Did Tyson ruin Tyrell Biggs?

would love to see the articles where duva was bashing holyfield

 

Yes.

 

Biggs had gone as far up the ladder as he was going to. He sure didn't look like much in that Bey fight & that in no way prepared him for Tyson. That's why nobody was picking him to beat Tyson and figured him to suffer the ko defeat.

And for a guy that had that tutelege from George Benton, he sure did keep those hands low and didn't bother tucking in that chin. Straight up. Fatal flaws against a guy like Mike Tyson and remained a fatal flaw years later against Lennox Lewis.

 

I'd say he damaged him pretty good.

 

Tyson broke Bigg's body, mind and spirit. i think Tyson was his cruelest vs Tyrell Biggs.

 

Biggs ruined Biggs, but he had gotten as good as he was going to get.

7 round beatings don't often cause lasting damage that ruins a fighter that young. Fights like Trinidad-Vargas and Taylor-Chavez are the exception, not the rule.

I will buy that it took something from him mentally, though.

 

I guess you think even worse of D'Amato then. A man more interested in creating a new Heavyweight champion, than looking at the psychological make up and needs of his adopted son.

At least Duva did not have Biggs as a family member...

 

I don't think Tyson "ruined" Biggs. Biggs was never going to be a top-echelon fighter and mentally he was already fragile. I remember a KO Magazine article where he showed a bizarre lack of self-esteem and began asking the interviewer to interpret his relationship to Duva and motives behind this fight.

Duva's job was not to wet nurse Tyrell Biggs or serve as his personal therapist or surrogate Father Figure. His job was to guide Biggs' career towards making the most money for them both and I believe he did just that. If he would've avoided the Tyson fight, Biggs may well have pulled an Alex Garcia and gotten mugged in a USA Network fight for 50K and then I assume we'd be still blaming Duva for that too.

Look, I'm no fan of the Duva's necessarily, but let's not make Biggs into some helpless child with no responsibility for his own actions. He entered into a management contract with them as an adult and was tasked with acting like one, which he evidently was not ready to do.

 

Yep, it is mentioned in tysons book, The Duvas knew Biggs was a crackhead and they cashed him in. I think the word used in the book was 'headcase'. They thought they may as well get their moneys worth

 

So if the Duvas, knowing Biggs is not a top echelon fighter anyways with serious flaws AND has emotional and substance abuse problems, don't make the money fight and he gets stopped in an ESPN fight against say a Levi Billups or a Tony Anthony for 20K, would that still be "ruining" Tyrell Biggs?

 

^Biggs was fighting on HBO already and for a lot more than 20k.

 

Biggs had as much potential as any of the best untested contenders around at that time. Like a lot of the guys Tyson got (and to be fair Tyson did get all the best guys around at that time) Biggs had not recently beat a curent rated contender going into the title fight. Neither had Thomas, Bruno, Spinks and Tubbs.

Was Biggs rushed? No.

Going into the Tyson fight Tyrell had the pedigree already. what was he going to do hang back and beat the guys Tyson had alredy beat? Or take a chance with another fresh face like Duplooy or some live banana skin like Buster Douglas? Would it have helped his stock if Tyrell fought the black balled Tim Witherspoon before Tyson or would that just have been too big a risk?

Tyrell had already been groomed to the point Tyson was when Mike landed the Berbick fight so realy for Biggs it was just hard lines he had to face Tyson rather than Berbick for his title shot.

I also think Biggs gave it his best shot against Damiani and that Damiani was a very good fighter the night he beat Biggs. It was the two fights together (Tyson and Damiani)that ruined Biggs

 

It's hard to say, since he had few tests beforehand and fought at a much higher level of opposition afterwards.

 

You're right. Biggs didn't look that bad against Damiani (just watched it for the first time). I think that fight was a big letdown for him with the way it ended.

 

No Neck, you're right about the HBO deal, but my comments were directed at the whole "Duva should've nurtured the depressed, drug addicted Biggs and played wet nurse" comments. If Biggs was in that bad of shape, he would've needed to be weaned down further than the bottom of the top 20 opponents/fringe contenders he was getting at the time. Duva would get the blame regardless, I'm sure.