The three causes of Tyson's decline?...

Tyson ruined himself. Ultimately he is responsible for his downfall.

I don't believe there is a truly unbeatable fighter but Tyson in his prime is as close to an unbeatable boxer as you can get.

 

Addiction

 

Except he was destroyed at 23......

 

Great jab, solid gameplan, and the intense emotional cocktail of just having lost his mother - sort of thing that helps get a perspective on even a sport as extreme as boxing. I think he won because he fought Tyson in a way nobody had before - as if he were just another boxer.

 

Two things, I'd say:

1. Tyson was an obsessively hard trainer. He lost that drive in his early 20's and the momentum slowed.
2. Very atypical physical development. He was as physically developed as a very athletic 25-year-old at 15. I think by the time he was 24, his physical age was at least 5 or six years older than that. Everyone has three or four years of peak physicality. He just had his a decade earlier than average.

 

Agreed.

 

Yeah, that's the perhaps most extraordinary part. I'm not going with the cliché that everyone else was scared stiff of Tyson, but at the very least I think the vast majority gave him too much respect. Were worried more about what he could to do them than confident in what they could do to him. Quite reasonable seeing to his qualities and prior achievements, but not the kind of mentality that win you fights.

Douglas on the other hand confronted Tyson the way you'd expect someone with a large size advantage would: like the bigger, stronger man. He took him on in the centre of the ring and let his hands go, even in the clinches and on the break. He was the bully in there. Holy was the same, even though he employed a different set of tactics.

 

One big turning point in Mike Tyson's boxing career was the death of one of his co-managers, Jimmy Jacobs. With Jacobs on the scene, Tyson had a solid management team in Jacobs and Bill Cayton and a trainer in Kevin Rooney who made Tyson toe the mark while training, enabling Tyson to well-prepared for his bouts. With Jacobs no longer on the scene, things eventually fell apart with Cayton apparently being unable to fill the massive hole left by his fellow co-manager. Tyson and Rooney also parted ways about this time. Afterwards, Tyson seemed to be far less prepared for many of his bouts, notably the one with Buster Douglas.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Good point.