tyson was a f'ing animal

true

 

yeah he could throw down

 

Good vid, cheers.
Ribalta was getting killed, he took it well to be fair to the guy.

I rank Tyson as the 3rd or 4th best HWT ever, it totally amazes me how short peoples memories are, this guy in his prime was awesome, it was only when he started to go off the rails mentally & not training properly that he lost to Douglas, then of course jail more or less finished him.

People actually believe that if you showed no fear & hit Tyson back that you would beat him due to the nature of his defeats but thats bull****, he lost because he was a shell of his former self.... if you put those guys in there with the 1987/88 version, they can growl, stare out & throw as many punches back as they want, Tyson aint gonna lose heart, he will just punish the **** out of them relentlessly, the Tyson with his head screwed on would beat all those guys IMO & I do include Lewis & Holyfield in that statement.

 

great thread. took the words right out of my mouth

 

beating up jose ribalta, no matter how emphatically, proves very little as an elite level fighter. not that mike wasn't an elite-level heavyweight, but this fight does not necessarily represent that best. i glean a little more of this from his destruction of the very limited berbick, aged holmes or even the fat tubbs.

furthermore i don't see how he was supposed to be shot at 24, when the fighter with not the most talent but the right combination of strength, size and a good jab came along and defeated him. the writing was already on the wall that this is what would take to beat him. plenty of fighters have entered championship fights depleted, distracted and under-prepared. for tyson in tokyo, i believe it was a little more than that.

 

Like Tubbs being fat was a detriment for him. He was ALWAYS fat, and was actually in decent shape against Tyson.

 

If a few more fighters had shown the type heart that Ribalta displayed against Tyson. The guy was upset at the Ref for stopping the fight & genuinely wanted to continue the fight no matter how futile.

Some of those shots were frightening:yikes

 

That was a quality win. Tubbs was highly skilled, just the wrong set of skills to be Mike. I guess saying fat Tony Tubbs is a bit redundant, though.

 

The young Joe Louis was just as devastating as Tyson.

Really would have been something if both had met in their "young primes".

Each one possessed a type of punch that would have seriously bothered the other fighter.

 

Impressive.

Impressive as well, as it has been mentioned, that Ribalta took the shots that he did and kept getting up.

 

Yes, he was an animal - Unfortunatly someone let him out of the ring.

Woller

 

Tyson fought Ratliff on Aug 17th, 1986. Looking back, its incredibe to think Tyson was only just 20 years old when the fight took place. For a young guy, Tyson was truly like a sponge when it came to learning new things within Boxing.

Bobby Stewart has said Mike was a very quick learner, especially when he first started boxing. Even watching a young Tyson shadow box with Teddy Atlas close by watching, you can see the potential, the ability, the speed & power.

Look at the condition Tyson is in when boxing Ratliff. He weighed 213lbs, solid as a rock, was in shape to box all night if required. Tyson definately had a warrior's mentality. Talk about lets get it on!

If Tyson was around today, half the guys in the HW division wouldn't even fight him, let alone compete with him! Too skillful, too quick, too powerful for all of them!