Has anyone not seen this brilliant Tyson video?

It's a pity highlights from other fights were not used as well, but regardless, I've always rated him very highly in that regard.
Few have done it better.

 

Tyson was a victim of his power. He came to believe all would fall before his mighty shots and forgot what got him to the top: sound boxing.

 

All those fighters were either bums, past their best, or could have done a lot better if they weren't completely scared shitless of the lisping 5'10" Tyson. :blood

 

Tyson had good head movement up until about '88, then he became very stationary and as others have said, overly reliant on his power. I think it had a lot to do with who was working with him. Rooney was gone, D'Amato died, Atlas was long gone and Tyson's technique deteriorated. Aaron Snowell and Jay Bright were useless.

 

These could have used a lot more examples too. But good video.

 

you're right bout that

 

That's something we can all agree on

 

1980S Iron Mike was the best, except Ali. he had all the right people with him.

 

He slipped punches well.
But even in his prime, if the fight went past a few rounds he had lapses and would storm straight in without moving side to side. Luckily, he had Kevin Rooney to correct him a bit and get him back in the groove.

He bobbed-and-weaved a bit, but mostly his defense was upper-body lateral movement, classic punch slipping, like Sonny Liston more than Joe Frazier.

I dont think he had great technique to avoid uppercuts though. That lean-back he uses in the awesome Reggie Gross sequence looks very precarious and a better fighter would have probably made him pay badly for that.

 

I don't think that's true Mr Marvel...I heard an interview with a young Tyson where he says he knows that one day he's going to come up against someone who can take his power, and he had to make sure he can box his way to a decision. He done that decisively on more than one occasion in his prime.

The actual problem, was that by the Douglas fight Tyson wasn't training hard at all. This meant that by round 5/6 of his fights post that:-

a) he didn't have much power.
b) he couldn't slip punches and was easy to hit.
c) he could be pushed around by this point in the fight.
d) he lost his aura as he actually looked tired.

To me it wasn't so much that he fell in "love" with his power, but more that he wasn't training hard enough and thus had to rely on it. He couldn't outbox someone for 12 rounds anymore.

 

^ Yeah. Basically he got away from the things that got him to the top. Once he believed in his own myth, he didn't think he needed to train anymore. He thought he could just walk in and bomb guys out. That's what set him up for Douglas.

 

I agree with you 100% without a doubt that Iron Mike Tyson was not just a brute. Im my opinion he was on his way to being the most feared,and "The Greatest Fighter of All Time! And Yes that does mean that I think Tyson is the ONLY fighter that could have beat Muhammad Ali decisively in his prime. Pound for pound and punch for punch Tyson was a much stronger fighter than Ali. Ali's jab and "rope-a-dope" technique would have wiltered after a few Tyson's uppercuts and right hooks.. Frasier was probasbly the closest to a Tyson's style of fighter but ol'smokin Joe was just a little too slow for Ali.. However Ali is the greatest fighter of all time and no one will do what he accomplished is era! Then came Don King!

 

"Just a little slow for Ali"

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