Mike Tyson's worst fight

Definately the Mcbride fight, shame to see him like that, a mere shadow of his former self.......ahh what coulda/shoulda been with "Iron" mike

 

The Mitch Green one was pretty boring.

 

The Tillis fight was a blueprint of how to beat Tyson...the Smith fight was a snoozefest...

 

Holyfield II, beyond a doubt. I don't know why Tyson gets a pass on biting someone's ear off, and Duran get's roasted for quitting. What Tyson did, deliberating hurting an opponent and getting a DQ was far worse.

 

That's the problem when people talk about Tyson he's held to a ridiculously high standard. He knocks a guy out in 30 seconds and its seen as a negative, oh he's not fought anybody. Tillis lasts the distance and its seen as a negative, even when before the fight they said it was a negative Tyson hadn't been extended. Because it's Tyson and he was so precocious People don't consider Tyson was 19 with 19 fights on his record plus Tillis was in the best shape of his life for the fight.

 

In his Berbick to Williams 'prime', the Bruno fight was arguably his worst. The contempt he showed meant he was caught with punches he never should of, particularly in the first two rounds.

 

:good Best post I've seen in a while, Tyson knew he couldn't beat Holy so he took the cowardly way out..
And let's not forget millions that spent their hard earned money for the ppv, only to watch Tyson have a temper tantrum and meltdown, because things weren't going his way and he was facing a guy who was tougher than him, and not scared who was putting a whopping on him and enjoying it.

 

If thats true then why didn't we a similar reaction in the Douglas fight? or the first Holyfield fight? Or the Lewis fight? Or Williams? Or McBride?

 

I would say the McBride fight, but him trying to bite Kevin's nipples of had to be a career highlight. On a serious note, that was one sad fight.

I only look at Tyson from 85 to 91. Post prison he was just a mirage of what he used to be, a tease. So in terms of that time frame I would only pick Bonecrusher Smith as a boring fight, you can get something out of all his other fights imo. Bonecrusher is the only fight I never rematch of Tyson's.

Picking Tucker seems nuts to me, as this showed Tyson going about his business in a measured and patient way against a skilled big guy. He even got caught with a few punches, ok there was a lot of holding but I thought that was one of Mikes best performances. It showed he just wasn't always about bulldozing in his prime, he could be patient and stick to a fight plan if he needed to go the long haul, didn't punch himself out or get frustrated. A mature performance.

I would add that looking at Tyson as a whole you have to pick the Holyfield rematch as his worst fight, it basically buried Mike as a serious fighter. I remember how I felt after that fight and I hated the man for a while there. I have no doubt he did it to get out of the fight, I don't think he will ever admit it, or he has deluded himself that wasn't the case. It took me a while to accept but you have to be real, there are other ways to address the head butts. He was struggling with Holy and would rather be seen as a monster than lose again. It just shows how different his mind set was from his prime years. I guess its his fault his mind could remain stable throughout his career.

 

Tillis was such a blueprint that nobody was able to beat Tyson until 4 years later. :roll: Get a clue guys.

Despite pitching a shutout Mike's worst fight would appear to be the Bonecrusher bore.

 

No excuses but he was getting butted. When had Tyson ever been cut in a fight? Oh yeah, the second round in the Holyfield rematch. Probably something Mills Lane should've caught being the 3rd man in the ring.

 

Its interesting that Duran and Tyson's situation is similar in the sense Leonard has always wanted Duran to admit he quit because he was getting frustrated and out skilled, and you always had the sense Holyfield wanted Tyson to admit he used the bite to quit out of the fight cause it was going the same route as the first fight.

Mike himself nearly let it slip when he did that Oprah interview during his downer period. He was pretty much saying he was hurt from the headbutt but also frustrated that he couldn't beat Holyfield. This even prompted Evander to appear on Oprah with Tyson to talk about it as Mike wanted to offer a public apology. My feeling was that Evander's main motivation was to get Mike to admit he quit out of the fight, but it didn't happen. Mike soon went back to the original story of being frustrated by the head butts but veiled this with a lot of compliments for Holyfield and said how wrong he was and he was nuts etc. Admitting he was nuts was a lot easier than admitting he wanted to quit out of the fight.

