Was Mike Tyson out of prime or was it the step up in competition.

Yes, he was. He had seven lbs on Holy in 1996, which is about whet he would have had in 1990.

 

If we look at Douglas work outside of Tyson, he was about on the level of Tucker. But that night he looked at least level about anyone else Tyson faced during that time. I believe he was too, but it's hard to know what difference it made that Tyson didn't take him as seriously as he should.

Holy in his prime was certainly better than Tyson's other contenders, but looking at his performances going in to the fight he was certainly not a step up in competition. But he evidently found a new lease on his career, and even though past his best I think it's safe to say that Holy from Tyson and for the rest of the 90's was a step up from Tyson's other comp.

 

Emanuel Steward said well before the cracks started to show,
Tyson, because of the way he fought, would have a relatively
short prime. It started showing right around the Holmes fight.
The constant head movement became more static, he became
much easier to land clean punches on.
So yes because of the frenetic style he had in his prime his
prime was relatively short.

 

That has to be one of the dumbest post I've seen a while.

 

Then why did you like it?

 

My fault, I was responding to the post you responded too. Apologies.....

 

its funny, he was only 23 at the time? Other boxers get better with age, even if not physically, they fight smarter usually, the good ones anyways. Ali, Holmes, duran. They got older, slower, reflexes going, but llok what they accomplished, look how they made up for thos defishancies. They fought smart. Tyson was pretty crude in that fight. But damn! Douglas was brilliant that night! he could have possably beat anyone that night!

 

For some people climbing the mountain is a lot easier than staying there

 

1990 would have been totally different. I don't think Evander was as physically ready at heavyweight as he was in 1996 after fighting Bowe and Foreman and guys like that.

 

He seemed pretty ready when he layed Douglas out.

 

It was a nice counterpunch. I never thought much of Douglas. He had a great win against Tyson. I gave more credit to Barkley who was higher level than Douglas with his win over Hearns. Barkley won titles and had great fights. I think the Holyfield who fought Douglas would have had a harder time with Tyson than he did in 1996.