I know this is a crazy question but what if cus got a hold of Holyfield?

There is the 'Common' dirty fighting like Tyson which is in a sense part of boxing and then there is Holyfield level of dirty fighting which is masterful piece of art.
Cus would have drawn the line at that point.

 

He still would have beat Mike Tyson, most likely.

 

He'd kill him for making a fool out of Tyson.

 

You can play a drinking game watching an interview of Holyfield -- take a shot every time he mentions his mother. She must have been a great mom, because she sure made an impression on him.

 

or Cus was just a lot more intelligent than 99% of people involved in boxing at the time and they collectively formed an in group bias against him, some guy that runs a gambling ring starts making stuff up to outcast him because he has good fighters and doesn't want them involved in the gambling ring

Cus was a fat old dude, in his 70's by the time of Tyson and the Catskills house, viagra wasn't invented yet

Holyfield under Cus would be interesting because he's like a middle of the road between Patterson and Tyson size, mostly Holyfield would have been a more offensive pushing forward fighter, I've seen people say that as skilled as Holyfield was he would sometimes just brawl in an almost self destructive manner, he would be a lot more equipped to brawl under Cus

 

If you're as durable, fast, and good at countering as Holyfield, it isn't really a terrible calculation to get into brawls with a lot of guys.

 

Interesting, albeit disturbing. It did seem a bit odd to hear about how he ran his camp, so this makes a certain amount of sense.

Do we have source cites for what Rooney, Atlas, etc said about the situation? And also the passage in the Patterson book you mentioned?

 

I don’t think trying to break opponents’ arms (it wasn’t just one fight) is common.

Nor is ear-biting.

Tyson was the dirtiest player in the game. All learned from Cus and Cus’ disciples.

Stop making excuses for him.

 

The ear bite incident only happened after several intentional headbutts from Holyfield one of which split Tysons eye wide open.
If Holyfield was fighting clean it would have never went to the level it did.
Holyfield is to blame not Tyson.

 

I can’t think of many real HW champions who didn’t foul. Frazier, Ali, Foreman, Marciano were particularly dirty for one I think it’s rarer for a top level pro not to cheat however minor it might be.

 

So it’s Evander’s fault that Tyson went Hannibal Lechter, lol?

I guess Frans Botha would have been justified in stabbing Tyson with a knife since Mike tried to break his arm.

Mike was the dirtiest player in the game. Just watch his fights. He’s been involved in a TON of headbutts. His problem against Evander was he was coming straight in with his head on a straight line and Holyfield wan’t going to pull his head back into the arc of Tyson’s punches … Evander did what is taught in every decent gym which is give the opponent the crown of your head if he’s coming in head-first so if there is a cut it won’t be over your eye. Mike wasn’t following fundamentals.

But Tyson had head butts in both Ruddock fights and in many more. He’s broken every rule short of bringing a gun to the ring … but you’d have us believe that Cus was teaching the Simon Pure rules and never shall his guys do anything not directly approved in the rulebooks.

SMH.

 

Iv heard of fighters putting pins in the thumb of the glove to open up the face back in the day but never a full blown knife or gun in the ring. Lol!
With everything said..in truth im going off of memory, so im about to rewatch the fight to see if all of Holyfields headbutts were justified, standby...

 

Ok here we go Lol!
This evaluation is from a youtube video from 'mma/ boxing' channel and all time stamps are according to this specific video.
All of these headbutts are a piece of work how it is hidden right before the naked eye. In other words 'Intentional'!
#1 headbutt- 1st round- 00:54
#2 headbutt- 2nd round 4:44
#3 headbutt - 2nd round 5:08
#4 headbutt- 2nd round 5:11
At thispoint Tysons eye is cut wide open. Holyfield has also been warned by Mills Lane aswell for 2 low blows .
Tyson loses his composer at this point but has done no fouls since before.
Eveyone knows the rest of the story..If Tyson is the dirtiest fighter you know and Holyfield is not to blame then you just proved my point that Holyfield perfected the art of headbutts.

 

I think Evander Holyfield would have been successful with a wide array of trainers and in truth he changed trainers a few times in his career. My reasoning is that he had the basic foundation of a great fighter and athlete. He had a very hard work ethic. Was always focused on being in shape. Had a huge heart and tons of courage. Had a solid chin. These things can’t be given to a man from a trainer. You either have them or you don’t. But a lot of trainers CAN put these things to good use, and yes I believe Cus D’Amato was one of them.