Yeah, that's true. Savaresse was another really tall guy Tyson sparked with no problem, and if we're not fussy about the quality of the opponent, so was Sam Scaff. Okay, that one hardly counts, but still...
he landed some nice rights hands and was showing some great lateral movement. he was tieing tyson up well good points at the end thoiugh
Wasn't this the fight were Tucker just tried neutralizing Tyson the entire fight? He didn't really give himself much of a chance to win, but survive.
Nope. That was a Tyson opponent who just ran and backed off. He basically did the same thing so yeah more than 1 Tyson opponent has done this... in fact a lot of them have. I remember Tucker clinching a lot and not getting off much.
This is true, Tucker barely tried to win, after about three rounds his eyes lit up at the idea of a Loss by Decision rather than KO.
I used to think no boxing fan could dislike TYson. That was before the internet was awash with forums, threads, youtube comments and twittering blogs. Some so called boxing fans think he beat bums all his life. Losing to such a short heavyweight shouldn't have made anyone a bum. Tyson said that he would go the distance if needed. "It's just a state of mind." He's one of those boxers who could comment historically and assess how he would actually fare against mythical match-ups. THere was that documentary where he said he'd probably lose to Ali bec he won't be able to Knock him out based on the harder hitters that Ali faced and beat. But what do I know. I'm just a tyson fan and the only footage we saw of him when i was a kid was in the ring.
I think after Tyson shared top billing when he faced Thomas, and TNT beat Douglas and looked quite shoddy in doing it , Mike saw Tucker as easy pickings and overlooked his natural skills and athletesism.. When the fight happened the odds were very long and a win over Tucker were a mere formality.. But a different and highly motivated Tucker showed up and from the 1st round stamped authority on Mikes game showing him that he meant business. Tucker boxed very well that night and Mike had fits of trouble all the way through the fight if you watch it closely when he realised he couldn't break Tucker down in the same way he broke Thomas and Berbick before him. It wasn't the jab necissarily that gave Tyson problems it was fast countering and with straight rights and uppercuts down the middle that stopped mike from walking right through him.. Tucker had a long layoff after that fight i think because he put so much into the fight he felt disheartened with boxing and his father selling a massive portion of his contract behind his back, Tony started to wonder what it was all about..
According to at least one or two things I've read, Tucker broke his hand sometime early in the fight and then went into survival mode. (I think that was the Bad Intentions book about Tyson, but I could be wrong).
i think that tucker fight was a below par performance from tyson . he didnt show much headmovement untill the later rounds when he jabbed his way in and countered of tuckers misses . that fight showed to me that tyson would always have to work hard against a guy who had quick hands and good lateral movement. thats why tyson took such a beating from douglas because he just tried to walk through him like he did against bruno . he did the same with tucker in the first round but when tyson saw that tucker was there to fight he started jabbing his way in , moving his head , working the body and countering tuckers misses with combinations . if the douglas tyson turned up for the tucker fight he would of got hammered. i dont think people realise how off his game tyson was for the douglas,bruno and ruddock fight . the tyson that fought douglas would of beaten by all his 80's opponents except berbick, smith and ruddock .
Interesting tidbit about this fight is that Tyson during the course of events ripped the nail off his big toe. Apparently his boot was caked in blood afterwards.
I always stood steadfast in one of my oldest theories that Mike would have struggled more against fighters in his own mould.. I remember how it took so long to get Orlin Norris acknowledged as a contender even though he rose from a rank 30 heavy to ranked 5 challenger after beating Larry Alexander for the NABF and keeping it for a very long period ....... Mike had a few opportunities to make a Norris fight happen but decided to decline.. even when he boxed Orlin it was a bad ending to what could have been a interesting technical fight at the time..