Holyfield was also punching back with bad intentions as well which nullified Tyson's offensive success.
I think he had more time to relax and set himself v Berbick because he just stood in front of Mike while Holy spoiled and tied him up basically made the whole fight uncomfortable and then Mike was simply too intimidated to punch freely in the rematch, he wasn`t punching with bad intentions then at all.
No but he may have beat Mike for that reason and Don King ruined Mike`s career by making him sack Rooney.
Wasn't Mike on steroids, too? I could be completely wrong, but I thought Mike admitted to that in the past few years. I am positive however that Mike admitted to using steroids in general, though.
No I don`t think Cus was into that stuff, I did read on this forum that he admitted using steroids to put musle on after leaving prison because he was so thin and steroids help give you better recovery after reps so you can pack more lifting into a shorter space of time, I also read someelse say that it effected his punches in a negative way because his more defined muscles hampered his hand speed, his body was different during the 80`s.
He seemed built more Herculean in the 80s. I mean, Mike was almost always a built fighter, but he seemed both more bulked and sculpted in his prime. It could have just been simple youth, of course. I remember some guy at a bar I was frequenting, after watching Mike walk through Frazier, hollering out "perfect example of 'roid rage!" lol
Of course, by the same reasoning we could say Larry was roiding it when he knocked Marvis silly. Somehow I believe it of Mike before Larry though (I could be completely wrong).
I think the difference between the ko of Marvis by Holmes and Tyson, is that Holmes didn't really want to hurt Marvis in the long run. While Tyson, if the ref hadn't jumped in would have taken Frazier s head off and carried on. When Tyson was in the zone he was a beast.
The Mike/Marvis fight was the first time I was mightily impressed with Mike. Mostly just by the performance; I had ceased thinking much of Frazier as a contenda after Larry knocked him cross-eyed. And I agree, Larry didn't want to hurt Marvis. Iirc, Joe was stirring up a lot of stuff/antagonizing Larry at the time. It might have been more a battle between those two than anything else. Joe was apparently very conscious of his place in the ATGs (he was rooting against George vs. Holy because he, paraphrase: "didn't want George getting above him". I think that might have been the same of Larry. Both of those fighters ended up passing him up on the grand ATG list anyway, though (BTW I LOVE all of the fighters in the above paragraph).
No he had more definition in the 90`s, he just looked pretty stocky in the 80`s aside from his monsterous neck.
Oh come on Mike was a far better finishe than Holmes and a harder puncher, he had far more 1st round KO`s.
I never said he wasn't a better finisher than Holmes, what I said mark, was Larry seemed more reluctant to keep on hitting Marvis while Tyson was blasting away and would have carried on if the ref not stopped it.
