Tyson was a shell of his prime for all the reasons we discussed here a hundred times. He no longer trained with any consistency. He was rudderless, changing trainers every other fight. His conditioning was poor. He stopped using head movement. He stopped using his jab. He no longer punched in combinations. He rarely went to the body. His legs were old. That being said he was still a very dangerous fighter up till the Lewis fight as his blow outs of Golota and Savareese proved .. however against a far better conditioned and preserved Lewis he was exposed .. after one round that fight was over. Tyson showed considerable courage to survive but he had no chance of winning after the first round ... after the Lewis fight he dropped another level all together ... The man whi lost to Williams and McBride was Tyson in name only ...
Did they not say at the time that golota was looking stunning in the gym, killing guys in sparing ?, swear i read that somewhere, for me bowe took him to lightly and suffered, im sure he was on the slide, by he at times hit golota with some monster shots
-You bring up Bowe/Cooper as evidence that he had a sturdier chin. I gave you the benefit of the doubt but upon revisiting the footage for the first time in years, I was surpirsed that Cooper never tested his chin at all. Bowe spent the first round in a defensive shell, slipping wild swings, or catching them with his arms and gloves. The few Cooper sneaked in were badly smothered with little leverage. Cooper really didn't land ****, to be frank. His best moment being an exhausted arm punch to the ear before getting KOed, hardly his signature left hook. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNHk8X7MZSs[/ame] -Here Hide lands a perfect cross to close the first, a killer punch square on the chin that Cooper could only dream of landing. Merchant: "Bowe doesn't flinch." It wasn't until after a few more of these at the end of the second did Bowe get rocked and later admited to being "out on his feet." Again, Bowe's always reliable durablity got him through the bad start. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coRRTTKhxlw&feature=related[/ame] -Bowe down for the first time in his career. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh4BcUqzHFU&feature=related[/ame] -Mercer down for the first time in his career. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA_BWf3Gnbg&feature=related[/ame] Identical sneaky short left hooks from the huge shouldered 95 version Evander with perfect leverage as he just bulls in. Maybe this is just one badass punch if you don't see it coming? Are we to claim Mercer also was suffering from a so called decline in punch resistance? Not surprising. Outside of Bowe Hide never really got a chance to display his punching ability against other class Heavyweights. But there is no dispute, he could bang: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yrh_DaosxE[/ame]
You can clearly see the sloppy mess Bowe became in the Hide fight. Even the commentators remark how Bowe had become increasingly easier to hit in recent fights. I dont really see where Bowe was hurt in that round, but I remember him being stunned at one point. I also think Cooper hit Bowe a few times pretty cleanly in the opening minute with lefthooks, and I also think Cooper punched as hard as Hide. Hide unlike Cooper really never seriously hurt anyone on the level of a Bowe. The point is the well trained Bowe would never had been hit or knocked down with those punches, but his depleting skills left him a vulnerable fighter. By the time he reached the Golota fights, he was a shot shell of himself.
Its hard for me to believe Bowe didnt get hit as cleanly or harder in the first and second fight than that little check hook that dropped him and had him badly hurt in the third fight. Ill leave it at that though. Its my opinion that Bowe was a shell of himself at the time of the Golota fights and it took two fights to prove to himself he needed to retire.
Evander loaded up with plenty of flush bombs earlier in the same fight that didn't faze Bowe. The fact Bowe had his chin out so far and didn't see it coming, probably had alot to do with him getting stunned.
riddick played a dangerous game by taking on good fighters when in bad shape. Each time he got hurt in a fight he lost that bit of resistance, more resistance than he would lose had he been primed from serious training. Taking shots when you are fatigued you cannot brace yourelf or roll on impact. too tired to react fast enough against a guy who is fitter who still has steam on his shots is not good. Remember bowe was up against a big dangerous guy. Bowe wasnt so much shot but by being so poorly conditioned he reduced the amount of time he could be competative against a good level of oposition. If he was only having 3 round fights he might have got away with it, but by being too tired to defend himself, soaking up needles punishment while trying to save energy for the next rounds he just crumbled like anyone would. It was like he only had 30 seconds of a round he could work but it wasnt enough. It was less than the other guy had. In the second golota fight bowe came in slimmer but he had not trained hard enough. If he had of been conditioned and fighting fit, and he got through the fight without getting hit he would have looked prety good. But he was always going to rest and he was always going to get hit. Bowe was brave, talented and foolish.
Galota had the right style to beat Bowe just that simple Bowe struggled against Tubbs another clever boxer, this is the reason he didn't fight Lewis.
Bowe took loads of punishment in his career. I remember him walking though Herbie Hide punches. Not a thing to do if you want a long career. He was simply a great fighter with no defense, and it caught up with him very quickly.
Bowe looked poor not just against Golota, but had looked poor since the Larry Donald fight imo. Bowe looked flat footed and plodding against Donald, Hide, and Holyfield, ironically I re-watched the 3 rd fight tonight, and it left me thinking, Bowe looked worse than Holyfield in winning. No doubt Bowe was a shell of the fighter he was, not to say Golota wouldn't still of been able to cause him stylistic problems, but I think a fresher Bowe overcomes them.