Who did you think was going to win in 96? Holyfield or Tyson

Believe it, or not, l actually picked Holyfield to win. The reason being l was extremely unimpressed with the quality of fighters Tyson fought since his release. I also recall that he had very few rounds under his belt. That said in Tyson's prime it would have been a much tougher call.

I truly have a love/hate relationship with Tyson. When he started and was up on coming l thought he was going to be the best ever. But the one thing that annoyed me to no end was to see some boxers shaking in their boots before the first punch was ever thrown. Spinks was an example of this. All you have to do is watch them both enter the ring and look at their body language to know who was going to win. I don't blame Tyson for opponents being scared of him but l often wondered what would happen when he met a fighter who wouldn't be scared. I think pre prison Tyson would have handled it a lot better. Post prison Tyson was largely an illusion, and l don't think it was all that hard to spot. I didn't know if Holyfield would win for sure, but l knew he wouldn't fight scared.

 

Exactly, Tyson made a big effort in the 3rd round but quickly realised he wasn't hurting Holyfield at all. The fight was going exactly like the first fight and both knew this. It must be demoralising for a knockout artist to throw his best shots and have your opponent walk through them with no effect at all. It was a quit job plain and simple.

 

But the vast majority of his top opponents visibly weren't scared of him and didn't fight like they were scared...

 

True not all of them, but many of them were visibility scared, at least that was my impression at the time. I haven't seen the Holmes fight in ages, but if my memory is correct, even he looked and fought scared.

I'm not going to debate this because I don't have the time, but here's a little snippet I pulled off of Wikipedia.

"Tyson added the WBA belt by defeating champion Bruce Seldon in one round in September that year. Seldon was severely criticized and mocked in the popular press for seemingly collapsing to innocuous punches from Tyson."

 

I really don't see how what he did was much different than the 'no mas' of Roberto Duran, if anything it was worse.

 

Nice:good

 

Glad I'm not a gambling man because I would have lost the house in that one. On a side note, that was the same night as Collins Benn 2.

 

I remember having doubts about both fighters, Tyson due to the lack of rounds and declines with head and foot movement. But much more Holyfield, his health was a huge question mark at the time. I remember thinking it was a shame because he was such damaged goods and if the fight had taken place in '91 it would have been an all time classic right up there with any heavyweight clash in history. In the end I thought Tyson would win, but only because the Holyfield of the Bowe-Foreman fights was such a distant memory. It was a great fight, Evan Fields would not be denied

 

Maybe you missed his fights against Berbick, Bruno I, Tillis, Tubbs, Thomas, Ruddock II, etc.? All examples of big, in some instances highly ranked, opponents who did not fight him scared.

 

Agreed. Both sad moments in boxing where once-proud-but-then-demoralized champions quit rather than go down fighting.

 

No I think I caught most of them, and as I said, not everyone fought Tyson scared. I particularly enjoyed the Ruddock fights. But like I said I've been watching boxing for 45 years and I really can't think of another fighter who intimidated their opponents the way Tyson did.

It certainly wasn't his fault, but when you're fighting the likes of Sheldon and McNeeley it's hardly adequate training for someone of Holyfield's mentality. Worse yet, is that you're not getting enough rounds under your belt.

 

I was 12 at the time so I was a believer in the Tyson is invincible nonsense that the media had been pushing. Thought Evander would be destroyed inside 2 rounds.

 

I credit Tyson losing then becoming a circus act with propelling me towards discovering boxing in 1997. If he hadn't I may not have been open to watching and learning about less mainstream boxing as a teenager, and then starting to box myself.

 

I was rooting for Holyfield...to at least make it to the 5th round. I wanted to see him last longer than any Tyson victim post prison, up to that point. I felt bad for him, thinking he was being thrown to the wolves.

 

I was 12 too. But i did think that it would have been competitive