Tyson/Douglas: Tyson got beat up by Berbick, Page and McCall in Sparring

Tyson Failed to Make Adjustments
By PHIL BERGER
Published: February 13, 1990

He was widely viewed as an invincible fighter when he stepped into the ring against James (Buster) Douglas Sunday in Tokyo.

But the myth of Mike Tyson is now gone, shattered by Douglas, who tattooed him from the opening bell with a stiff left jab and smartly-timed right hands before knocking out the previously undefeated heavyweight champion in 10 rounds.

As masterful a boxing lesson as the fearless Douglas administered, there was a tendency among fight fans and the sport's insiders afterward to look beyond what Douglas had done and speculate on what went wrong with Tyson? For in that ring, Tyson seemed a ghost of the forward marching, hard puncher he had been before. Technically and emotionally, he was not into the fight.

''Technically, he wasn't using the jab to work his way in,'' said Teddy Atlas, who helped train Tyson as an amateur. ''Buster Douglas was able to fight him because nothing was coming at him to keep him defensive. Tyson was very predictable, very repetitive. He kept coming straight in and never made any adjustments. I'd have had him feint to draw Douglas's lead. That would have made it safe for him to come in.''

Wrong Tactics

Eddie Futch, the veteran trainer who has handled champions like Michael Spinks and Alexis Arguello, said Tyson abandoned tactics that made him the fighter he was in the past.

''He stopped moving his head and slipping punches,'' Futch said. ''He was walking in straight rather than from a crouch out of which he'd throw vicious hooks. He was trying to land one big shot.''

Atlas said that in past fights Tyson had been guilty of allowing his opponents to tie up his hands in clinches, usually when he tried to rest.

''It was a silent contract,'' Atlas said. ''A free ride for the opponent, who often was glad to have it. This time, Douglas didn't go along with the silent contract. He punched and made Tyson come up with something different.''

The difference frustrated Tyson. As Dennis Rappaport, the promoter of the heavyweight, Tim Witherspoon, saw it: ''Douglas would not be intimidated. So you started to see a tentative Mike Tyson. He forgot his left hand. He became desperate. He started leaping. Buster Douglas was catching Tyson coming in. He'd take a half-step backward and bang him with the right hand.''

Tyson Frustrated Futch was not surprised that Tyson showed his frustration against Douglas. The trainer recalled a story a fighter of his, Virgil Hill, the World Boxing Association light-heavyweight champion, had told about Tyson from the days when both Hill and Iron Mike were amateurs.

''Virgil,'' said Futch, ''told me how on occasion a fighter would put both gloves in front of Tyson's face and Tyson would get so angry he would bite the gloves.''

To the experts, Tyson's mental state appeared even more shaky than his tactics.

''He was not prepared to fight,'' said Kevin Rooney, who was Tyson's trainer in the pro ranks until Tyson dismissed him in December 1988. ''That was not Mike Tyson. Something was on his mind. There was no fire, no inclination to engage. Either he's sick physically, or sick and tired of the fight game. It hurt me to see my fighter taking a beating when he shouldn't have been.''

Atlas's view was similar to Rooney's.

Winning Ugly
''He had a chance to win ugly against Douglas,'' Atlas said, ''but his interest was not there. There didn't seem to be any desire, any fire. When I saw him step into the ring, he just didn't have the arrogance and disdain for people he usually has.''
Futch thought Tyson was not in condition for the match.
''He didn't seem to have the snap,'' Futch said. ''He seemed to tire early and fought in spurts. He was not in the kind of condition he normally is in. Those long layoffs are bad for him. Mike Tyson was most effective when he was fighting regularly.''
Atlas also saw a Tyson not as finely conditioned as he had been in past fights.
''That's a normal trend that goes with a guy that's made a lot of money,'' Atlas said. ''It's normal slippage.''
Atlas then took note of Tyson's trainers for the past year, Aaron Snowell and Jay Bright, saying; ''But these people around him didn't do enough to slow the slippage down. I worry about him outside the ring now. I worry how he reacts, how he deals with this change in his life. Everybody is talking rematch, no rematch, W.B.A., W.B.C., long count. But who says he's ready emotionally to fight again?''


http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/13/sports/tyson-failed-to-make-adjustments.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm

 

NOTEBOOK; Rooney Thinks Tyson Is No Longer Interested
By PHIL BERGER
Published: April 25, 1990

First came word that Mike Tyson would be training in a newly-built facility in Catskill, N.Y.

Last week, Tyson, reportedly weighing more than 240 pounds, turned up in Las Vegas, Nev., to train for his next fight, a June 16 match at Caesars Palace against Henry Tillman.

With frequent reports lately of serious partying by Tyson since his loss to James (Buster) Douglas in February, some Tyson-watchers were trying to decipher what the change of training site meant.

Was it a sign that Tyson had put his Dom Perignon good times behind him and was getting serious? Or was it just another indication of the former heavyweight champion's confusion?

''He's cool,'' said Don King, the fighter's promoter. ''He's not at loose ends. He's O.K. Ain't no problems.''

But Kevin Rooney, who trained Tyson until he was dismissed in late 1988, disagreed.

''I think he's lost his interest,'' Rooney said. ''I don't think he can take the pressure anymore. Fighting is all about living with the pressure of showing yourself one on one. Every fighter gets to the point where he can't take that pressure anymore and he either retires or loses his desire to fight.''

