Prime Mike Tyson vs prime Lennox Lewis ?

There are convincing arguments for either guy to take this. Personally it's a real pick em fight. Both guys have what it would take to win this fight.

However, this is definitely a terrible argument.

Doesn't matter whether you hear from Lewis or his camp, or Tysom and his side, they both say the same thing.

Lewis didn't care if he win or lost the first round. He purely wanted to show Tyson he was going to stand his ground, and fight.

Tyson came back at the end of the round saying "he's hurt me".
That's why he didn't perform as well in Rd 2.

So you're saying Tyson would beat Lewis, based on a round Tyson himself says Lewis knocked the fight out of him.

That's not a convincing argument at all.

The reason Tyson gave up after Rd 1 is not because he just got bored. He gave up because he got battered by Lewis.

You say Lewis struggled to cope with Tyson in Rd 1. Mike Tyson disagrees with you.

 

I think the fact that Lewis was willing to stand his ground against Tyson shows how past it Tyson actually was. He didn't stand his ground against Tua. He ran nearly the entire fight. Tyson was really good at reaching taller opponents with his punches. I'm not saying it's a wash because Lewis was a good defensive boxer with a killer right. But he would be in danger the for at least 2/3 of the fight.

 

What I am saying is the shadow of Mike Tyson came out in round 1 simply going through the motions and managed to make Lewis look uncomfortable.

For whatever reason after round one he gave up trying, same as he did against McBride later on. It doesn't matter that Mike said he was hurt, he was finished and had no stomach for fighting anymore.

The old Tyson never gave up, he was relentless, fast, accurate, powerful and had amazing defence.

Therefore the fact that the washed up shell of Tyson had Lewis backing off and looking clumsy by merely going through the motions speaks volumes.

 

The reason was that Tyson knew he didn't have much of a chance at that point in time. He had given up on his career a long time ago.

And Yes, although hurt by a Lewis uppercut, the younger Tyson didn't give up. He was hit by a massive uppercut by Tucker and Tyson quickly gathered himself and continued on.

He was momentarily stunned by Bruno, shook it off, and kept coming. Bruno gave him respect for that in an interview.

Even post-Douglas, Tyson was rocked by Ruddock in the first fight and kept coming. Same with the second fight where he took bombs. One punch knocked his mouth-piece out. And he stepped into that punch.

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Just a different Fighter, different person by the time he got to Lewis.

You can also take more punishment and a better shot when you are younger and thriving with trained energy. Mentally and Physically you tend to be stronger and more willing.


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I have to say IMO although he got outclassed by Tyson I thought James Tillis looked good in small parts of their fight. Maybe a blueprint on how Ali would of fought him.

 

Maybe, but this was also a 19 year old Tyson who had yet to go past 6 rounds and admitted himself as well as Kevin Rooney, that Tyson was concerned and lacked the confidence that he could go the distance. Mentally, it got to him when going up against a veteran like Tillis. After that fight, he fought Mitch Green and although it went the distance, pay attention to how much more calm, focused, and confident Tyson was during the fight and after in his post-fight interview. That's how quick he was improving.

Stamina isn't just about how you train for it physically...but it's a Mental thing. You have to stay calm and control your heart-rate. Get nervous, over-think, and your blood-pressure sky-rockets causing your stamina to go to ****. Your stamina can be great in the gym but crappy in fights because you can't deal with the pressure (or so I heard from a Pro Fighter/Trainer).


Even Ali, older than 19 years old when facing a Sonny Banks, had his moments of trouble...like being knocked down. Or even against Doug Jones who gave him a tough boxing match/fight. Or Cooper who knocked him down as well.


But I hear your point. It's valid. But just pointing out some things.

 

Not sure what you mean. I was talking about the ability to take a shot and keep coming. Ruddock hit hard. He hit Tyson hard. And Tyson kept coming.

By the way, Lewis is a different fighter than Tyson. Taller, longer reach...was able to hit Ruddock when he dipped down and exposed the side and back of his head. Lewis hit him with a great shot in that area.

And Ruddock, if you go by what he said, said Tyson took away his prime in those two fights. Never the same. To much punishment. He also thought he did the same with Tyson, which interesting enough, Tyson acknowledged he wasn't the same after the second fight...maybe even the first. Just drained.

 

I actually believe Ruddock when he says that. Got the absolute **** beat out of him. Tyson took quite a lot too as his defense was almost nonexistent by that point past a couple rounds. Just walked in and traded with the bigger guy on Chin and Guts.

 

Tyson, and quickly, 2 or 3 rounds.
Tyson of the Spinks fights, was as good as anyone ever.

 

Ask Razor Ruddock, Tyrell Biggs or Andrew Golota if its harder surviving 3 rounds with Tyson or Lewis

 

Because Ruddock was going to be perfectly fine and his punch resistance/durability was ok after going through 19 rounds with Mike Tyson?

Tyson Kod a much better version of Biggs and that was 4 years before Lewis. Also Tyson has admitted himself, he carried Biggs for that fight because he wanted to torture him for mocking Tyson before the fight. Biggs had already been stopped 4 times by the time Lewis fought him. Tyson, Bowe, Damiani and Gary Mason had stopped him already.

Golota quit against Tyson and he only took one overhand right. Whereas Lewis disposed of him in one round, you cant really argue with either of those. Tyson was nowhere near his best whereas Lewis was bang on in his prime

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmF33npl3I8[/ame]

 

This fight is very 50-50 IMO, and im a fan of both.

You can see the respect that each had in the post fight interview.

Lewis had the size and strength and gameplan to beat Tyson, however you have to take note how extremly cautious Lewis was against THAT version of Tyson. Imagine what hed be like fighting the Tyson of 15 years before?

Tyson was much faster when he was younger, he was better in every way. And secondly he would not have just given up after one round. In 2002, Tyson already KNEW he had no chance of winning this fight, he just turned up and gave it his all.

A prime for prime fight would have been much more competitive. Much better than the Tua/Lewis fight anyway. Tyson would have been much more aggressive, elusive and more willing to take a hit and Lewis would have been even more cautious than he was in 2002

 

Forget about the Douglas fight, it doesn't tell us much except that Douglas beat the crap out of Tyson plan and simple and it wasn't the best version of Tyson Douglas fought.

I just happen to think the first round between Tyson and Lewis showed me more of a blueprint of how Lewis would win, rather than how Tyson would win if they fought in their prime.

You obviously disagree.

In my mind Lewis clearly had Tyson hurt and showed him who the bigger stronger man in the ring was. The main advantage Lewis has over almost all fighters, including Tyson is his ability to fight like the huge man he is.

That aside, I think Tyson has a reasonable chance of winning if he could catch Lewis in the first 3-4 rounds, after that I think the fight is Lewis' to lose. Like I said prior to them actually fighting I thought it was about a 50-50% outcome in if they fought in their prime. But I also has a list of things I thought Lewis needed to do to win, and be damn if he didn't do damn near all of them, from leaning on Tyson and sapping his strength away to throwing upper cuts in close. You think Lewis was having trouble copping with Tyson and I think he had Tyson hurt fairly bad and he showed Tyson that he was going to get a beating.

 

First of all when the fight strategy was developed it certainly wasn't with the idea that they were dealing with a washed up Tyson.

They watched a lot of tapes on him prior to developing a particular strategy, both corners do that. so that was the plan regardless of which version of Tyson they were going to fight.

Secondly, Lewis sparred with Tyson when they were younger and he already knew that this was the way to beat him.

As for Tua, in my mind that just shows how adaptable Lewis is.