tell me about Tony Tucker...

Big guy, decent boxer all-around, variety of punches, good power, very good chin.
Sometimes guilty of going into his shell a bit, and his head movement was pretty lacking.

Had a long battle with personal drug problems, and finding out his dad had been skimming off big chunks of money from his fight purses. Ended up kicking the habit and becoming a born-again Christian sometime around '89-'90.

Held the IBF title for 3 months. The McCall fight was a very close one, the usual 'soak up the punches then rally late' effort from Oliver I seem to remember...and the Douglas fight was dead even, until Tucker managed to put together a big series of shots and Douglas didn't retaliate. Gave Tyson a first-round punch to remember and got in several good whacks on Lewis too, lasting the distance with both. Foreman dropped his WBA title rather than fight him.

Remained a viable contender until his late thirties, when a stoppage loss to Seldon (due to eye swelling) and a wide points loss to Akinwande signalled the beginning of the end. Last notable fight was in '98, getting stopped in 11 by Ruiz, at the age of 39.

Had the tools to be a pretty decent champion, more than a 3-month guy...unfortunately for him Tyson and Lewis were around at the same time.

 

Sorry?
You had Tucker winning 5 rounds...? Could I ask for a scorecard, I've never heard of anyone giving him that many...I thought he had 3 rounds at best.

And 1 round against Tyson also seems a bit wacky, I thought he won 3 there as well...1st, 3rd and...either the 10th or 12th I seem to remember...

 

I overrate Tony Tucker. :good

 

Thanks Illmatic! That's my favourite bit of Lewis-Tucker

 

He wasn't a very good fighter, he was just very tall with a good chin. He never convicingly beat any decent fighter- ever. He had decent basic boxing skills but was basically a black Joe Bugner.

 

A fair few people would say Joe Bugner was better than his reputation too, so I guess that might cover it

 

Yeah, they're both in the 'could have done more' category, but they didn't, so they'll always be in the 'just glad to be here' category. The amount times Tucker seemed to be the #1 contender amazed me. Don King 'trickerations' are usual.

 

I had no problem with his title shots against Tyson and Lewis...34-0 for the first, 49-1 for the second...but how he was still WBA #1 come '95 was certainly a bit dubious. Gave Seldon some problems but couldn't deal with his jab.

I don't know why Foreman didn't take him on, but old George tended to have very cold feet about any live opponent after he beat Moorer...

 

I'm surprised he didn't take him on either, although he was hardly a 'live' opponent. He never beat anyone of note since the one-sided Lewis sleepwalk...and he was hardly a box-office attraction. No wonder title are constantly fragmented if totally underserving people like him are #1 contenders.

 

He fought Lewis at the end of his career really. He fought Tyson with a serious hand injury, so he basically was a one handed fighter, which made it a horrible hold fest. Tucker did manage to land a really clean uppercut on Tyson that rocked him in the 12th.

 

Douglas ? ...

 

He was being totally outboxed until Fatty Buster got tired.