Imagine Prime Mike Tyson in southpaw stance and using philly shell/James Toney counter puncher / shoulder roll style + with same speed, power and reflexes. How effective would that Tyson be?
This. And why would he when he had such speed and power? The man was almost impossible to jab with his Dempsey'ness.
He wouldn't become a big draw, his entire career would have taken a different path. The reason why we constantly talk about Tyson even today is because of the way he dismantled his opponents. That's something Cus D'Amato understood brilliantly, if you want to be a big draw you have to be exciting. I don't see Toney's style being that good for someone with Mike Tyson's explosiveness, it wouldn't capture all of his physical strengths and he would need years to develop it, wasting a lot of his physical prime but probably prolonging his career overall though. Tyson's hooks were brilliant because he was planting the feet in front of his opponent and loading up on them, shoulder roll styles don't use hooks in that way.
