Seeking opinions of grown adults in the 1980's on Tyson.

ETM · Dec 3, 2022

Eddie Ezzard said: ↑

I am, I'm afraid, coming to like Joe Frazier a lot less, the more I read about him. He increasingly sounds like he was bitter beyond repair and the humble image he had had bestowed on him belied an enormous ego.

This is a bit of a typical thing for Joe to have said. It's easy to call someone out when retired and that fight is never going to happen.

Joe showed uncommon fortitude in his fight with Foreman, the FotC, the Thrilla and in giving Foreman a rematch. As such, he should have recognised something of the same in Tyson when he saw him scrambling for his mouthpiece in Tokyo so he could go back to getting his head kicked in. Or the sustained beatings he took from Holyfield and Lewis, long after it was plain he couldn't win.

There were a few fighters in Joe's era with whom a fight could have been made who might have said the same about Joe but he, or his manager, never gave them the chance. The same can't be said about Tyson. When he was no1 contender for Holyfield, he kept busy taking on the division's most feared puncher in Ruddock. And when that ended controversially, rematched him four months later.

No amount of tough talking from a bitter ex champ can take that away. Tyson, before prison, brought it.
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I'm fairly certain Joe made those comments after Tyson had almost killed Marvis. Maybe his ego along with some guilt for matching his son in that one.

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Seeking opinions of grown adults in the 1980's on Tyson.

ETM I thought I did enough to win. Full Member

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Seeking opinions of grown adults in the 1980's on Tyson.

ETM I thought I did enough to win. Full Member