What was tyson s best post jail performance?

I think there was a marked difference between Tyson of the Bruno, Holyfield fights 1996-'97 and the Tyson who came back a couple of years later.
I mean, Tyson still had a fair bit of self-belief and a strength aura around him right up until he realized he couldn't beat Holyfield and had that biting fit of panic. He may have known he wasn't what he had been, he may have had a lot of doubts, but he had enough confidence/arrogance left, and a degree of youth, to be a decent version of Tyson still.

The Tyson post-bite was just a complete insecure maniac, a freakshow caricature of himself, and was getting well into his 30s by then.

I found it deeply sad watching him being built up as 'the logical opponent' for Lennox Lewis in a fight he clearly didn't want, and watching him being rolled out for another beating so everyone else could get rich off of it (Tyson went bankrupt regardless).
Sad moment for us fans who remembered his prime. Shades of Holmes-Ali.

 

Thinking about it, it seemed to me that the sub-par quality of most of Tyson's opponents post Holy probably had something to do with either him or his team or both losing their confidence in his abilities after the Holy defeats.

 

Post prison Tyson looked very amateurish, won the Bruno fight on sheer aggression.

 

Botha and Savarese did quite well against Holyfield around that time, yet Tyson destroyed both much easier. Sure Botha won all previous round, but it shows that style makes fight. Against many fighters that Tyson stopped, like those two or Stewart, Holyfield found it much harder to beat them while Tyson brute strength is adventage against those guys.

Its too bad Douglas will never want to fight Tyson again because Savarese just destroyed past prime Douglas with ease yet Tyson at the time beat Savarese in few seconds. It would be great if its Tyson vs Douglas 2 instead.

 

Tyson admitted in his autobiography that he was on drugs during Lewis fight press conference and when he fought Savarese. His attitude in post fight interview clearly shows that. He use fake ***** to pass the urine test.

 

But between 1999 and 2002 there certainly were more highly ranked contenders. Beating them should have put him in line for a fight with Lewis earlier if that was what he wanted, and it would have made a bigger statement overall.

Compare with Ali's comeback after Frazier. He cleaned out much of the other contenders. Started immediately with Ellis and then a number of fringe contenders before beating Quarry, Patterson (who just came off a win over Bonavena) and Bugner. That was a statement. Norton nearly derailed the whole thing, but that is the risk you take when you frequently take on top 10 opposition.

Tyson didn't seem willing to make a similar statement. He was still a big money fight, so it seems strange that no one of guys like Ruiz, Briggs, Tua, Byrd or the Klits etc wanted to face him. But perhaps he was a pariah for other contenders around that time? It just seems a bit strange to me. A huge name like Tyson on the slide should be a tempting proposition for at least some top contenders. He definitely didn't have any problems getting fights with belt holders after his comeback from prison. But I don't know all the ins and outs of the politics of the time.

 

No, your timeline is well off.
Holyfield's fights with Savarese and Botha happened several years later, in fact even a few years after Tyson was losing to guys like McBride and Williams. Well into the post-Lewis /prime Wlad era.
Tyson was well retired by the time geriatric Holyfield fought geriatric versions of Savarese and Botha.

1999 Tyson-Botha
2000 Tyson-Savarese

2007 Holyfield-Savarese
2010 Holyfield-Botha

 

The Lewis fight was delayed due to issues with Showtime and HBO. It didn't really matter who Tyson fought.

 

Ok. So perhaps Savarese and co was just keeping busy fights, while taking very little risk in wait for the Lewis fight to happened?

 

Yes. The normal rules of economics didn't apply to Tyson because he could make similar or more money fighting a top 30 opponent in Denmark or the U.K. than fighting a serious opponent in the US.