Tyson- did he ever get close to his true potential?

Duran had a rather long prime that lasted until june 1980

 

I agree 100%. He did reach his full potential as a fighter, but fell short career wise. In about 1988 or so, he was as good as he was ever gonna get.

 

:happy :happy :happy :happy :happy :good :good :good :good :good :good :good :good :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup Great post.

 

Very good post!

 

But Foreman, Liston and Louis are the heavyweights that have lasted the longest?

 

Foreman and Liston, how so?

Foreman beat up mostly tomato cans and a few borderline contenders between 1970-1973. Then he destroys Frazier and Norton. One year later he gets embarrased by Ali, gets one more noteworthy win (Lyle) where he was one inch away from losing and then gets embarrassed again, by Young and retires.
So basically he had 4 good years. It takes a full 10 years before he launches his comeback against tomato cans, takes a lot of questionable decisions against mediocrities (Schulz, Savarese, Stewart), loses one-sided to good fighters (Holyfield, Morrison) and gets one win (Moorer).
That's not exactly long dominance.


Liston was dominant between '58 and '62, although it is noteworthy that he only started beating ranked contenders from the late '59. If we include '63 then he has a grand total of 4 years of domination untill getting embarrassed by a light hitting 8 to 1 underdog. Not exactly long dominance.


Now Joe Louis, he is indeed the exception to the rule, although it did take a hard beating from Schmeling to get him to get motivated.


Duran as mentioned earlier is another exception. His longetivity, especially given his agressive style and wild life style is more than a miracle. Truely one of the greats.

 

Absurd, he was a kid when he beat Spinks. He could have been much greater than that. What a waste of talent :-(

 

Tyson is in many ways a walking dichotomy. Physically he had gifts that most heavyweights could only dream of, even some greats.
On the other side of the coin, he was mentally such a disaster area one wonders how he achieved anything.
I don't think that Tyson was mentally weak per se, because as noted he went through a hell of a lot of crap for someone so young. He did well to stay focussed and in shape, at least for fights, but a lot of the misery that befell him was of his own doing.

As Chris also said, his style basically ensured a rather short prime. He was a short guy (for a heavyweight) fighting in an era of giants. Two other short fighters, Tua and Mathis jnr, didn't get close to Tyson's level. He did really well to destroy guys much taller and often heavier than himself. People give Evander a lot of credit for coming up and being a "small" heavyweight, but Tyson was barely any bigger. In fact, when they fought Evander was more or less the same size.

Where I think Tyson fell short was that, despite all the negatives, he could have held onto the title longer. Maybe his absolute peak would have come and gone, but with the right people (and him having his head screwed on straight) he could have held the title for a few years longer, until Bowe or Lewis reached their respective peaks.
He certainly had the abilty; the application of effort was no longer there though.

 

The Key word being the application of effort was no longer there. That is probably why people are down on Tyson; he was too talented to let all slip away the way he let it slip away and to that effect he didnt reach his potential in the ring because he was good enough to do more.