What if Mike Tyson never fired Kevin Rooney?

And i happen to agree with Cus's formula

 

Yes he had already started to decline at an age that heavyweights should n't have yet reached their prime.

 

Better question would be what had happened if Tyson hadn't married Givens? Tyson is someone who seems very under the influence of those around him, and when people who didn't have his best interest in mind got their hooks in him, it ruined him.

When did he get his **** together again, sober up (exception: weed), pay off all his debt, rehabilitate his image, found successful businesses, and become wealthy again? When he married his current wife, who actually has his best interests in mind and seems like as good a spouse as one can get. None of this is a surprise or even in debate. He flat out says it and says his biggest fear in life is screwing up things with his wife.

 

I think Cus, while certainly a great trainer when paired with the right pupil, was kind of cult leader-ish. The fighter had to buy in to everything he was teaching and not question his methods to benefit from them.

Not a lot of guys are cut out for that.

 

Even if Tyson keeps his stuff together, as some point out, Kevin was unpredictable. Down the road he loses it himself.
Swings and roundabout s.

 

The ingredients for Tyson's fall were always there and would emerge with or without Rooney. It's sort of like asking," what would Duran have done if he hadn't partied , drank and ate steaks for breakfast and stayed with Arcel and Freddie Brown"?

 

Do you think a drunk is going to control himself or eventually get worse? He could be the greatest trainer in the world but lets say he has a problem with drugs you think that isnt going to affect his fighter sooner then latter?
Tyson was the type of person who needed to have a strong foundation around him to insulate him from others trying to be self serving.Kevin was not that person.
ATLAS would have been a better fit for Tyson then Kevin as like him or hate him at least Atlas stuck to his guns.

 

Agreed. The trainer can be the biggest alcoholic on planet earth if he wants, but as long as he's in the gym and preparing me for my fight I don't care. Some people are functional alcoholics, others are incredibly dysfunctional.

 

Atlas is a bi†ch that still holds a grudge on Tyson 40 years later about him slapping some girls ass. I'd take Rooney over that any day

 

Yea those two guys are self destructing duo

 

To answer the question i think he would definitely make it to Holyfield undefeated. Rooney would not allow Tokyo ass whooping to happen. As far as Holyfield fight, i think Tyson would definitely beat 205 pound version of Holy especially with Rooney in his corner. After that fight is where i think Tyson's demons start to come to light and Rooney himself with his drinking problem would definitely not contain it anymore even if he tried

 

He wasn’t ‘Deceptively quick’,It was obvious that he was extremely quick.

 

Mike Tyson had a lot of top boxing trainers in his career (Tommy Brooks, Richie Giachetti) and some not-so-good trainers.

How good Tyson's performance was depended entirely on Mike Tyson.

Kevin Rooney wasn't a great trainer. He didn't steer a bunch of guys to the title. Rooney learned the same techniques from Cus D'Amato that Tyson did. Rooney didn't come up with anything new. He didn't teach Tyson anything new. He just kept repeating the same drills over and over that Tyson already knew himself. And when Rooney trained other fighters, he just taught them the same drills. He was like a coach with one playbook and it didn't matter if his players had the talent to run the plays. Those were the plays. So he didn't last in the business.

There was discussion about firing Rooney after Tyson's miserable performance against Bonecrusher Smith. HBO alluded to it during the prefight profile of Rooney (which was all about whether Rooney was a good enough trainer).

Rooney was also a degenerate gambler, and told Tyson as they were heading to the ring for the Spinks fight that he'd bet both of their purses on a first-round win. And Tyson believed him, because Rooney was a gambling addict.

Rooney wasn't a guy you keep around long term. He wasn't a trainer ANYONE kept around long term.

 

Wrong, he wouldn't just be top 5, he'd be the undisputed HW GOAT.

 

Atlas "sticking to his guns" was the problem, literally

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