Tony Tucker A level talent

tim witherspoon
tony tubbs
pinklon thomas
greg page
michael dokes

are we talking about a freebase contest?

 

Broke Douglas down mentally?

What?

Not how that fight went at all.

 

And yes, I wish Mike Tyson would stayed consistent and chopped down the 6'6 heavies instead of the mostly 6'3 ones that he did.

I remember during the Harris/Jefferson fight the announcers were talking about how unbelievably huge the heavyweights had become...

Since when was that news? Since when was Tyson NOT destroying superheavies?

 

One more thing.

Bruno was actually only three pounds shy of 250 during his second fight with Tyson.

He was actually a half pound lighter in his fight before that, against McCall for the belt, and that was the only time in Frank's entire career he went twelve.

Not a bad weight for him, obviously.

 

It was a very close fight, but Tucker didn't have much to do with that breaking if you ask me.

Douglas simply got tired as he often did.

What great moment of mental domination occured there?

 

To be honest, although Tucker probably did underachieve, I don't think he was that talented that he would have achieved a whole lot more had Mike not been around. He may have made a few defences and stuck around at the top a bit longer, but to me although he was talented, he was not especially so. I don't think Tucker could ever dominate an era.

In the Tyson fight he fought as well as he could have, without getting knocked out. He landed one punch of real note and proved quite stubborn and resilient, but how could he have done things any differently to come out with a win?
Same with the Lewis bout...Tucker proved tough and somewhat competitive, but he just wasn't good enough to beat the elite fighters, despite putting forth a decent effort.

To your hypothetical fights...I think he'd beat Weaver, but against the other guys it's 50/50 for me. I can't pick a clear winner in these fights.

 

No. Tucker wasn't third best of the 80's, not at any stage. A Level ability to be a mindnumbing bore inside the ring springs to mind. 'Spoon, Thomas, Page, Dokes and Tubbs were all more talented. Williams and Weaver too. He basically gave up trying to win against Tyson after the first couple of rounds to drop a onesided sleepwalk decision, plus was getting outboxed against pre Toyko Douglas before Buster ran out of steam.

Tucker was a hype job of Joe Bugner stature. He was a big, awkward, durable guy who had average ability. That's the crux of it.

 

Tucker had good ability. His main drawback was lack of fire / killer instinct.

Steward was his trainer. If Steward had a bit more experience with big men, perhaps he could have guided Tucker to a win in a fight he lost.

 

Regardless of being tired it seemed as if Douglas all of a sudden just gave up, not even trying all of a sudden in a fight he'd been performing very nicely in. I too had the feeling he caved, tho it took a long time to get there.

 

Tucker was garbage.

 

Here, here. Great minds think alike an all that. :good

 

Tucker is a bit of an interesting what if because he was denied two mandatory shots at the lineal title at points of least resistence, against Spinks and Foreman rspectivley.