Unstoppable Fighters Beaten By Brilliant Strategy|Pac vs Marquez, Fedor vs Cro Cop, Hamed vs Barrera

True.

But he was also only a fringe contender when he beat Lewis to begin with. He wasn't seen as a top tier guy (and his record showed that) when Manny tutored him going into their first fight. Full credit to him for pulling off the upset against the more fancied foe but the game plan that Steward came up with and identifying the flaw he saw in Lewis played a big part in him pulling the upset off which is what the OP was looking for.

Agreed that the rematch was a debacle and McCall wasn't at his best in that fight though the better credentialed fighter came out on top as expected.

 

Lewis was open to right hand counters. It was a flaw that was easily spotted in hindsight in the Pepe Correa trained version of Lewis. Lewis threw a nice right hand but he dropped his hands and left his chin unprotected when he did so. His punch technique was always good from memory but admittedly I haven't watched the Tucker fight for a long time, so he might've got sloppy by then.

 

Tyson-Holyfield '96 was one of the best I've ever seen.

 

Head butting someone over and over doesnt count.

 

Margarito vs Cotto

Loading them wraps was genius

 

Punch power, chin, speed, stamina, fundamentals, etc

 

Tbf that was Wards strategy against Kessler

 

I thought it would be quite self explanatory if I'm truthful

 

I agree. Still, it took a tremendous game plan implemented by Tommy Brooks, along with head butts, to take even a past it version of Tyson out of there. Brooks also brought in Gary Bell and David Tua for sparring and preparation. Holyfield almost quit but his future wife, and Brooks, and Jesus Christ, convinced him to give it a further try and everything would eventually come together.

 

You're preaching to the choir dude. I've been watching Mike Tyson since 1986.

 

Two major points of emphasis that Holy’s team came up with:

1) Surviving Mike’s rush at the opening bell. I read where in camp for weeks on end they would include sparring sessions that were like 30 seconds long — with a fresh sparring partner running across the ring out of the gate and throwing as hard as they could ... and after 30 seconds, they’d put a new guy in to do it again. And again.

They said until about 2 weeks before the fight they were worried because the sparring partners repeatedly got the better of it and landed big shots in these drills. Then it finally clicked in and he adjusted so he was neutralizing them every time.

2) Backing Tyson up, especially in the clinches. They taught him to put his left knee basically right below Tyson’s groin, so his base was set up to give him leverage. And every time they tied up, he’d scoot his right foot forward a foot or so and push with a big step with the left (still under Mike’s carriage). This tactic also closed the space in between their bodies to take away the uppercut.

Tyson never adjusted to this (sliding to the side or pivoting would have worked best) and instead Evander was able to push him around. This weakened Tyson (being on the wrong side of leverage while being wrestled backwards takes away a lot of energy; you’re basically pushing back with your upper body while he’s doing the work with his legs.

And whenever Tyson would come forward, Evander held his ground rather than retreating into the wheelhouse of Mike’s punches. Evander rarely got hit with Tyson’s shots at full extension, so he was smothering most of Iron Mike’s offense.

* Another game plan I liked was Leon Spinks’ vs. Ali. When Ali rope-a-doped him, you’ll notice that Neon Leon threw a lot of shots at the shoulders and upper arms, hammering away at them to try to deaden Ali’s arms to take away his snap.

And it obviously worked.

 

Great post. Did you get most of that info from Brooks? There were a few boxing mags at the time where Brooks was interviewed and stated what I typed above.