What was the cause for Tyson to change so much?

The hypocrisy around Tyson is unbelievable.

"Tyson beat a load of bums like Tucker, Bruno, Biggs, Botha, Ruddock and Golota"

"Lewis resume is one of the best at HW, he beat guys like Tucker, Bruno, Biggs, Botha and Golota"

Bowe is made out to be a H2H monster, despite the fact that most of his best wins (outside Holyfield) were Tyson leftovers. And he struggled with most of them too.

If Bowe was shot against Golota, what was Tyson when he made poor old Golota walk out of the ring?

Ali, Holyfield, Lewis and Louis are the only guys i would put above Tyson based on resume.

 

Yes, Ali and Holyfield have a better resume than Tyson. Louis has the longevity but Lennox is about even. Tyson had some bad losses but Lennox is the only Top 10 heavyweight ATG with 2 harrowing knockout defeats to lower opposition in the heart of his prime, but at least they were avenged.

Great post by the way!

 

Disagree with Holyfield having a better resume, yes he fought pretty much all but besides the two Tyson wins he is 0-2 against Lewis, 1-2 against Bowe and 1-1 with Moorer.

 

Well, Holy fought the bigger names I guess. Tyson did do much better against same opposition.

 

Mike Tyson was a drug addict and alcoholic. He's quite open about this. Whether you're a boxer, a construction worker, a dentist, or a politician, if you have drug and alcohol problems they are going to catch up to you and overshadow if not completely destroy everything that you've worked for. Taking about Givens, Cus, Rooney, Desiree' Washington, and all of those people is secondary to the fact that Mike wasn't sober and was harming his body and mind on a regular basis.

 

He had stds the night he won the title off Berbick. He said his **** was burning throughout the fight.

 

Great posts.

I have also found Tyson’s paradoxical personality interesting. The way he could be a brutal savage in the ring but almost feel bad about it afterwards by helping his opponent up and showing immense respect to fellow fighters. He came across as a sensitive soul but at the same time he was capable of some terrible acts. He seemed like a fragmented person, like he probably didn’t even want to do the bad stuff, even beating the **** out of people in the ring, but he knew that was the only way to get acceptance.

That’s one thought anyway, he obviously had that brutal side that did want to inflict pain, and when that took him over to the extreme it turned his life sour. Only now does Tyson seem more at ease with himself, almost happy you could say, maybe because he understands that he needs limits to exist in a normal way. Once those limits are gone and he has money and power, he is given the tools to do what he likes which is dangerous for a person like that.

I remember a recent interview where he was explaining that he doesn’t want people telling him he is great at this point in his life because he is afraid his ego will run riot again. He is defiantly the type of person that needs his feet firmly on the ground with a decent family, after all, that is always what he wanted, even with Givens. As champ his mind just ran riot, he though of himself as a god, that’s a big place to fall from.

As to what changed to turn him into a more bitter man that eventually hated the sport? Life changed, and he couldn’t cope with it and didn’t seem to want to learn from the bad things that happened to him. He was a great fighter but bad at life, not that I am judging because I personally think people under estimate the effect Cus dying had on him. It must have been like losing a dad, it might not hit you for a few years but the depression will kick in at some point when you lose that person that makes your life whole. Tyson still crys like a baby now when bringing up Cus, so that wound to this day is still deep. He buried that pain by living the way he did maybe.

 

I personally thinks he crys because of the guilt of all his sins, him thinking of Cus makes him realise what a let down he became...

 

****ing brilliant post.