Which fights did Tyson lose due to "fading late"or "missing heart"?

When a guy has 6 losses all by stoppage with an ear bite DQ it’s hard to argue against Tyson being a bit of a front runner.

The thing is even with the Lewis fight, the guy didn’t even bother getting into shape for the lineal championship and was at an age where loads of fighters were still effective, so even looking at Tyson’s career itself the guy was a bit of a frontrunner in that respect.

Still think Tyson is a bit underrated with some radical takes about his career from Atlas and the like. Don’t think many if any thankfully subscribe to that on here though.

 

Good topic! This should be interesting.

 

In the second Holyfield fight, IIRC, Tyson was actually doing okay in the very round he bit Evander’s ear. He certainly had the potential to push it hard for several more rounds - but he simply imploded.

 

To me he did seem to start better, but he was still being foiled by Holy's (both legal and maybe-not) tactics. It didn't seem like a different fight at all from the 1st, and I think Mike recognized that.

I think the ear bite fight was easily the greatest blot on MIke's record, and imo he didn't have a whole ton of them. He just wasn't the fighter upon his release from prison that he was before imo.

You know, sometimes I wonder how true that is. Lewis showed that an aggressive fighter could wipe out Ruddock, and Mike couldn't do that in so many rounds.

 

Good points and it’s not unreasonable to believe that the fight might’ve been unfolding like the first match and that Mike was feeling that and perhaps projecting for the same outcome.

If so, the big problem for Mike is that, as an unconditional warrior, he shouldn’t have felt that way and continued fighting with absolute belief in himself. Not doing so amounts to a self fulfilling prophecy and it seems he opted out even before it became truly dour.

I know Mike could be guilty of his own fouls - they’ve been identified and well acknowledged - and during some fights Mike was duly scolded for same.

It doesn’t erase the fact of Evander’s fouls - and to rub further salt in the wounds, Evander got away with his stuff repeatedly, in many other fights also, with very little if any remonstrations.

Perceiving Holyfield’s apparent exemption from any warnings or points deductions for his own infractions, I can understand that having a very frustrating, compound effect on Tyson - above and beyond dealing with the detrimental effects of the fouls in their own right.

 

The rematch with Evander, I believe Tyson began to sense the fight was going to end the same way as the first and he looked for some way to out.

 

I think it's possible he felt biting his ear off was far preferable to perhaps putting his mouthpiece back in after it'd been on the floor again.

You know, I say things lightly...yet I know as well as anyone the Mike of 1987 to 1989 was a h2h MONSTER and a quite a great fighter despite the brevity of it.

 

Well as Mike Tyson once said and i quote " Everyone has a plan till they get headbutted in the face"

 

Yeah, I seem to recall Mike saying “something” like that.

And didn’t the Christian Warrior, Evander, compare himself to Maradona (Hand of God - ‘86 World Cup) when he said his head only went where God willed it to - and if God willed it, then it must be okay.

Maybe my recollection on that might be a bit fuzzy though.

 

I agree compltely. This has been hugely overplayed. He showed great heart against Douglas and also a champion's mentality in Ruddock 2. That was a kind of fight where you see certain fighters fold - because Ruddock kept coming back strong even after taking brutal punishment. So Tyson had to pick himself up time and time again and coninue with what he was doing. If Tyson lost to anyone who stood up to him, he would certainly have lost here. That was just that kind of fight, a battle of wills as well as skill.

The first Holyfield fight was what it was. Holy gained control over the fight and drowned him. When the same thing seemed to be about to happen in the rematch but even earlier, despite Tyson being in excellent shape, I do think he broke. That is the hardest possible test of a fighter's character and I can't think of many who have passed it - when they feel they are at their best, no excuses, but it's still not good enough. That's a brutal insight for someone as supremely talented as Tyson and with the ego of a true champion.

I don't think he ever recovered from that completely even though I see no fault in him staying down against Lewis. He was done anyway.

 

I think Holy always would be on point against Tyson. That was the fight whether had the title or not, just like Ali in the 70's. Even Lewis took the fight agains a well depleted Tyson really seriously. No way Holy would half ass that one.

In the rematch Tyson looked sharp, but just couldn't get anywhere. That's what broke him.