How good was Tyson in 96

Certainly good enough in '96 to be undisputed champion in 2015. No way Klitschko, Fury, Ortiz or any other mediocrity filling the top ten today stands up to the initial onslaught Tyson could still unleash in 1996.

 

Holyfield studied Tyson, broke his style down and created a strategy to counter it. It's that easy. Holyfield was a master boxer when he applied himself. Better than any of his contemporaries.

If he boxed like that every time, instead of, by his own admission adapting a fan-pleasing style, and retired at the right time he might have gone down as the GOAT. But as it is, he decided to slug in return for fame and money.

 

I agree with the OP except the bit where it says Holyfield had more left in the tank.
I don't think that is correct really. Mentally, yes, Holyfield was as as strong as ever. Physically, in terms of his overall ability, he was WAY past his best, an evidently OLD and SLOW version of his former self, a fighter who had been in too many tough fights against heavier opponents.

 

still good enough to beat 99% of heavyweights but a long way past his best. 96 tyson wouldnt have lasted 3 rounds against the 88 version . his legs were going. and his head movement jab and combinations were virtually non existent .

 

I think any Tyson would lose to Holyfield.

 

I disagree, he became the number 1 challenger to the WBC....by beating Peter Mcneeley.

I feel he was rushed to the top and then the Holyfield fights basically stunted his growth.

They should have taken a page out of Foremans books.

Prior to facing Holyfield, Foreman fought in 25 bouts, approx 80 rounds in his comeback.

Tyson seriously needed to shake off the ring rust. They should have gone after Tucker, Ruddock etc just to see where he stands and then gone for Mcall and/or Mercer. But King had his $150m 7 fight deal so they rushed Tyson.

Even Ali, during his comeback, before FOTC fought a couple of his opponents pre exile just to get the rounds in.

I'm not saying Tyson would have beat Holyfield, but I think his post prison career could still have been much better than it turned out.

 

Imo the problem was Tyson took Holy too lightly and assumed he would bomb him out.

In the rematch he assumed he had taken him too easy and would have bombed him out second time round.

Tyson was the number 1 going into that fight. Just not coming out of it.

 

Wonderful post.

I'd like to add that Ali was able to spar and train during his exile whereas Tyson didn't go anywhere near that.

 

Absolutely :good
Holyfield was very good at every area, excellent skills, great counterpuncher, iron chinned warrior, good puncher.

He retired way too late, and underperformed in some fights, but at least his popularity and style allowed him to earn 20-35 millions per fight in his prime.

 

I remember reading a Tyson interview from prison, perhaps his last one there before being released in 1995, and he actually used Foreman as an example and said he would love to copy Foreman's comeback model, have 15 or 20 fights against tomato cans first, small fights, but he said that's not going to happen. He'd already agreed the deal and sounded resigned to the fact that he'd be rushed into the titles.

To be fair to Don King, he'd set some pretty easy title holders up there with Seldon and McCall/Bruno holding the WBA and WBC titles, and the IBF title was to be contested by Schulz/Botha/Moorer all beatable guys.
Bowe was sidelined from the 3 major titles, and Lewis had been got rid off for the moment.

Also, to be fair, Holyfield was just about washed-up already. He was a good name and expected to give it a go and last maybe 3 or 4 good rounds but that's it.

 

Probably. That was the general perception anyway. It was either him or Bowe, and Bowe's stock fell badly with that Golota fight.
The division was in a real slump at the time.
Holyfield appeared washed-up. Probably Bowe too. Lewis's win over Mercer was disputed and Lewis had lost to McCall anyway, who had lost to Bruno.
Tyson's 1996 win over Bruno was actually very impressive at the time, since Bruno was regarded as having improved himself and grown even bigger and stronger, while Tyson hadn't convinced anyway with his first two comeback wins over McNeeley and Mathis.

 

But Foreman was old, grossly overweight and had been out of the sport for a decade.

Let's not forget Tyson looked impressive by stopping Bruno and Holyfield had just been KTFO by Bowe and looked **** poor against Czyz.

 

Ali rarely did either of those if any at all....

 

The problem was that Tyson had long since entered the point of his career where he could still run through lesser opponents (especially guys with suspect chins or hearts) but his skills had eroded to the point that he could not compete with elite heavyweights. Wasn't just ring rust-- he needed to seriously commit himself to redevelop the skills and tactics that had once made him great and he never showed any indication of doing so.

 

Tyson definitely took Holyfield lightly, he was huffing and puffing after 4 rounds. He was also flinching even from jabs.

Look at the shape he came in for the rematch