Was Tyson ever an underdog?

Spinks from memory was an underdog in that fight

 

At his Spelling Bees in school

 

Berbick was around 3-1 underdog by fight time.
Spinks was a 4-1 underdog.

Incredibly Tyson was a 2-1 favorite in the Holyfield rematch.

Lewis ended up a 2-1 fave over Tyson. It was shorter earlier and in other places.

 

Yes, the only fight in Mike's career in which he was considered an underdog was Lewis fight.

BTW, Lennox also was considered an underdog only once in his career - against Ruddock. He was slightly favored to beat Golota (7-5) and Holyfield (don't remember exact odds) in the first fight, and was heavily favored to beat Holyield in rematch (3-1) and Vitali (5-1)

 

Mad as it sounds now, but going in to Lewis V Ruddock I actually saw Razor getting the win. Perhaps the Tyson fight s had me picturing Razor climbing off the ground to ko Lennox!

 

I wonder if the recent Hasim Rahman loss was what gave Tyson a Chance by some odds makers

 

As JT writes Tyson was a pretty warm favourite to beat Berbick. But that was due to later money, as the fight was pick-em a week before.


In the 80s people only really bet on the under/over of the length of a Tyson fight.


As an example: Even with odds as ridiculous as 40/1, no one backed Douglas over Tyson in the only major Vegas hotel with a book open on the win/loss (The Mirage).

 

Yeah I’m thinking some people gave Tyson a punchers chance which wasn’t unreasonable

 

I'm fairly sure Tyson was only ever underdog once in his pro career.
Against Lewis.

Every other pro fight of his, the opponent was underdog.

 

Berbick was apparently a bigger underdog at 6-1 when the fight opened. He actually tightened into 3-1 by fight time.

• 
  
• Berbick opened as a 6-1 underdog, but the odds had dropped to 3-1 by the time of the fight. He had been a 6½-1 underdog when he defeated Pinklon Thomas to win the title.

 

I maybe misremembering, but when the bookie came round the house (for those a bit younger, generally, boxing fights outside the UK were specialist markets and needed to be set up by an official from the company) I believe he was offered 5/6 on Tyson, which in the UK system is a pick-em.