Tyson vs Tillis

Tucker main weakness was lack of fire. If he was a bit more agressive in the ring, he could have been better.

 

Actually, I thought this fight was quite close. I think people have a skewed perspective because they look at it as being a fight that's not going to be competitive and imagine Tyson's punches must be having 10 times as much effect as Tillis', but really, through much of the match, Tillis lands a number of clean uppercuts and solid straight shots and Tyson struggles to connect. If one doesn't automatically give Tyson a 10-8 for the fourth round knockdown(which was a flash knockdown at the end of a round Tillis had been winning), I don't think it would be ridiculous to score it a draw.

 

If he didn't have a knee injury that took him out for 13 months and drug problems, he definitely would have fullfilled the predictions for him.

 

My dinner with Conteh once gave what I feel to be an accurate summary of Tucker, which was comparing him to Joe Bugner. Both were big athletic fighters with a fair amount of talent, but neither had much tenacity, and both were more or less safety first type guys. There are two possible scenarios here. Either Tucker would have been better if he had a bit more enthusiasm and fire in the ring, or he might have been worse had he abandoned the safety first style that got him to 35-0. We'll never know for sure. One thing is certain, that his losing 15 months of his career between 1983 and 1984, plus his drug problems and hand injury against Tyson, did not help him. He also took some time off after the Tyson fight, which may not have been in his best interest either. Tucker in my opinion was another heavyweight from the 80's who had potential that likely went unfulfilled. Some of it was his own doing, while the other part was boxing's.

 

WHAT!!!!!!

Tucker fought Mike and used some displays of power in doing it..

He stood in there and did what almost everyone thought he wouldn't , he wasn't over cautious and got Mikes respect.. Tony was an oustanding fighter who could have been champ for a longer period in any other era..

Tillis did ok.. he won a few rounds through shrewd silky movement.. Primarily though , James retreated a lot.. But in comparrison to the Tucker fight.... Make no mistakes .. TNT owned that one..

 

I saw that fight and was a little surprised at how Tillis made Mike look rather green at times during the bout. Mike won for sure but as someone else posted on this site (And Alex Wallau stated during the bout) it appeared that Tillis showed everyone the formula to beat Tyson, namely stick and move and tie him up in close. Left jab and right cross. Sounds a bit like the way Ali described how he would beat George Foreman after the Foreman/Norton fight to Bob Sheridan at ringside and was later shown by Buster Douglas in Tokyo.

 

Anyone else think this fight was Tillis' shining moment?

It was just after he found out that he had all of the food allergies, after all, and he was most likely in the best physical shape of his career.

 

No.

 

Maybe his win over Shavers and he did okay for awhile against Greg Page.