Foremans Resume

Tyson wanted no part of Big George.
If I remember rightly, Holmes REALLY wanted the Foreman match but it never happened, Larry would probably take that fight now.

 

I've heard a lot of arguments for both sides on who ducked who in Tyson vs Foreman, but I'm just saying what I think the result would be if they had fought.

As for the ducking argument, this is what I read on another thread in defending Tyson and it seems pretty logical

Tyson never ducked Foreman.

Remember the only time that Tyson could have conceivably fought George was after Buster Douglas. Tyson was taking his comeback seriously and after picking an easy KO in Tillman and Stewart, he was ready to step up his challenge.

Holyfield didn't fight Foreman until April of '91 and he caught flak in the boxing press for taking on such a fight. It was only after the Holyfield fight that Foreman earned some credibility but at that point Tyson was engaged in this 2 fight series against a more credible opponent in Donovan 'Razor' Ruddock. Remember Foreman Beating Gerry Cooney in 1990 (where Cooney was almost 4 years removed from his last win) didn't really mean much. I think people exaggerated the win and frankly Spinks beat a much better version.

If Tyson fought Foreman instead of Ruddock, he would have been accused of ducking Razor. No doubt in my mind. And that would have been more credible because Razor was the number 2 ranked fighter in all three bodies behind Tyson. Holyfield of course was the champion. So Tyson took the more appropriate route and fought Ruddock a month before Holyfield fought Foreman. (Incidentally Tyson-Ruddock outsold Holyfield-Foreman in PPV and Gate Revenues)

I read the article in its entirety and it conveniently forgets to mention that for this fight to happen, Bob Arum and Don King would have to put their ego's aside. Lets say they are cordial and they want the fight, at that point Tyson had signed a deal with Showtime and Foreman was an HBO fighter it was never going to be an easy fight to make.

 

I can respect all of that, to be honest I'm only 19 so I wasn't really around at that point. The story that I'd heard was the one where King tries to convice Tyson to take the Foreman fight, and Mike tells him he's not doing it, and if King wants the fight so much then he should go fight that 'monster' himself.
Thanks for taking the time to explain, I appreciate it :thumbsup

 

No problem man, I'm only 16 by the way, but I just try to get as much info on a topic as I can. That's the story I hear a lot too. I'm just not sure which is the truth.

 

It's funny, but looking back on it now, many people pick old Holmes over old Foreman, but at the time I think most people were favoring Foreman. I don't think Holmes was really seen as a serious contender in the 90's, whereas Foreman was. I think George might've won both of those fights, but he's no shoe-in for either.

 

Read these extracts...

1990

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1123095/2/index.htm

1991

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1140013/index.htm#ixzz1CeQOaVF0

1995

Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=fT...&resnum=2&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false