Did you live the days of prime Mike Tyson ?? What was it like ?

I was an infant back then

 

Wasn't there and was barely born, but it was also around the time Biggie Smalls and the Beastie Boys were peaking, the sour diesel weed was coming to prevalence, the feds were coming down on Gotti, for that kind of pop culture New York was a special time and place

I'm not familiar enough with other sports to know if other NY teams were having great moments, but it seems like Tyson was by far the main sports phenom

 

For the big matches I used to invite my friends to my house for a fight party. In 1988 I was 40, so my buddies and I were already grown men with varying degrees of knowledge about and enthusiasm for boxing. And we had some good times. After a few beers the slap fights would begin. But that's a digression.

Tyson rode the home pay-per-view wave and I remember the anxiety some of us felt -- because we weren't certain if the cable TV provider was going to actually bring us the fight or if there would be a glitch. Tyson fights had a tendency to last only one round, so there was a good chance the party would end early and abruptly. The Tyson-Spinks fight party was a huge disappointment and I was probably left with a fridge full of beer.

Certainly there was a lot of excitement over Iron Mike. Some of us thought he would prove to be the most formidable heavyweight of all time. I had felt the same way about Sonny Liston in 1962-63.

 

I swear to you that at his height other kids would fight you for saying that Ali was better than Tyson. In hindsight, it's hard to believe that anyone could think Tyson was better than Ali, and it's hard to believe that boxing, while already in decline, was still very important for many Americans. But there it is.

 

Tons of hype & more media attention than anyone in the sport since. People that did not follow the sport would tune in to watch his fights. Who garners that much attention since? But lots of instances they knew nothing about the opponent--they were just tuning in to watch a slaughter.

 

Nobody born with so much, achieved so little. & nobody could have foreseen in 1986 or 1987 how disappointing his career would turn out.

 

He was massive, guys that have come after him are nothing compared him.
I mean, this was in the days before social media and the net, and Tyson s name was every where.
over here in the UK, everyone was bursting to see Tyson verse our favourite heavy, mr Bruno.
Some, not many, actually gave him a chance against Tyson..

But yes, I doubt we'll see anything like that for a long time.

 

This is how I remember it as well. My Father was really impressed by him. Tyson had so so many casuals that would buy his PPV's and of course they then saw themselves as boxing experts who proudly exclaimed Tyson as the greatest ever lol. I'll admitt though he sure was impressive. To see how terrified so many opponents were was a sight to behold. He brought boxing back to the forefront for a while. Very popular.

 

Tyson in his prime ('86 to '91) unified the alphabet belts, won the lineal title and fought countless worthy contenders to which he beat handily (outside of one, of course). What an underachiever...

 

He had some great tangibles, primarily his incredible power, hand speed and footwork. We didn't know until later that he was missing some intangibles, that his lack of self-control would ruin him. The more successful he became the more he seemed to lose touch with reality. His ego became a problem. He began to believe he was invincible and that he could do anything he wanted and get away with it. And of course, drugs played a huge role in his undoing. Cocaine can have that effect on people. He was an astonishing talent, though. That wasn't overblown. That was real.

 

Tyson was truly a phenom.

It was great being a fan and watching it happen live. Tyson was everywhere. Magazines. Television. On free TV. On Cable. Fought all the time. Sometimes twice a month. Since he was based in NY, the national media was all over him. He was the perfect fighter for the mid to late 80s. And he came along at the same time rap music was exploding nationally, and he was hanging out with all of them. He was fresh and new. Very talented. Very young for a heavyweight fighter. And a major player in a youth movement happening in the country.

Some people these days try to rewrite history and say Tyson was over-hyped, a media creation or his team was just good at marketing him ...

But his team was filled with a bunch of has-beens or trainers nobody heard of.

Tyson's talent and charisma CARRIED his team.

Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs were names in the late 50s and 60s as film collectors and their work with Patterson. Same with Cus.

But they were nobodies nationally in the sport 20 years later when Tyson came along. They'd been long forgotten. But they used the few contacts they had left on the east coast to get stories printed about Tyson and get small-time promoters and local networks (ESPN was still young, too, having started in 1980) interested in booking him.

Cayton and Jacobs tried to market South African Kallie Knoetze like they did Tyson in the late 70s, and it blew up in their faces. (Because the fighter had a lot of baggage, and he wasn't very good.) They tried to swoop in on Wilfred Benitez, but they couldn't control him or his family and that fell apart.

Teddy Atlas got fired before Tyson even turned pro. Kevin Rooney was a failed boxer who got the job as trainer because Atlas got canned.

So that collection of guys couldn't take "just anyone" and make him a boxing star.

It was just a case of the right fighter, at the right place, in the right time, in the right era when everyone was looking for someone to light a spark in a boring, inconsistent division.

A lightning bolt, if you will.

 

His career ran from 1985-2005. Says it all really that you are confined to talking about a quarter of it.

 

I first saw him against Tillis (who I was mostly familiar with against Weaver, zombie fight). I wasn't super impressed, but I ended up seeing the Berbick fight live and was.

I resented him for beating up rusty Grandpa Holmes (of course, I saw this win in a better light when Larry did pretty damn well during his 90s comeback).

Everyone was mightily impressed with the Spinks ko, I wasn't immune to that.

As far as preference goes, I far preferred my old favorites Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes. I still do, though I have a lot of admiration for Mike now, partly due to this board. I didn't have good feelings for him at all in the 90s, the **** conviction soured me mightily. I cheered louder than anyone during the Holyfield fights.

 

Tyson fights were events.

Tyson produced results.

Even after prison Tyson 's fights were huge events.

Pre or post prison Tyson carried the $$$$$ because the exitement he produced,, Holyfield/Lewis could not draw that kind of coin, not even close................Boxing is a business afterall and not a "Legacy" sport.

Even today Tyson is the most recognized fighter on the planet.

BTW, I was there in the 80's, everyone worth their salt knew that he was going all the way, generational talent.