When he trained properly and used those talents and skills in the ring like in his early career he was one of the best of all time. Who knows what would've happened if Cus lived a few more years and K rooney wasn't replaced.
Tyson will go down as one of the biggest "WHAT IF'S" in boxing history.......What if Cus lived longer,what if Jacobs lived longer,what if he stayed with Rooney? Its a shame he didnt have the smarts or someone there to help and mentor him after the ones who did were gone.
What IF's in terms of longevity but he accomplished a lot in the 80's and became youngest man to win the title, plus cleaned out the division.
I think we probably seen tyson peak. I don't think he would have improved as a fighter. He may possibly have stayed at the same level longer if he had proper management. However his style of fighting is not geared up for a long career in my opinion. Tyson at his best was amazing though, scary combination of speed and power. I've never seen such an explosive fighter i dont think
Yes, he most certainly was. No other HW in history possessed the unique combination of power & speed to the high level that a peak Tyson did. Guys were shocked by his speed & his movement. Just by looking at him, you could probably figure he hit hard, but you could not tell how fast he was until until your are getting hit by four, five punch combinations! Tyson was a natural & had all the ability in the world. Whenever Kevin Rooney is interviewed about Tyson he gets some-what emotional, becasue Rooney knows what could have been & knows how good Tyson was! Same with Steve Lott, who was a close friend of Mike's, he gets upset when talking about Tyson! If he was around today, hwe may have been an avoided fighter. I cannot see many going in with him & those who did, would earn their purse the hard way. Thing with a young Tyson was that he was always in shape & boxing regularly, at a rate that today'sd fighters have not heard of, let alone even consider doing themselves!
Emanuel Steward said once he could not see Tyson being successful past 27-28. I'm a huge Tyson fan but I'd have to agree, his speed and technique was what really put him over the top. He had very good power but was not Foremanesque. Once he aged, he started to slow down and was less defensively inclined, and went downhill. But at 25-26, yeah, he was a B E A S T.
He was still a beast, he just didn't go back to the basics. If he would of, than we would seen about an 85% Tyson, which was still good enough to beat any heavyweight in 96-97 and most of the all time greats . The close he got was the second Holyfield fight and had he kept his composure(even with all the cluthcing and headbutting Holyfield was doing) we would of had an conclusive ending especially when Tyson was having his best round up until that point.
