Very telling interview w Emanuel Steward

fixed

 

And so are most of his opponents I would think. Doesn't matter. What he's doing at his age is unbelievable. Trust me, once you hit your forties you'll know what I mean.

 

Tyson had issues and lost to bigger fighters who stood up to him? A lot of bigger guys tried to stand up to Tyson -- and most of them got splattered -- or they held on for dear life like the big, strong Bonecrusher did when he realized he was way too slow to engage Tyson. The ghost of Tyson lost to the large Lewis and the remnants of the ghost of Tyson lost to the large McBride. And of course Douglas.

But this whole 'Tyson lost to every guy who stood up to him' or 'Tyson had problems with larger guys' is largely B.S. Most fighters have problems with large, skilled opponents, including other large, skilled opponents. But Tyson walked through most of his large, skilled opponents, and with big, durable guys like Ruddock, he gave them sustained beatings.

 

Lol…Bruno landed one good shot that caused Tyson to stagger slightly backwards -- and that constitutes Tyson having trouble with Bruno and, by extension, big men in general. Come on! Forget that Tyson annihilated Bruno and tore him up; forget that Tyson scared the big, strong Bonecrusher into not fighting; forget that Tyson blew through the heavyweight division and beat guys the way nobody had ever beaten them before -- forget all that. A fighter here and there (or a big fighter) would land a shot on Tyson and all of a sudden Tyson was beatable and troubled by certain guys. Come on!

It's that Tyson was so spectacular and normally ended his fights so quick that people were not used to seeing guys even land a punch on him at all, so when a Bruno or a Tucker landed a good shot on him -- all of a sudden Tyson was beatable, he had trouble with big guys, with tall guys, etc…LOL…Unbelievable!

 

But both still young ages.

 

Well F. J. I believe it has been stated very well how Tyson's performance did not dip appreciably against bigger guys. Assuming he was in shape & near peak.

There is a long thread about it, but Tyson fought a bunch of good fighters in his peak. Spinks was very good & undefeated despite Tyson's dismantling. Thomas, Tucker, Green, Ribalta, Smith...Were not chopped liver.

Sure the very very best might exploit his liabilities even peak. Might.
I do not know that I agree with "inferior physical strength" though.

To be fair the big men that Tyson fought in his so called prime were B and even C level fighters. The best of the bunch was Tucker and he was winning until he broke his hand in the 4th round. There is a quite clear pattern with Tyson were his performance dipped when he fought big fighters. Compound this now onto a A+ level fighter like Ali, Lewis and Klitschko who possessed the ring savvy, athletic ability and skills in order to exploit Mike's physical liabilities (short reach, short height, inferior physical strength) and devise a strategy to beat him.

Steward is one of the best trainers of all time. The man in my view is pretty much bang on with his assessments on this topic.

 

Don't know that much about today's HW scene, but I think Tyson would do very well today as well. On the other hand I think he would have absolutely wiped out the competition in almost every previous era. Him and Ali prime for prime is an intriguing match-up, though.

This is of course purely hypothetical, but Tyson was a freak and I don't think there's been any fighter with comparably freakish abilities since. Well, Pac perhaps. A 220 lbs fighter with his speed and accuracy (and iron-cast jaw) would stand out in any era, but more so in eras where everything over 200 lbs was considered big.

 

The funny thing about Tyson in today's era is that there is nobody remotely like him in terms of style and stature. That might actually be gold in an era where bulked-up but mostly slow, plodding heavyweights are the order of the day.