Tyson's resume up to pre prison

25 has a nice ring to it but Tyson could have gone to 100 if he was facing Simon, Mauriello, Musto, Dorazio, Burman, Paychek, McCoy....

You seem dead set on castigating the era that had the greatest depth of punching power the division has ever seen. Even the soft touches, guys like Morrison and Bruno, had deadly power and were dangerous.

Furthermore, you seem to be avoiding his pre-prison victories over Ruddock, Tubbs, Tucker, Bonecrusher and Berbick, which in addition to those already mentioned qualifies as a clinical, exhaustive cleaning out of the division. If perhaps there is no 1970 Frazier on the list, the depth and extensiveness, and the manner in which he dispatched the majority of these ranks him very high in terms of resume.

 

No, Tyson burned out and was Ko'd by a journeyman contender. That was his destiny.

But, go ahead, let those Tyson "could haves" out -it's part of the cult's ritual, I understand.

 

I am not a fan of the could-haves. I think Tyson's reign of terror on the division (86-89) was as good, if not better, than any other heavies. Certainly better than any stretch by Dempsey or Marciano, who often get credit for sweeping out a division.

 

Your still conveniently picking out the bad points to try and make your point. Theres essentially 20 guys in title contention. They remained in the mix just like Holmes and Foreman remained in the mix through the 90's. When was the top 10 or 20 always dominating their opponents? Its always a guy like Tyson or Holyfield thats separated from the rest even though Holyfield was getting floored by journeyman like Cooper.

If I had more time or cared, I would go deeper into the state of the divison, but I dont really care. The division was in fine shape, sure there were old guys going out and young guys coming in and guys with personal problems whatever. We can do that for every era, but the bottom line is there was no three top guys competing at the same time like the previous great era and Holmes was dominating argueably the biggest no name no interest division second to todays. Tyson at least made it interesting against a respectable group that for the most part came to fight.

 

Bey was a decent fighter. He cut Biggs badly. I dont think that fight exposed Biggs for anything. I think he could have used a few more fights before facing Tyson, but he had personal problems, so yes they cashed him out.

 

Shelly Finkel knew Biggs was a crackhead so they threw him to the lions early to cash him out, he may as well lose to Tyson and make a bit of money. Its in Tysons Biography

Funny how Biggs and other previous Tyson victims went on to give Bowe good tough fights. Tubbs, Ferguson etc

 

I'm not dead set on castigating the era.
I'm just trying to provoke some of you to engage in accurate historical reporting, instead of making lazy blind nostalgic revisions.

I'm quite impressed by your recent turnaround on this, Seamus. Until recently you were a guardian against this creeping rose-tinted revisionism of the 1980s alphabet chumps.
You've proven your versatility -now get back to where it's at ! :good

I've spoken about Tubbs. His recent record and form going into the Tyson fight was pretty awful.

Tucker, Smith, Berbick and Ruddock were in better form .... and against 3/4 of those we did not the crushing Tyson victories of lore.

He "cleaned out" the division up to the point that Douglas took him to the cleaners.

Sure, Tyson's record for about 3 years was very good, he proved himself the best in the world for that time, without question.
But let's not embellish the level of competition, that's all.

 

Jacobs, Cayton, Team Tyson offered Tubbs quite a substantial amount of money on top of his purse IF he came into shape. He lost the bet

 

In a strong era, fighters cannot sit around doing nothing of significance for 2 or 3 years and experience declining form yet somehow rise through the rankings.
That's the way I see it. And it rings true.

 

His trainer also walked out on him a week before the fight, citing Tubbs' lack of dedication, fondness fo ice cream, and staying out late at night.

 

Well, Bey cut him badly and knocked him around for a few rounds.
The only reason he didn't "expose" Biggs was we all knew Biggs was crap before then !

I give Biggs an A+ for courage and for pulling out the win. In truth, the fight would've been stopped before then on that cut if Biggs hadn't been the "golden boy".

 

He was prettyy slick for a fat dude though, went onto give Bowe a tough fight

Actually Tyson Vs Tubbs is my favourite Tyson fight. Because it shows how dangerous Tyson was at his peak against slick boxers.

look how Tubbs won the first round and then in the second in a quick instant Tyson lands that right to the ribs and right to the jaw and thats it Tubbs turns to jelly...From looking like he was complete in control to jelly by one combo

It just shows, standing in front of a peak Tyson would get you killed quick time.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJBbRIGTXs&feature=related[/ame]

 

It's not as simple as that.

If you were a Don King fighter in the 80's and 90's, the chances were that you were going to be represented well in the rankings. Look at Tony Tucker being a mandatory to Foreman in the 90's despite doing nothing of significance. It doesn't mean that the 90's was a weak era, just that boxing is corrupt and strings are always being pulled.

Strong eras and weak eras are over stated anyway imo. Tyson beat a lot of good fighters as all active and real champions did.

 

Tubbs engaged Tyson on the inside, which was an interesting gameplan and one that had some success. The obvious problem with it for Tubbs was that Tubbs wasn't a puncher, while Tyson was. Good infighting from Mike in that one.

 

Tyson allowed himself to be taken in clinches, i dont understand why. Most probably to save energy and then as soon as hes out of the clinch, he recharges his batteries.
Also what i dont think people notice is that yes Tubbs is looking slick and great, but Tyson is slowly wearing him down, u can tell from the exchanges its affecting Tubbs alot.

I wonder why Tyson gave up that 6-4 combination. I dont think i ever saw him throw it again after prison, the right to the ribs, right to the jaw and then the left hook.
When that combination landed there was ALWAYS results, he abandoned that and then decided to use that "dip low, throw predicatble left hook"