Did Tyson take a dive against Lewis in round 8?

And Tyson - Holmes.

 

Lewis didn't break Tyson. Politics and boxing corruption did. The only reason Tyson fought after the Holyfield fights was for money.

 

Would you call yourself impartial when it comes to Tyson and Lewis?

Tyson was still ranked the third best heavyweight in the world behind Lewis and Wlad. Where was Holmes rated?

Lewis was a small fave, how big a fave was Tyson over Holmes?

Tyson was miles past his best, absolutely, but he'd not lost in 6 fights and was still thought of highly. Certainly more highly than Holmes going into Tyson.

Lewis was also on the downslide and this was his second last fight - ever.

 

Let's not forget that Holmes took the fight on short notice after being out of the for almost 2 years while enjoying the night life singing with his band!

 

Exhibitions!? Exhibitions aren't fights. Provide some info about these "exhibitions " According to Larry he had 8 weeks to prepare.
No, Holmes would have been in big trouble had he faced Mercer instead that night. Larry's rust was shockingly obvious to anyone familiar with him.

 

Tyson was The Lions second last fight. His career was at it's absolute end.

Lewis ended up a 2-1 fave but it was 7-5 in places.

The Tyson fight version of Holmes was certainly no better than the Lewis version Tyson for mine. Both had dropped plenty but at least Tyson still had power.

Holmes fighting on means nothing. Some people were calling for his retirement around the Witherspoon fight. After the likes of Bonecrusher it became much louder. He was picking and choosing weak opposition and still getting banged up.

 

It would not be fair to use the word dive.

He was taking a beating, he was obviously not going to win the fight.

No shame in staying down in that scenario.

 

While Tyson may not have been KO’d in the concussive sense of the word, I would not say he took a dive. Maybe he gave up or quit, but no way did he take a dive. A fighter who plans to dive will generally not take a sustained beating in the process. Knowing their intent to dive (lose), they’d most likely dive early.

 

I believe we’re on the same page. However, I do not consider Tyson to have taken a dive against Lewis. He stood up to 8 rounds of abuse and had the fight beaten out of him. Sticking around for another 4 plus rounds of abuse would’ve been foolish, especially since Lewis did Not seem interested in scoring a KO to put Tyson out of his misery. In fact, I bet he was content to dominate for 12 painful rounds as a way to punish Tyson for his prefight behavior.

 

Lewis admitted he took his time against Tyson and he even said he was surprised at Tyson being able to take the shots he landed on him. Tyson had an iron chin and took a sustained beating for 8 rounds. It was clear that the only way for him to win at that point was to score a KO and he hadn't landed anything significant the whole bout. He wasn't even throwing punches at that point and Lewis caught him with a big right hand when he was slipping .... Similar to the way McCall timed his right into Lewis for a KO victory ...

So no, Tyson didn't take a dive ... He was legitimately hurt and out for the 10 count ... Tyson's frame of mind wouldn't allow him to beat the 10 count ... It's not like what it was when he was counted out against Douglas ...