Reputations as top streetfighters before learning how to box?

I dont have any of those tales. All I can write is what his reputation was. Thats it, nothing more. Thats what the ts mentioned. If you say he wasnt a real streetfighter, so be it. I dont even care. Im not even a fan, and I dont know why youre obsessing over this. The only specific instance I know of is when he beat up Green. And that was during the time he was actually boxing. Thats it.

 

George Foreman was a well known street fighter in Houston's 5th Ward.

 

Joe Savage deserves a mention.

In fact, Joe Savage deserves mentions more often... Lest we forget.

 

Am I supposed to supply names if my post is to be valid? Okay then. What were the names of these women you claim he mugged then? Give names or otherwise that didn't happen either. At least, not according to you.

 

It's annoyingly naive to think that Tyson came up on the streets of Brownsville without at least a few fights. Nobody that's actively committing crimes and being arrested 30 times by age 13 is going to make it outta that neighborhood without at least a few scraps.

 

Tyson started boxing when he was about 13/15. Im sure he wasnt a TOP SF at 13/14 yrs old..

 

Lou Savarese was street fighter.Guy used to shake ppl down in bathrooms for money too...lol

I dont know about the TOP SF status ....bc most pro fighters dont get their rep on street fighting when they are grooming to be an amateur/pro fighter,unless they start late in boxing.

 

It was funny, but Green was no joke, Iran Barkely mentioned him in his autobiography, they were in the same gang, different divisions in the Bronx back in the day.

 

No I don't know Mike Tyson personally but its well documented about his violent ways.

In his own biography he tells of being a young teen and being taken to other neighbourhoods to fight to other guys. This was 1 on 1, and Tyson himself said most of the guys were much older than he and he lost a few times, there were pretty much limited rules and sometimes they would get ugly and wrestle. When Mike was in Tyron School for boys, he met Bobby Stewart he was in some kind of isolation wing or special program away from the other kids because of discipline infractions (most likely fighting). At first Bobby Stewart said no to Tyson as he was known to be very aggressive and a "knucklehead". Tyson had confidence that even at that age he could fight, he thought in his first spar with Stewart he would smash Stewart like he did all those other guys in the street.

 

Bernard Hopkins.

From a 2005 news artice:
"I was ignorant when I was a kid," Bernard says. "I was a thug. You have two kinds of people, lambs and wolves. And I was a wolf. Mostly I took things by intimidation. I'd see someone with a chain I liked and I'd say 'nice chain, can I see it? I said I want to see the chain... let me see the chain... give me the f***ing chain now'. I had the reputation. Sometimes, I'd just look at a guy and he'd take his chain off without my even asking. I thought respect was having chains and nice clothes and money to spend."

When he was 14, Hopkins spent a month in hospital after he was stabbed with an ice pick during a game of craps. He was in court 30 times in two years.

"I put myself in a lot of positions to be six feet under," he says. "I didn't respect life. I had to be sent to the penitentiary to be saved from the graveyard."

When he was 17, he was sent to a Pennsylvania penitentiary for multiple offences. He served 56 months. While he was inside, his brother was shot dead in a street fight over a girl.

 

He says a lot of things in his own biography, take it with a pinch of salt pal.

 

Any stories? I haven't heard of him before.

 

Yes I agree. But, if even half of that is true, he still would have been in many fights.

 

Rocky Graziano

''We were the original juvenile delinquents,'' said Mr. LaMotta. ''Always in fights. Stealing stuff. In fact, we both ended up in reform school in Coxsackie, N.Y., at the same time. I remember Rocky was in quarantine, so I'd set him up with comic books and candy and cigarettes.''

Mr. Graziano was proud of his ability as a street battler. ''I was the best street fighter in history when I was growing up on the Lower East Side,'' he said. ''Hell, I never lost a street fight. Never. I thought I could lick Jack Dempsey or Joe Louis or anybody. I was fantastic.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/23/obituaries/rocky-graziano-ex-ring-champion-dead-at-71.html

 

Duran, Barkley