Could tyson have beaten these two in his first fight in four years I say yes but it would be harder. probably go longer
I think Tyson needed to see for himself what he could do. stepping into the deep end first time out might have effected him pretty bad. You may as well ask could Joe Louis have beat primo carnera in his first fight? Ali stepped straight into quarry first time out after his break but he had trained and sparred during his absence. even so he lucked out with a quarry cut before he could see what he had. As it turned out both bruno and seldon were effected against tyson. up close they felt tyson was oozing confidence and the occasion got to both of them in the end as much as what Tyson brought to the table. The thing with Tyson was he was a killer if he had the other guys number. Frank and Bruce both felt Tyson had their number because they saw it in Tyson's eyes. I don’t think Tyson brought that "psychological edge" that an opponent can sense just by looking at him in his comeback with peter McNealy. In that part of his career Tyson needed that edge to win at that level.
In 1996 Seldon made no effort to fight, for whatever reason. We might as well assume he'd do the same thing in 1995. Bruno was intimidated and destroyed by a Tyson who can looked rusty and unconvincing against Mathis, and Bruno would have been the same against the Tyson of the Mcneeley fight - where Tyson looked in tip-top shape. Seldon and Bruno were not good fighters. Dont let the alphabet crap fool you, these guys weren't not convincing world-class players.
I think they could have beaten him. He looked pretty bad against McNeeley and was visibly nervous coming into the ring.
I think Seldon could have possibly been more confident going in with Tyson. Tyson himself was definitely not the confident fighter coming back and thats why his two first fights were pretty awful.
I agree with the bold, but i must say i thought Tyson looked nearly as sloppy against Seldon in '96, as he did against McNeeley & Mathis jr. in '95. Perhaps though, you are right & Seldon may have had some confidence if he was Tyson's first opponent in over 4 years of rusting.
