Footage: Mike Tyson knocked down in sparring

Unfortunately, he also lost to Buster Douglass, Orlin Norris, though he looked good for a couple of rounds, and Joe Bugner for Christ sake.

 

As mentioned he did look good against Norris, when Orlin (by sort of default) was looking a top three fighter. He was in his sloppy head mode against Bugner though; but Bugner looked good enough, that because of the Page fight he was considered a live underdog against Bruno.

 

Just how good was he when in shape though? He came in at 220 for Berbick and lost. He came in at 220 for Norris and lost. He was 226 for Chaplin I, a Louisville bout I had George winning. (I also thought Chaplin won their rematch.) He came in at 218 for the Wills rematch, and was not yet 30 when he got decisioned by senile Joe Bugner. He came in under 225 for Bey, only to become one of just two prominent heavyweights David ever defeated. (In his professional debut, Bey stopped a 5-0-0 Buster Douglas in two rounds.)

Page should never have become a topic of discussion in boxing circles. Basketball was his first love, and he had the size and speed to achieve in that sport. (Plus, he'd be alive today.)

 

The Berbick fight, Page was weakened by the weight loss, and the fact that he broke his thumb in the 2nd round, and Berbick took a huge advantage of it.

 

Some fighters are **** in sparring and come alive in fights, seen it many times in the gym.. Not saying Tyson was one like that, but just something many fans who haven't competed or trained may not know.

 

To be fair, the Bey loss was close and debatable.

Having said that, I basically agree with the bulk of what you've said here. Page was just another decent-but-unspectacular titleholder typical of the flood of decent-but-unspectacular titleholders that followed the Ali era. In Page's case, he gets (over)hyped by certain people because his style bore a superficial resemblance to Ali's, but yet he scored the only truly big win of his career (vs. Coetzee) when he came off his toes and went smack-for-smack in a sloppy, free-swinging brawl - and even that win was marred by controversy. He also weighed in the 230s for Coetzee and looked the strongest and most powerful of his career, which contradicts the popular claim that he was better when he was "fitter."

The Coetzee win was supposed to mark the beginning of a "new and improved" Page, yet it was this very same Page that was outboxed by Tubbs, quit to Mark Wills, and was overpowered by, of all people, an ancient Bugner.

 

Bugner staggered him almost every time he hit him. You can't blame that on a "sloppy head."

 

A motivated Page, even in 1987, would not of lost as badly as he did to Bugner. It was a poor, sloppy performance by Page, who was probably on decent money for taking the fight.

 

Yep. Even in his prime, Ali wasn't very impressive in the gym (with a few exceptions against boxers who looked even worse e.g. Ingemar Johanssen, who looked awful in training). On the other hand, some boxers just look great in sparring, even if they aren't great in the ring proper.

 

You know why ? cause in most cases Ali probably didn't have loose ropes in sparing , nor did he hold behind d head and hit , and opponents tend 2 cut less with headgear , and then a few more . Ali was just a medicore boxer , with fouling upgrades 2 his style , like hopkins but somewhat less dirty after all .

 

I remember seeing this footage just prior to the Douglas fight and I thought "that's odd" but dismissed it because I also knew he was human and anyone is capable of getting put on the canvas. I was worried though after seeing it. This is truly the beginning of the end of "Iron Mike".