Prime Tyson is Holmes era starting with Norton

Tyson in his prime used to take guys aparts with attcking boxing and head movement. later years he was a slugger

 

youre bang on the money tigeredge tyson to me was more of a boxer than a slugger at his peak the tyson of 89 onwards bore no comparison to the one under rooney even in the stewart fight in 90 he looked crap it was one punch at a time no combinations no jab no head movement and he was clinching too easily i think it all came down him falling out of love with the game sadlyatsch

 

aproachng midle age. ive been involved with boxing my whole life, bought the tee shirt etc. boxed, judged, time keeper etc..

I have watched the fight many, many times in full.

I have watched tyson entire career lived through it and the holmes era. i know what im talking about and accept that we never stop learning.

and i went from having "valid points" to being a snotty kid in one evening .. thanks!! lol!

 

tyson lived boxing and at one time had control in himself in the ring. he went from that to the guy who needed mood controling drugs. that is a fact. it effected his ring performances post 1990. im sorry but that is how it is. im not saying he wasnt great he could still be breath taking stuff for moments after that but the guy was not stable and his game suffered.

 

Agreed,

When we look at his earlier bouts from perhaps the James Tillis Match to the Spinks fight, we see a lot of bobing, weaving, jabbing and meticulous throwing of combinations... In most of his post-Rooney fights, we see Tyson searching for that one bomb.. Tyson has become criminally underrated as a technician.

 

tyson was an excelent technician under rooney during his 3 year purple patch. later he was an excelent technician for a round or two when he wanted to be but would become either too tired too quick to sustain the fast footed angle changes his combinations required or simply chose to resort to bomb searching. was it down to leaving rooney? was it down to not being bothered? was it to do with his life spiraling out of control? we cant say. what we can say is rooney never produced another tyson.

 

That's true.

I agree w/ you regarding the Holmes opposition for Tyson as well. The thing is, Tyson would've blown out a lot of those guys early & how many of them had the tools to evade that early Tyson assault? The only guys that could were likely the guys not on the Holmes dossier anyway.

The Tyson problem is longevity but instead of facing a Douglas who surprised him after some years at the top of the heap, you'd have matches like Leon Spinks. Scott Frank. David Bey. Lucien Rodriguez. Bonecrusher Smith. Carl Williams. Mike Spinks.

The only guy that looks like a threat was Witherspoon. Maybe some folks think Cooney has a shot, but I don't. So, overall, it wasn't exactly a minefield out there to deal with and none of those guys had the size and lateral movement Douglas had anyway. I think Mike can show up with his B game and get those guys out of there.

 

Tyson would beat most of the Holmes' era heavyweights, but someone like a focused Page would give him hell, might beat him.

 

So am I.

 

I recall a Ring magazine cover article from June 1986 - Tyson vs Cooney - Who would win? The author predicted a first round kayo for Tyson. He explained that that was not a knock on Cooney. But that is just the kind of fight it would have been. Norton, who fought an electrifying give and take barnburner in the 1978 fight of the year against Holmes, most likely does not last past the first or second round vs Tyson. Once again, that is not a knock against Norton, but that is just indicative of how their styles would mesh.

A young focused Tyson would most likely mow down men like Norton, much lesser Holmes early title defenses like Evangelista, Ocasio, Leroy Jones, etc. But fellows like Shavers and Weaver would have a puncher's chance of upseting Iron Mike. Cooney is someone who would probably freeze and be a sitting duck when he got nailed by Tyson. Cobb woukld soak up punishment and have the fight stopped in all likelyhood.

Later defenses with the likes of Witherspoon could become more problematic. Spoon' was only 25 years old when he fought Holmes in 83' and he had attributes that could carry the day against Tyson - those being a great jab, an excellent chin, and a huge right hand. I would give Witherspoon the best chance of beating Tyson out of all the men he defended against.

 

Tyson had a short reign but he fought a lot. He had 30+ fights within a 5 year span, and 10 title defenses.