Which contenders of that time would you favour 2002 Tyson against ? Personally I think he was done, and Rahman, Ruiz, Byrd, Holyfield and the Klitschkos would have kicked his butt around then.
I think he was shot-to-**** with no stamina at all, but the sad thing is a lot of people here massively underrate Tyson's 1980s opposition and favour the shot, inactive & overweight 2002 version over the likes of '87 Tony Tucker, '88 Tony Tubbs, '88 Larry Holmes & '87 Pinklon Thomas etc.
Ring or alphabet? Let's say Ring first. Lewis no, Wlad no for the same reasons. Byrd too slick, Tua too capable of soaking it all up and still be firing heavy by the later rounds. Holyfield '02 still too sharp. Vitali too durable and busy. Ruiz? Not sure, his tying up could frustrate and slow down Tyson something fierce. Question of holding his nerve perhaps. Similar for Rahman, he'd have the tools but would need to mentally perform. Johnson, well, could be quite inconsistant and was just plain bad against Ruiz and Vitali, but if on form then no chance for Mike. McCline always tended to fade in the second half of fights, though Tyson would have to get him there first. Those were the top rated Ring guys. If we're talking alphabet rankings, I'm sure there would be some more likely victims amongst that number. Etienne was #3 WBO and #7 IBF when Tyson beat him, for example.
I agree. I could n't get over so many people giving him a chance against Lennox Lewis at this stage. Tyson was shot to blazes in 2002.
Yep, lets have a think how out of his depth Tyson would be against: Wlad - got knocked out by an equally old, fatter Sanders and had a panic attack against Brewster Byrd - got blasted by Ike, outboxed by Oquendo, lost to Golota who Tyson blasted Ruiz - got stoped in 17seconds against Tua, got schooled by Toney and Jones Vitali - yea probably beats him at that stage but even then, not a given
I think guys with size at this point gave Tyson trouble. He still had decent speed for a heavyweight, but his stamina was good for three or four rounds. The fighters that had the size to absorb some of his power and lay on him wore him out. Thats why he was stopped by slobs like McBride. A couple more rounds with Nielson and the same thing would have happened. Tyson could beat the smaller Etienne level guys still at that point.
I think the '99-00, reasonably active, decent shape Tyson is underrated, but a lot of people overrate the inactive, poor physical shape versions from the Neilsen, Lewis, Williams & McBride fights. I mean how can those horrible versions be favoured over the likes of a peak Tony Tucker & other top late '80s contenders?
Tyson was getting himself into some sort of decent form in 2000 just through fighting a decent schedule, but I think there's a clear slip in Tyson after the Golota fight when he went AWOL again, and came back a year later fighting Brian Nielsen at 239 pounds. Despite the 50 million or whatever he stood to gain, I always thought Tyson was way down on the list on people who actually wanted Lewis-Tyson to come off, and he tried to sabotage that fight but took it as a fatalistic payday.
Well he was medicated badly before the Lewis fight. Looked like a zombie. But the Tyson of 00-02 is much different than the Tyson of 03-05, especially the one that tore his knee against Williams.
I think he resembled a chubby zombie against Nielsen too, I don't know why you group the live and dangerous 2000 Tyson with '01-02 Tyson; he was vastly better from '99-00 than any time afterwards. Anyway I agree that he was even more shot in '04-05 than '01-02, but I won't comment on the basically untested, but decent shape '03 version.
True. But his age and skills and even physical aspects really started eroding by the Williams fight. I don't think Tyson should lumped from the McBride or Williams fight with earlier versions.
This is 100% correct. Even up to the fight he was photographed smoking pot, groping a WalMart worker and on and on. They put Tyson as far away as possible in Hawaii and had the fight where there would be no rules. He didnt want to fight Lennox Lewis and everyone around him and including Lewis and Emanuel Steward knew it. Lewis could never get any satisfaction from that win.
He most certainly got some satisfaction from the media response though. It seemed to be the first time, particularly from the US press, he got a "I guess it's okay to like Lewis" reaction. I think even Borges said something nice. Which, combined with the nice pay packet, was the point I guess. Tyson of 2000 doesn't do much better, but he would've tried harder. Soon as Tyson 2002 hit the 5th round he just flatlined.
i think youre being kind damon about tysons stamina lasting til the 5th round in 02 he was knackered at the end of the 1st round against lewis he said so himself the only time after prison it never looked like his stamina was suspect was against botha he even looked tired after 3 rounds in the ist holyfield fight youre right about everything else you said though :good