Rooney said he had heard that Tyson had been drinking in the weeks leading up to the Douglas fight.

''To me,'' said Rooney, ''that shows he doesn't want to fight.''

In December, Tyson said he began drinking heavily to ease the pain of his marital problems after Robin Givens had filed for divorce in October 1988. But Tyson said he stopped drinking after his disappointing performance in February 1989 against Frank Bruno.

Bill Cayton, Tyson's estranged manager, seemed skeptical about Tyson's abstinence lately.

''There are all those reports that he's been in discos,'' Cayton said. Drinking? ''You must have heard it,'' Cayton said.

Quarry to Make Comeback

Never mind that earlier this year the Nevada Athletic Commission declined to license him to fight again. Jerry Quarry, 44 years old and once a ranked heavyweight contender, is returning to the ring.

''I've got a bout on May 19 at the Americana in Lake Geneva, Wis.,'' said Quarry, who works for a public-relations firm in Agoura Hills, Calif. ''May 19th - that's four days after my 45th birthday.''

No opponent has been named for Quarry's comeback fight, but Quarry said, ''They're not going to put me in with somebody to worry about for my first fight back.''

Quarry's objective is to win a few tune-up bouts and then challenge George Foreman.

Quarry won on a decision from James Williams in his last fight Nov. 11, 1983.

Moore Rates Hardest Hitters

Archie Moore, the former light heavyweight champion, was talking about heavy punchers recently.

Moore, who fought 215 bouts in a career dating from 1936 to 1965, rated the hardest hitters he faced: Curtis (Hatchet Man) Sheppard; Lloyd Marshall; Yvon Durelle, and Rocky Marciano. In that order.

''Sheppard's was the best single punch I ever got hit with,'' Moore said. ''A right to the jaw. I fell on my face and just did beat the count. I don't know why, but the front of my thighs hurt for a week after that bout. Felt like I got hit with a baseball bat.'' Moore won both his bouts with Sheppard, in 1946 and 1947, by decision.

Moore called Marciano ''a very well-conditioned athlete.''

''His punches wore you down,'' said the former champion.

Gonzales Gets His Chance

Paul Gonzales, the only United States gold medalist from the 1984 Olympic Games not to fight for a world title, will finally get his chance. Gonzales is scheduled to meet Orlando Canizales, the International Boxing Federation bantamweight champion, on June 10 in El Paso

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/25/sports/notebook-rooney-thinks-tyson-is-no-longer-interested.html

 

Also remember, in the Post-Spinks Press Conference, Tyson threatened Retirement.
He seemed fed up.

 

It was said that they were able to keep him motivated because the goal was to unify the title. Although he had bouts of attempts to leave and I think he did for Tucker (for a short-while)...and even though they did keep him on track and unified the belts "technically," some still had Spinks as lineal Champion. So Spinks was on Tyson's mind. Oddly enough, it almost wasn't as his wife helped Tyson show up late and over-weight to camp. He was so out of it, that McCall thought his head wasn't in it. Same sparring session where McCall dropped him. McCall did say he got back up and fought on...which I don't know if he did against Page when someone else was running that camp.
And of course, Tyson got his head back in it after the knock-down. Big difference than in Japan.

 

Stop trolling. Hopkins never fought Greg Page. Page was a HW.

 

That "VERSION" of Tyson, if we are talking about the undefeated version who ruled the HW division in the 80's, was built by D'Amato and guided and trained by his disciple, KEVIN ROONEY.

Who was the guy continually making sure Tyson was fit to fight?
ROONEY.

Who was the guy that came up with the game-plans?
ROONEY

Who was the guy that got on Tyson's ass when he was tempted to slack off?
ROONEY

Who was the guy that didn't bull**** with Tyson?
ROONEY

Who was the guy that called out Numbers/Commands to Tyson during Matches and instructed him on how to adjust during fights during those years we now label "Prime" Years?
ROONEY

Who guided Tyson to unify the Titles and go undefeated?
ROONEY

Who was the guy that had Tyson get his ass kicked in Japan by Buster Douglas?
NOT ROONEY



Rooney was a Pro Fighter under the tuteledge of Cus D'Amato. Kevin turned Trainer on the request of Cus D'Amato. Cus knew Rooney would follow his way in order to help make sure Tyson would go on to fulfill his proclaimed prophecy, his one last shot at legacy points, in that Tyson would become the youngest HW Champion in History. And he proved true.

Rooney knew the D'Amato way. And Tyson knew Rooney knew it and lived it as a Pro fighter.
That's all he needed to know for Tyson who only knew the D'Amato way.

He didn't have to know how to train others. He only had to know how to train Tyson because that's all D'Amato asked of him.

"Iron Mike Tyson" was molded in the Castskill Gym.

Now could someone else did a better job? Maybe. Maybe not.
Maybe someone like George Benton could have added something to his arsenal...but would it have toyed to much with the philosophy and style of D'Amato? Maybe.


By the way, Alexander the Great was a Drunk and he conquered most of the known world. And many Conquers and Writers were/are Drunks.

 

There are a couple of more articles around somewhere but I just don't have them anymore. One was from Berbick himself which is how I first found out that he got the better of Tyson. Of course this was years later and someone was interviewing him and it was mentioned. I don't want to misquote him so its hard to comment on what he said exactly but he mentioned how he and others were getting the better of Tyson.