For having pissed away so much potential where Norris is almost never equally criticized? Compared to Norris Tyson was unbelievably consistent and more than likely achieved far more of his potential than Norris did. Norris was never unbeaten for more than a handful of years, and managed to DQ'ed multiple times from the beginning to the end of his career. Thoughts?
Well, maybe because Norris was never seen the same way Tyson was. People thought Tyson would be the greatest hw ever, he was supposed to surpass Ali. He didn´t and gets critizised for wasting his potential. Norris never was seen that way.
I'd guess that on top of that most people who were following boxing saw Norris' chin as a much more immediate problem for his career than the way he was wasting his potential. Mike, on the other hand, didn't seem to have such an obvious ***** in his armor, so the story was entirely about wasted potential and going a little crazy.
Norris never ever inspired like Tyson did - totally different class of fighter and expectation. By the time Norris found his footing and stardom he'd been beaten 3 times, once by devastating KO. In contrast Tyson cut a swathe thru the division all the way to the top and beyond.
Tyson was meant to shatter 49-0, meant to break Louis's 25 defences...the fact that just over 3 years after he first became champion he lost it all is something which a lot of people still can't quite believe happened.
it's the completly different way round. norris was a high ranked contender when he won the championship and proppeled himself to stardom and pound 4 pound lists. also norris was known for not being a puncher in his amatuer and early pro days. he wasnt a truely exciting fighter, until he developed that left hook/uppercut. before he was just a jab and move fighter with a right cross as his only true powerpunch. tyson was already a machine and had all the tools and skills to be the best. when he went pro having a huge string of knockouts over sub par but still decent journeymen was being videoed by television companies every time. very rarely do you see a fighter get his fights taped at such a early start. norris was fighting on and off around his area in ballrooms and non main headers. both were "bad boys" but it was clear that tyson had alot of records to break while terry was more of a surprise how good he was
