Talent wise Tyson was athe greatest HW ever

The Biggs fight was scheduled for 15 I think.

 

No it was a 12 rounder; the WBC title would not been at stake if it was scheduled for 15.

 

The fight was performed under IBF rules. They had full jurisdiction on the bout and was, i'm pretty sure, scheduled for 15 rounds.

 

The fight was indeed an IBF manadatory, but the WBC threatened not to recognize the fight unless it was a 12 rounder, thus I believe it was.

For what it is worth, Boxrec backs me up.

 

Boxrec lies. :good

 

It would not be the first time.

 

We need to ask a Tyson Hugger this. Maybe Popshots will return with the answer? :hey

 

LOL, yeah, mind you I say it was even money that his Daddy had not even been born in October 1987...

 

It is a shame that people put down the career of Mike Tyson* by underrating him. For example, people saying a prime Lewis beats a prime Tyson. Not discounting Lewis but IMO people that say that either have forgotten what he has done or just plain dont appreciate him for his greatness. I think of you put all the greats in their prime, they will have a heck of time getting passed the first let alone the rest of the fight against arguably the most talented HW of all time. Sometimes I think for people to take you seriously on this site, you have to think of Tyson as a second teir champ... Thats unfortunate.

 

Tyson more accuratly was the greatest waste of talent in Heavyweight History. The early Tyson was the perfect fighting machine. But greed, mismanagement, celebrity nightlife, all contributed into grounding down one of the greatest Heavyweights ever. If there were no Don King, Douglas would not have lasted through the first round!

 

even physically - ali was clearly the better talent. tyson is #2 physically. mentally included (as it should)? he goes way down. as for overall talent itself - tyson didn't have the strategic / tactical mentality to do something e.g. punch to body or time a good punch when douglas & holy were outboxing him. this is why he lost to those two but beat everyone else he faced (after 2000 i don't really regard his career - yes lewis fans - you can say "how convenient for you"). so in that regard - i wouldn't say tyson was a big waste - he still achieved a lot. as talented as he was - his talent did not significantly overshadow what he did in the ring as tyson fans like to think. tyson never had the strategic mentality to consistnetly carry out a plan and wear out holyfield so his failing to do so is not a failure of his overall talent. a case can be made for douglas. bowe didn't want to fight tyson in early 90s so he doesn't count either. the only thing tyson failed to do in his career was beat lewis in early 90s and maybe a few contenders - otherwise he lived up to his full mental / physical ability.

 

He could turn a fight with any punch (save the jab, of course, though he had a very good one, amazingly outjabbing Holmes at one point). But he rarely threw one punch at a time; whether it was a shocking overhand right, left hook, right to the body or right uppercut, it was followed by a blazing, pinpoint, devastating combination. No other heavyweight puncher had such an arsenal. No wonder an old Ali, in an unscripted moment and though being prodded to say otherwise, could only repeat how scared he would be of being hit by Tyson. We all were at that time.

 

i don't recall seeing that in the fight but even if it did happen - it must have been for like 2 seconds. i could go in and fight mike tyson and be "winning" for .01 seconds until he sent me to the ER. something must be sustained for a reasonable time to count.

"rarely" i don't agree with. maybe more often than not - he more than one punch at at a time - during his prime. even in his prime (to be easy i'll say 1980s) he threw wild, single haymakers on more several occasions.

joe louis had a better arsenal no doubt. case can be made for foreman & liston.

obviously no one welcomes freely getting hit by tyson (not even someone as durable as ali or cobb) - but in an actual fight - tyson would be unique and provide someting DIFFERENT from frazier, liston, foreman, shavers, etc - but he wouldn't provide MORE than those guys. someone like ali whose been in the ring with scary guys like liston, foreman, frazier - will not be afraid of tyson either (but he won't be open arms). c'mon - ali was paying lip service to a boxing star at the same time. this is the same ali who said he'd beat tyson easy (true) or that after douglas-tyson he said "will people finally stop asking me if tyson would beat me?".

 

Maybe around Round 2, they both fired jabs and short-armed Tyson's actually connected while Holmes' missed. I don't mean to get carried away and say Tyson was a great jabber, but he could throw it straight and true. That particular gem of a moment was one of many in the fight at which Tyson made the old master look bad, partly because he had excellent fundamentals in his style.

When he connected solidly he was all over you. And a couple of basics of his style were 1) the counter and followup, and b) combos behind the jab which Rooney would shout out as numbers.

Sorry, but, Foreman? Considering Tyson's unique blend of speed, power and accuracy, I must disagree. Tyson would be much more effective against a rope-a-doping Ali than Foreman could ever be in a million Zairian nights. On the other hand, as soon as Holmes went to the ropes, it proved his undoing in a matter of seconds. Foreman had a poor right cross and a molasses-like left hook.

Liston's arsenal is excellent but he is slower of hand and foot than Tyson. And just an interesting comparison: Liston hardly scratched Machen over 12 but Tyson solved Michael Spinks in just over 1 minute.

I was simply stressing the point that Tyson's unique brand of offense looked so fearsome that, as you will remember, the most seasoned pros were intimidated to the point of terrorized ineffectiveness by a smaller man. But, to the Ali point, it is my personal opinion that Ali responded of Tyson similarly to the way he later described being "scared to death" of being hit by Sonny Liston. When cornered by Arsenio's question and in Tyson's presence, the psychologist in me sees Ali referring to Tyson's skills with true great respect.

 

Funny, you never seem to see any posters called "Prime Johnson", "Prime Ali" or "Prime Mallard" or anything. Tyson fans constantly try to convince themselves he was unbeatable. :huh :hey