When did Mike Tyson lose his passion for boxing

I would say he lost it after he left the D'Amato team. He regained it after the Douglas fight then lost it again after the Holyfield fights.

 

I think its a myth that after Douglas he was done mentally, the myth destroyed theory. He came back after that pretty well and seemed determined. I think taking a loss bothered him less than people think, remember this guy was a boxing historian, he knew of great fighters who lost. I think when he got out of prison he liked the idea of winning the belts again but he wasn't dealing with reality, this showed by his training team. After the first Holyfield fight the reality set in and he seemed off in the buildup to the rematch. The bite fight showed any care he had left for boxing was gone. after that it seemed like he only wanted to come back for the money, he seemed bitter and resentful of the sport from here to his retirement.

 

Hard to say. He lost his passion for technique and development after Spinks. After Douglass he seemed to mostly retain his passion for winning and hurting people. After Holyfield it appeared his last remaining passions were paychecks and cocaine.

 

Good question. I believe going by various articles that I've read, that tyson started to lose interest as early as the Smith fight. But like slugger mentioned it was when he left the D'Amato team then the interest waned. Then don King came in to his world. Throw in Robin givens and the street fight s, car crashing etc and his interest in boxing had gone. I believe tyson himself said that he had no interest in boxing when he got out of jail, and that he was fighting purely for the cash. ​

 

Tyson wasn't equipped for Fame, he wasn't in it for that, sure it grabs lots of people by surprise, but most those people were NO Tyson, he was pulled every which way but his way, exploited by sharks and betrayed by 'natural' circumstances (Cus), and money grabbers and **** takers like his, wife, King and a **** trial...

that aside may have led him to an unbeaten career.

 

Before every loss if you go by what is fans say.....

 

I believe it was after Jacobs died and he had the beef with Bill Cayton and ofcourse Robin Givens. This all happened pretty fast. He went on because he was good and he could make a lot of $ from the sport but his passion for it was waning. He didn't lose until 1990 but it began before Spinks in my opinion.

 

Not to mention he was only a 19 year old kid. I don't think I could've handled it any better than Tyson to be honest. He was a kid. The most famous athlete in the world including Michael Jordan that time.

 

He was done after Spinks, he accomplished everything he envisioned and some..........he talked retirement after the Spinks win, who in their right mind in his low 20's with their head into the game 100% would talk retirement....his gladiator days were over...............he also pretty much stopped doing road work after Spinks. Fact.

In one of his prison interviews he stated he was surprised that he got by Bruno and Williams and claimed he was very beat able by then until it finally happened in the Douglas fight.

In retrospect, his come back after prison was a show of sales man ship but in reality a complete farce.

 

Probably lost his "passion" for boxing after the Berbick win. But his fight schedule was regular enough to keep the rot from setting in for a few years.

But this isn't unusual in champions. People tend to make excuses for Tyson losing fights and find these things to make a special case of him but most perhaps all the great champions had the same problems, the same struggles, the loss of passion, ebbing motivation.

 

the erosion might have been underway when he got accused by desiree washington. going down for something major he was innocent of could conceivably break a man.

 

He clearly wasn't the same for the worse when he faced Holyfield the first time.

 

When Michael Spinks hit the canvas for the last time.

 

yeah started at Spinks went down a bit before prison then completely gone after Holyfield 2. I think his fighting mentality and discipline was near gone after prison but he still had a bit of passion for the sport until he lost again.