Did Tyson even train for lewis?

:good very well put.

 

LETS FACE FACTS:

Lennox would have beat the tyson of the 90's and 00's 9 times out of 10. Tyson just never had the tools after 1988 to beat such a technical sound much bigger giant in lewis. To beat lennox, tyson would have needed the jab, head movement, and rapid fire combo's. he never showed these again after the spinks fights. he stilled had teh speed and power but that would not have been enough

 

Tyson purely just showed up that night..

Back in the 80's if mike was to sit in the centre of MSG and read a book in silence 40.000 would buy tickets to watch.....

I think he just wanted to act like he was ready for Lennox, he already knew the outcome of the fight...

 

A true great with the awesome power of Tyson should never know the outcome of such a fight. Lewis had been stopped by two much lesser punchers and fighters so a Tyson even past his best really should not be conceding the loss before getting in there. Even out of shape he has the potential power for victory. If he already knew the outcome he doesn't belong anywhere near the top level. True greats believe they can find a way, even against seemingly insurmountable odds.

 

I think Tyson thought he had a chance going into the fight but had all but conceded by the mid rounds.

 

Probably even before the mid rounds. Maybe not to Tyson himself, but to many obsevers it looked as good as over when Lewis got into the groove after the 1st round. But your right, by around the 5th round Lewis was right on top. Safer to say it was as good as over after the 5th or 6th rather than the 2nd as Tyson was more fresh physically and mentally then. His power obviously very dangerous during the first 4 rounds.

 

Whether he'd trained to a rigourous schedule or otherwise, at this stage Tyson still would have got his head handed to him regardless. I remember watching the fight at my place with a crowd of mates (some of 'em 'casuals') a few were still taken in by the Tyson "aura" and were confident he'd win from the very the beginning, but I still considered Lewis to be the logical favourite- no way was he going to taken even a spent Tyson lighter than he took Rahman in their first fight.

Tyson had a good 1st round but it was blindingly obvious that unless he scored a KD very early on that Lewis would be too stong and too good for him to handle. From the third onwards it was total one sided traffic.


PS: very good post Sonny's jab. Some very valid points. :good

 

he did train for the fight. in the press conference -tyson was probably walking around 260. that much weight is tougher to see on him because of his build and the dark shirt. of course - his training was nothing like in the old days and i'm not sure if any kind of training could have made him 22 again to be able to beat lewis. even if tyson didn't train properly to the level anyone should when facing someone like lennox lewis - it is still his shortcoming / fault. fight time he was 3 weeks shy from his 36th birthday although in boxing age he was much older. 2002 tyson just didn't have the fitness of a younger version to recover quickly from a punch like he did in his days against ruddock or bruno.