James Douglas .vs. Mike Tyson (Prime)

Exactamundo. :good

All this talk about Tyson being "past his prime" is revisionist history at its very worst. From the Spinks fight right up until this fight, he was the most highly regarded he ever was.

 

Tyson of '86-'88 vintage beats him.

 

correct.

people like My2SEnse can't accept the fact that Tyson ceased being the same fighter after Don King took over. The evidence is blatantly obvious if you just watch his fight with Bruno following the Spinks fight.

 

People generally like to see a bad guy fall or get what they feel he has coming to him. Such is often the case with Mike Tyson. He is viewed by many as a bully, criminal, ****** and the quintessential symbol of ignorance. For this reason, some take the fairy tale approach, which goes something like this " the evil king was destroyed, and everyone lived happily ever after. " To some, its a preferable way of thinking, as opposed to the obvious truth which is that like all great fighters, even the unpopular ones experience decline weather due to age, inactivity, change in managment, personal injury, or troubles outside the ring in private life...

When it comes to Tyson haters however, its the fabricated belief that he just wasn't that good and a better man beat him. While this is certainly a plausible scenario as no man is invincible, I have keenly observed that the facts are rarely ever fully covered in their entireity.

 

Exlent post one of the best on ESB (don't let it go to your head )

 

Douglas was as close to perfect the night they realy met. His only laps was the 8th round knock down. While Tyson was still young and in his physical prime and also still a good and dangures boxer his best days were behind him.
What Douglas has going for him in a prime for prime match up is he has the right style to beat Tyson. I like to call it Jab and Grab. Throw the jab falow it up with a stright every now and again. Stay in front and stay close. Before Tyson can go on the Offensive tie him up. What Tyson has going for him is speed. The jab and Grab is often eiseier said than done against a prime Tyson. First of all holding never looks good to the judges and the stratgy is basicly banking on triering Tyson out for a late round stopage. While Tyson shown signs of getting fristrated and tired in the later rounds of fights if they got that far how many did he lose? 0. Tyson also had a much better corner in his prime than he did afterwards. They would have made the adjustments to take care of Douglas.
I think because of Douglas's style it would be close for 5 or 6 rounds but I will go with Tyson by stopage by the 7th round.

 

It sure wasn't "obvious" to all the people who rated him higher than ever and picked him to beat Douglas easily. Which was basically everyone.

 

Actually, the great fighters DON'T experience declines as a result of most of the those things. That's what makes them great. This idea that, "He's great if he's at his absolute best and all the stars are aligned in his favor; but if not, he's a bum and can't be held up to any expectations" - is a total contradiction in terms.

What "facts" would those be?

 

Tyson opened that Holyfield fight as a 25 to 1 favorite:yikes which dropped down to about 8 to 1 before the fight. Sportwriters & fans openly surmised that Holyfield could be seriously injuered & that he probably shouldn't be in the ring with Tyson.

Delusional fans blaming everything from issues with KING to the very lovely Robin Givens for Tyson's shortcomings is ridiculous. They blame the death of Cus for his lack of discipline yet Teddy Atlas openly criticized Cus for pampering/coddling Tyson. Atlas accused DAmato of being too permissive of Tyson's delinquent behavior ,but Cus is now turned into some iron fisted disciplinarian who would have reeled Tyson in:roll:.

The man was a flawed fighter & human & it will be ice when everyone decides to recognize this.

 

Yes, but what about a Holyfield NOT on steroids. Fight might be much tougher for Evander. Think about it.