How different would have Tysons career been if he hadn't fired Rooney?

Would he have still gone to prison? Would he have been better prepared for Douglas? or was his downfall inevitable? A lot of could've, should've and would've but was just interested on your opinions.

 

Probably would have murdered him, and go to jail earlier

 

I think he could've been arguably the greatest Heavyweight of all time.

1.He beats Douglas
2.Takes down Holyfield
3. Beats mandatiories Bowe and Lewis
4. Takes on all comers like Golota, Tua, McCall, Seldon, Morrison, Mercer, Foreman, Moorer and Grant.
5. Probably loses to Lewis later in his career.

 

I truly believe he ends his career as a number 1 or 2 ATG Heavyweight, Rooney helped keep Tyson in line, as well as being a true friend to him. After the Spinks fight, Don King took over, which meant new, less experienced guys in Mike's corner. Without Rooney Tyson had "yes men", guys that never would say no to Mike or tell him no when he was doing something wrong, wether it be in the gym or in real life, which helped set the stage for Tyson's downfall a few years later.

 

I still think Tyson would have slipped at least for a while with Rooney b/c I don't think Rooney could've kept him in line. However, if managed to stay out of prison and kept with Rooney, I think he would've regained his form before he got old and would've had a career to rival any HWs.

 

In my opinion Tyson would've imploded no matter what. Remember reading a quote along the lines of ''they developed the fighter but not the man'' think this is very true Tyson was just troubled and would of went off the rails regardless.

 

Rooney wasn't ****.

It was the influence of Cus D'amato that Tyson severely lacked, Tyson lost all discipline, where as Cus could always get Tyson to train hard for the big fight, no one else was able too, that's why Tyson went down

 

More so, had Atlas been able to discipline Tyson the way he wanted and had Cus demanded it of Tyson, you might have a more disciplined athlete.

 

A mental midget like Tyson can never been a man like Evander Holyfield.

 

Yeah because Bowe and Moorer are geniuses and extremely mentally tough Holy beat Tyson no doubt, and it was a very good fighter he beat, but it was about 75% the fighter Tyson was 8 years prior. Plus, as I've said before, i'll gaurantee holy was jacked up on gear for the tyson fights.

 

edit

 

i gotta agree 100% he def wouldnt have ended up losing his last fight to a guy like mcbride, thats for sure

 

Of course, when not serious, there's no way an athlete can make his talent express itself constantly !

 

Unfortunately, I think this would've been the case too. He'd have continued as the champ but personally fallen apart even more, maybe with even worse results.

 

The old Tyson "shoulda woulda coulda" debate. This is always fun......