How would you have managed (Post-Prison) Tyson career?

2 fights in '95
1) Someone else but NOT McNeely. Maybe Levi Billups of another jorneyman of that level
2) Mathis is OK

'96
3) Bruno is fine
4) Seldon is fine (WBA belt) if WBC belt is kept too.
5) Michael Moorer (IBF champion) instead of Holy, easy style for 96' Mike, KO win

'97
6) Tyson collects 3 belts and faces mandatory WBC challenger Lennox Lewis. After that... depends on how this fight ends (Tyson would be bookies' favourite, LL would be the real favourite).
7) In case of Tyson's win (not very likely IMO) Holyfield as the next opponent would be fine.

 

The gravy train was rolling... no one thought that Tyson was going to hit the wall against Evander... its the hardest thing for me to swallow in all of my boxing hopes...when Holy beat him...

 

1 Ross Puritty August 95 free fight on Showtime
2 Jimmy Thunder December 95 Free fight on Showtime
3 Michael Moorer March 96 SHO PPV
4 Frank Bruno WBC title Jun 96 SHO PPV
5 Bruce Seldon September 96 SHO PPV WBC WBA unification.
6 Evander Holyfield for WBC and WBA title November 96 SHO PPV I still don't think Tyson wins but the previous bouts at least he gets the ring rust off.
7 Axel Schultz March 97 Showtime Free fight after he loses to Holyfield.
8 Evander Holyfield 2 SHO PPV WBC and WBA Titles we all know what happens here.

 

It would be hard. I don't think Mike had the discipline to fight with the same defense he did when he was younger so he would never be close to how he was, and once he stopped being defensive he was going to be stopped on and off, yet his power would usually bail him out until he fought someone good enough to withstand his offense and hit him.

 

I watched the first Holyfield fight you can see how rusty Tyson still is. Even though he's had 4 fights since he's been released.

 

He was not the same guy, although Evander was overlooked and the heart of Evander was probably the most courageous of most fighters in history. It is amazing to think that Bert Cooper hurt Evander worse than Mike Tyson did in two fights. That shows you timing and styles of fights... Back in 1990 I thought, Holyfield is too small to fight Tyson. Maybe the wait gave Evander a chance to become a legit heavyweight sort of like waiting for Ray Leonard helped him get bigger for Marvin,,, and I know Ray was getting in shape for Marvin for years for a possible fight.

 

Holyfield's body was still growing into a heavyweight in 1991. His power punching wasn't that good. By the time he fought Tyson in 96 he was a full fledged heavyweight. With good power punching and he was a lot wiser too.

 

Yes it was. Mike usually would blast out smaller guys when he was coming up. When the cruiserweights fought him and moved up he knocked them out in one or a couple of rounds. Look at Spinks. And that was in 1988 well into his reign.
Yet when he fought Berbick I was wrong. I thought Berbick is bigger and a legit heavyweight, and he blasted him out that night which was before Spinks, but I saw how Mike blew out smaller guys and that impressed HBO and everyone but I thought the bigger guys like Green and Tillis he cannot stop and the smaller guys he stopped,
so I thought maybe Berbick has a chance to win with his size and experience. I thought he was better than Green or Tillis and he was. But he beat Berbick easily. At the same time Evander had a brawl with Dokes and hurt with Cooper, so maybe Tyson could have won easier in 1990 just on what we know now. I think Evander in 1990 would have his hands full with Tyson, but with Evander you never can count him out. Looking back I see Mike winning in 1990 yet then knowing Evander's heart maybe he would have stopped Mike in 10 rounds like he did in the mid 1990s. With Evander you never can tell.. The guy was incredible and too small for many of the guys he fought in that era, which shows us how good he really was. If he were 6-5 240 he would have wiped out everyone.

 

You are probably right, Discipline is the key. When you take a street kid and make him a millionaire and he has no guidance on how to handle it,,,{ see Roberto Duran as evidence,} a meltdown is inevitable. If he could have re-engaged his original team ,minus Cus of course, and ditched that race baiting leech Don King he could have been better. I still don't see him getting back to near what he was. The Fire! after Montreal the fire in Duran went out, I don't think you really saw Roberto Duran again after that. Oh he won some big fights due to his boxing ability, but he was a shadow of his former self. When the fire goes out on a fighter like Mike, he is severely handicapped , as you said ,he only had his power to bail him out. Good call.

 

You mentioned Cus. That is the good call. With Mike. He slowly lost discipline, and no one could really get it for him. When you said Cus it reminded me of Cus Damato.I think if Cus would have lived that might have been what Mike needed to keep him grounded past that Douglas time of early 1990. But Don King is a great promoter, but I don't think he was a trainer or he didn't understand that for Mike to keep winning he needed that discipline to bob and weave his way inside and work the body and not be countered coming in and then going upstairs. Then the Kevin Rooney leaving Mike just brought these joke guys whose names I forget. Like the guy who put the big balloon thing filled with water on Mike's swollen eye in the Douglas fight. What a joke that guy was.
I think with Duran, Roberto was more of a natural fighter than Mike so if he was on or he saw something he could capitalize on he could come on more than Mike could later since Mike didn't have the natural skills of Duran, but he had maybe more p4p power as an offensive. Either way, Mike really didn't last long did he? I was worried he would fight Foreman at the time because George was old, but he has that physical strength which I thought would be bad for Mike.

 

retired him, and moved on, he didnt want it anymore.

 

1 Butterbean instead of McNeely
2. Bowe instead of Holy 1
3. Golota instead of Holy 2
Try to get in Old Foreman, Briggs, Morrison, Hide and Moorer before the train comes off the tracks.

 

Keep him off the toot and clear of Holy!