and then invent some reasoning like "He started at 16, his friend died and his cat fell from the roof". HE LOST BECAUSE LENNOX WAS BETTER THOUGH OLDER. Plain and simple.[/FONT]

 

No he wasn't. IMO he was still in his prime.

Matter of fact, I think he pack more power in the mid 90s than his 80s version.

What slightly changed in Tyson post prison was his mentality, he was thinking he could KO everybody with 1 punch. He became less patient, and it is probably the result of his 1st 4 fights post prison (Mcneely, Mathis, Bruno, Seldon).

Add to that the fact that Tyson was probably the most studied fighter from 80s to 90s. I think most HW are really into figuring out a way to neutralise Tyson's style.

All of these factor came together and resulted to Holyfield beating a prime Tyson.

 

• Michael Spinks - light guy, fought at 160+ lbs. The 212lbs against Tyson was his highest weight. No wonder he lost.
• Larry Holmes: 17 years older than Mike
• Ruddock: Natural cruiser 180+
• Bonecrusher Smith 44-17 bummy. Tyson couldn't KO him, he actually exposed Mike's limitedness, in my opinion
• Tony Tucker, good guy, Tyson couldn't KO him
• Bruno, good guy, good win
• Golota, I see nothing in his record that would justify the hype
• Thomas, good guy
• Tubbs featherfist
• Seldon, 6'1.5'' small guy

 

As we know the best years of a heavyweight are 30+.

Mike was just 29.1 when he made his first post-jail fight.
Muhammad was 28.8 after his break. And he had top fights following (including vs Foreman).
BOTH of them were 18 when they started and 25 when they had to make a break.

It could actually be that Mike (29yro) was even PRE-PRIME or MIDDLE-PRIME and simply wasted his talent or his opponents simply got better. Maybe they got better BECAUSE THEY HAD TIME TO STUDY HIM and work up their careers while he was in jail.

Most of Tyson fans have a lot of fixed opinions about Mike, thus I understand that such assessment will completely run against these opinions.

 

Tyson was a a different fighter the first time he bent over in them prison showers to pick up the soap!

As to his career it finished soon as Don got his claws into him.

Poor ******* never stood a chance.

 

I can only assume you are being sarcastic otherwiser you must be damn stupid.

 

No we don’t it clearly depends on a fighter. Some can fight well in a forties some are spend force before hitting thirty.

 

Wow. You spent a lot of time and yet you are still completely wrong.

This topic is about Mike Tyson before and after prison as an actual fighter not as an attraction or the statistics of his opponents. You would have better spent your time watching tapes of his actual fights and HOW he beat those opponents instead of summing up their records prior to his fighting them. He earned his name and attraction status from the way he fought when we was with Cus and Rooney not after. When he left Rooney and hooked up with Don King it was the beginning of the end. Yes he was still a name and yes he had lots more marketability in him to draw big fights, but his skills began to deteriorate because he replaced the trainers who taught him his perfected style and kicked his ass in gear through constant training and hard work with lousy trainers and a promoter who just feed his ego, gave two shits about his original style, and allowed him to just be lazy. Not to mention the **** distractions in his personal life. Prison and 4 years of complete inactivity were just the icing on the cake. By the time he came out of prison he had his name and a buffed up build in exchange for much of his speed, most of his defense and technique, and all of his motivation to fight.

As with Jones, the age of a fighter isn't just about the number. It's about a whole lot of things from how those years were spent to the style of the boxer. Lewis himself often said he got better with age like a fine wine. Not so for fighters with a Tyson or Jones style based on speed and/or reflexes. And especially not when they spend many of those prior years lazy, unmotivated, distracted, and sitting in a prison cell.

 

THIS

 

AND THIS

 

atsch You've been smoking what Teddy Atlas was rolling. First off, Tyson as a relatively small young heavyweight with that squeaky voice of his earned this intimidating aura how? Oh yeah, by beating the CRAP out of everyone he faced. You've got the cart before the horse here. In your mind I guess Aura >>>>>> speed, power, technique, and all else huh? Why don't the scariest looking guys always win then?

Second, if you want to give ANYONE credit for killing that "aura" it would be Buster Douglas not Evander "The Real Hypocrite" Holyfield.

 

Definately a different fighter. Even before he went into prison he was a different fighter he shouldn't have not got involved with don king, Robyn Givens and her mother.

 

He was a markedly different fighter once he met Robin Givens, you don't have to wait til he went to prison to find his declination point.