Fights that should've never happened

Matching young Marvis with Larry Holmes with the title at stake was an opportunity and having the pedigree of the Frazier name and Joe's connections and influence were as much reasons for this matchup as any ring accomplishments of Marvis. It may have been plausible as Holmes, though a dominant champion with many skills wasn't, on the other hand, known as a destroyer so much...but throwing his son in the ring with the young and menacing Mike Tyson was nothing short of abyssmally bad judgement, and a grossly blind overestimation of his son's chances by Joe.
It was like throwing a hunk of red meat to a hungry tiger.

 

In hindsight we can say that.
But, for the reasons I've already highlighted, at the time it wasn't necessarily so.

Marvis just gone 10 rounds with Bonecrusher Smith, a very heavy hitter, and Tyson had never KO'd a ranked fighter at this time. In fact, he'd been extended the distance by Tillis and Green.
Tyson might have been a "destroyer", but he'd failed to destroy the only two (fringe) contenders he'd fought.
The third-best fighter he'd face was Jesse Ferguson, who he stopped but couldn't knock out clean. And Marvis was ranked much higher than Ferguson.

In fact, including almost a fluke KD when catching Tillis badly off-balance for a brief flash knockdown, Tyson had only registered two KDs against these three "fringe" contenders in 26 rounds of action.

Without the benefit of hindsight, there was no reason why the fight should have been viewed as Frazier being lead to a certain quick defeat. Tyson had proven unconvincing as a KO artist against men of Frazier's caliber.
These are the facts.

 

Vazquez vs Marquez 4

 

Even in the light of all these "flaws and weaknesses" of Tyson, the prevailing notion back then was a sense of foreboding regarding this matchup..it was ever moreso in the seconds before the bell..remember, Holmes had snuffed out Marvis in one round, and despite what you say, Tyson was viewed by all those with a pulse as a major force of nature with each succeeding fight..no one gave Marvis a chance and you know it...be serious.