Mike Tyson Sparring

Yes, both a good pro and a capable sparring partner, and one of my own favourite boxing commentators of the past decade or two. Definitely one of those guys I'd buy a drink for if I ever met him.

 

I remember reading that when Cus D'amato was training Tyson, he would sometimes have him spar welterweights. Tyson was not allowed to hit the welterweight, and the smaller fighter was used to make Tyson work on his defense.

This sparring session was probably a similar type of drill. Bigcat previously identified the sparring partner and stated it was before the Biggs fight. Tyson was probably preparing for Biggs jab and movement.

 

I always liked him and Ian Darke as commentators. British finest.

 

You know, when Glenn flew into America to prepare Mike for the Biggs fight , all of his boxing equipment and clothes were lost in transit.. The mix and match of t-shirts , tennis shorts and unmatching boots were all things thrown together by the other boxers in the gym.. I felt for Glenn , because he was miles away from home and was facing the most ferocious heavyweight in years day in and day out.. All he didn't need was the lost clothes issue at the airport...... True story.....

For the Carl Williams fight another British heavyweight was used as a hired hand, Derrick sweet D Williams.. Derrick did ok too, but Glenn was an allround better pro (becoming world champ at 190 for a couple of years after beating Patrick Lamumba, Siza Makhitini, before succumbing to a body shot to Victor Valle trained Ohio native , Jeff Lampkin.) Williams and Glenn later boxed Lennox Lewis in domestic battles, I think between them both Lewis fights lasted all of 15 minutes...

 

Good sparring match i noticed that around 03:00 Tyson got a little careless

 

Cutting the ring off maybe.

 

There are still readable traits there, like constantly bending left after the jab and before the left hook that Evander Holyfield would later expose when Tyson had rusted.

Tyson's movement was pin-sharp back then, but it was not as versatile as it could have been; had a habit of repeating movement, underlining counter opportunities.

Tyson is often rapped up with Dempsey, Marciano and Frazier, but they were all very different. For a start, Tyson was not really a bob n' weave fighter, but a 'see-saw' fighter who swayed from left to right.

 

That was something Michael worked on tirelessly , evasive slipping motion that he used a tiny suede pouch that swung pendulum like in the gym, they called it the slip bag.. Mike would slip left /right left for hours to make it second nature.. the problem was quite often he would slip , yet not throw punches from each side angle, and that made him very hittable when doing this.. Floyd Patterson was a proper slip and weave fighter , and when he was moved into a training facility to aid Donovan Razor Ruddock in the nineties in his preparation for a fight with Greg Page, he had Ruddock rather than slip punches, he had him bobbing to the right and left so he could use those angles not just to evade shots but beable to punish a fighter who tried to hit him when bobbing laterally.. Patterson always said that fighters were wasting a whole part of thier game if they didn't utilise another boxers weakness.. when slipping or bobbing many fighters concentrate on just not getting hit, rather than making it thier business to punish anyone who attempted to launch an attack unsuccesfully... Patterson.. another of D'amato's students along with Torres, Benitez, Mathis, and of course Tyson..

 

You mean like the left jab his opponent was constantly throwing and missing throughout the vid? Tyson's constant head movement might have had something to do with that.

 

I like the way the other guy can't pick off Tyson's jab.

 

I hated the way Mikes latter career had no signs of that amazing head movement.. Its as if he just wanted to hurt people with no method at all..

Mike fought with absolutely no plan B for most of the second half of his career. He was oblivious to anything anyone did against him in the ring.. was basically getting by on raw tools and Will power.. The skills were eroding by the fight almost.. His technique against Holyfield was horrible.. Nothing seemed planned , yet i know they worked on movement in the gym endlessly.. it just wasn't getting through to him.. Giachetti was the only man who tried properly to bring all of that back.. I think Mike was just too long in the tooth for boxing tuition......