Was Mike Tyson a cherry picker in the 1990's?

I think it was the obvious thing to do. Historically he becomes one of a handful of people to regain the Heavyweight title & financially any future fights are championship fights thus being more lucrative. Obviously if Lewis or a prime Bowe held the titles at this point it wouldn't have been a viable route at that stage of the comeback.

 

No, a big fight like that should come at least five fights into his comeback. In that case he should have fought one or two fighters a level below but still good - like Moorer or Bruno - before he went after the best guys in the division.

Ali didn't wait long before going after Frazier, but that was forced by the fact that he still could go to jail for draft dodging. If not for that, I think Ali should have had another 3-4 fights and faced Frazier a year later.

 

Bit hard to predict where Bowes concerned I admit .But i reckon he'd be up for Tyson like he was Holyfield in 92 .Hed try koing Tyson' straight out and hammer away .But leaving himself wide open s a risk .This fight s not seeing the last bell !!

 

I have to change my position on this one. I didn't know that Tyson was stripped of the WBC title for not facing Lewis and instead went after Seldon's WBA title. That is definitely cherry picking. So, yes, I think you could say to some extent that Tyson was cherry picking, not before his prison sting but certainly after.

 

I would be guilty of steering posts in that direction. To clarify, for me it was more of his team that decided-as you stated.

 

It seems to have been after prison. I have no problem with him taking on softies for the first six months, but refusing a mandatory, that was also one of the two most worthwhile opponents out there at the time (Bowe being the other), can't be seen as anything other than cherrypicking.

But this hasn't been brought up in the discussion so far and I actually didn't know about it until now.

As for Witherspoon, yeah I would have liked to have seen that fight but he was never mandatory and you can't fight everybody. And when Tyson hooked up with King it was going to be difficult. Dropping a title to go after a much easier opponent is another thing altogether, even though that opponent held another of the major belts.

 

You can't hide behind your promoter. Certainly not if you have the pull Tyson had. If he said he wanted to face somebody, Don King couldn't have done **** about it. That's what Patterson did to Cus concerning Liston, but ironically Floyd is often accused of cherry picking.

 

Dude, Tyson went behind King's back to fight Holyfield in 1991 for less money. That's when he might have gotten set up for r-ape by King. SO in a way, No, Tyson wasn't going to get more money from any other promoter.

 

Apparently the Morrison fight was gonna happen but Tommy had aids otherwise it would have happened.

 

Exactly. I don't think people understand that the game is mob ruled. Most if not all sports are. Bottom line is to make money. Sports - the opioid of the masses. Calling Mike Tyson a cherry picker, even post prison, is silly. King wanted Tyson to win back all the belts and then make the real big money fights.

Why didn't Holyfield fight Witherspoon? Why didn't Bowe, Lewis, Ruddock, Moorer and anyone else not fight Witherspoon? Tim Witherspoon had his chance to face Mike if he had gotten by Bonecrusher in 1986. King blackballed him but you have to play the game. Anyone who thinks Spoon would've beaten Tyson at his best is hanging on that branch all by themselves. Carl Williams lost a razor thin split decision to Spoon in 90-91. Pink Thomas beat Spoon, so did Bonecrusher. Tyson beat all those guys and he'd win a tough battle against Tim as well.

 

And then pussied out with a little tummy injury......

 

Stop it. Don't give me conspiracy nonsense and the "Tyson dropped his belt rather than face a dangerous challenger because of King". Doesn't wash. Mike could have defended against Lewis if he wanted to. He decided to go for an easier opponent and swapping belts instead. Cherry picking.

As far as I am concerned this thread is closed. If it isn't cherry picking to drop a belt to instead go after an easier opponent, then the concept has lost all its meaning.

 

Ummm...what?

I edited the hell out of this post because you lost me. Anyways, Holyfield fought Tyson, why didn't Lewis? Lennox's excuse was that he didn;t deal with Don King. Holyfield did. Why couldn't Lewis?

You could pick apart any champion's resume. Why didn't Holyfield face Tyson before Foreman? Then a rematch with Foreman came thisclose until Tyson stepped up. Then Holy defends against Cooper and old Holmes. THAT would be called cherry picking if you wanna play Bokaj.

Foreman defending his "lineal" title against Axel Schulz, Crawford Grimsley and Lou Savarese...THAT is cherry picking. Tyson facing 2 world title championship holders in a row is NOT cherry picking.

Get the fcuk outta here!