Tyson's has taken his loses before but every loss is different, losing twice to Holy would have been it for him, total humiliation as a serious fighter. I think that's another reason he did it, if in his mind he was going to lose he would rather be finished as an unbalanced nut case than being destroyed a 2nd time by Evandar Holyfield. I do think Holy is a dirty fighter and the head butting didn't help, in this sense Holy did himself no favours as he gave Mike the excuse he was looking for. I am a big fan of Mike's but I look at him with a more realistic view these days, there are things that irk me about him, certain negatives he wont admit to but at the same time putting across the image of total honesty.

You get the feeling that Evander just knows why Mike did it, in a similar way to how sugar Ray knows Duran quit. They just want them to admit it! But that's boxing I guess, fighters will do anything they can to prevent themselves looking weak in some way, even after their career are over. Leonard and Holyfield will be waiting a long time.

 

He tried to bully Douglas by punching him after the bell, when James punched him back, Tyson backed down .
He bit Mcbride on his nipple..
He tried to break Bothas arm..
He tried to act tough at the press conference with Lewis and charge him, with 20 people around knowing it would quickly be broken up
HE didn't try anything stupid with Lewis (in the ring)because he knew he would have gotten his ass beat worse..
Notice how when guy's bigger and better than Tyson stand up to him Tyson folds like a cheap suit...:deal

 

the circumstances were different. The Holyfield rematch was by far the biggest pressure fight Mike ever had. I remember at the time thinking he looked spooked. Holyfield was stupid enough to add insult to injury, he kicked Tyson's ass but had to head butt as well. It gave Tyson a reason to be a victim. Against Douglas he was probably still of his old mindset where quitting wasn't an option, he still had pride. By Holy 2 that pride was gone, he didn't give a **** that everyone hated him, he was bitter, he just didn't want to be humiliated by an over the hill Holyfield twice in a row. Against Lewis he was almost a broken man, he knew he was going to lose so just accepted it, everyone knew he was past his best so there was no humiliation in losing to the current best, if anything people would feel sorry for him and see braveness in taking a beating, he probably thought that a good deal. And he did show against Lewis he had courage, even though he quit against Holy that didn't mean Tyson never had balls, he just couldn't accept defeat against Holyfield twice.

I'm sorry but sometimes you have to wake up and smell the coffee with Tyson. Why not ask the question, why did Tyson retaliate in a way that he must have known would secure disqualification, i.e. biting off a part of a man's ear and spitting it out on the canvas in front of him? Why not cut Holy back with an elbow, he was good at those? why after biting off half of Holy's ear and spitting it out did he feel it necessary to continue to bite when Mills Lane warned him if it happened again that would be it?

Did Mike lose his mind? nope I think it was pre meditated. Many say him forgetting his gum shield at the start of round 3 didn't mean much, I disagree with that, he intended to bite Holyfield as soon as the opportunity arose. When he was reminded to put it back in its almost like he said, ok I'll give it one more go and he came out aggressive. But with all that aggression he still couldn't hurt Holyfield and didn't have the mind set to continue the pressure even though he was winning the round, so he just wanted out.

The big show at the end is a classic case of playing the game you want to fight but really you don't. Its easy to act like a psycho once the fights over, Mike said he was out of control, but it all seemed show to me. If he was out of control he would have at least lamped a few security guards and did some real damage, but he just kind of stalked around and lunged for Holyfield like a kid in a playground. It was disgraceful and as a big fan of Tyson's I was embarrassed.

I make a lot of arguments for Mike Tyson regarding his overall greatness, I think he is in the top 10 based on his early prime, the man was a beast, but I cant excuse the ear bite. He really messed up with that, as a fan it would have hurt but I'd rather he just took another loss from Holy in that rematch and went out of his shield cause the ear bite is a black mark. He jokes about it sometimes but you can tell he is ashamed of it, and probably regrets it. Mike is a tough proud guy, he probably hates the idea that people think he quit. I guess in comparison with Duran at least Mike admits he was wrong in what he did, he just wont admit he quit, maybe in his mind he has convinced himself he didn't?

 

tillis fight indicated to me that a 70's ali could beat a prime tyson.......tyson was not peak but very close to it...and tillis fought like a very poor mans 1970's ali...same trainer and so on too.

i'm interested to hear about this sparring session where tyson handled him easily years later though.