Who Was A Fighter You Expected To Give M Tyson An Hard Fight..?

I didn't think Spinks would win, but I figured he'd at least make Tyson look bad for 6-7 rounds until he finally got caught. Yeah, not so much.

 

I didn't expect, but my heart wanted Larry to win against Iron Mike. I knew Larry had just become a grandfather and was coming off nearly two years retirement, but I didn't care. I wanted him to treat Mike like he did Leon Spinks lol.

Of course I was dumb and should have known better, but hey I think we all have our favorite fighters who are like heroes to us.

 

I expected Frank Bruno to do better than he did in the second fight.

At the very least I expected him to do better than he had in the first fight.

 

I rate Mike’s performance vs Tubbs extremely high.

Notwithstanding the hoopla around the Spinks fight, I rate the performance against Tubbs as Mike’s best for 1988.

I can’t see any deficiencies in Tubbs’ approach or efforts to bring it to Mike.

It was simply sheer and coolly executed domination of a quality opponent - not just per the opponent’s rep but also as that opponent performed/presented on the night. Tony certainly wasn’t quaking in his boots and unduly compromised before first bell.

The old TNT had some crazy fast hands - particularly for a somewhat rotund fella.

 

I think Bruno did as well as he possibly could in the first Tyson fight.

He brought a rough game to the table - and why not? - Mike would’ve and did do same in fights when he saw fit.

Very good win on Mike’s part, imo. I don’t buy into alleged cracks beginning to appear in Mike’s game as at that fight.

I think the complexion of the fight was far more about how Frank chose to tackle Mike.

After nearly being rolled in classic Tyson style in round 1, Frank brought the type of fight that Mike wasn’t accustomed to.

He held, stifling Mike coming in and he also held and hit and he hit on the breaks as much as he could get away with it.

Mike’s rhythm was interrupted and he definitely appeared disconcerted and ****ed off with all of that - naturally.

It took Mike away a bit from his normal, cool and focused game. And Frank also clocked Mike with a beauty…what was that about plans going out the window once you’re punched in the mouth…lol.

Still Mike regrouped mid way through and ultimately got the job done in no uncertain fashion.

 

The worst part was, it’s one thing to understand that your hero likely won’t win - but since it was Mike Tyson - it’s another thing again to also understand that the likely, alternate default outcome was going to be a brutal KO of old Larry at some point.

Although it was more likely than not and we ultimately saw it with our own eyes - it was nonetheless surreal to actually see a fighter of Larry’s long upheld durability put down for the 10 count -

 

It's only a myth that Spinks froze, everyone says that because he looked nervous during the introduction, but he fought Tyson very well I did not back up where did he freeze I don't see it?

 

If the messi fight csme into fruition that woulda been competitive

 

It was a heartbreaker for me, but it just added to my happiness when he beat Mercer and did a couple of pretty damn good (though losing) efforts against both Holy and McCall.

 

The fact that he could execute a man who was doing everything right with a single punch behind the guard was frightening.
Mike tyson was at his best when he actually boxed.
As soon as he started springing forward with powershots under aaron snowell instead of stepping/gliding in behind the jab he lost some effectiveness.

The trick he had was to jab and counter the counter. Either the other guy shat his pants and ran or held or he left an opening when trying to stand his ground.

Post Rooney Mike either just lead with the intention to destroy right away(Bruno, Douglas) or at best, drew a lead with head movement to counter(Carl Williams, Razor Ruddock)

Another thing about Mike when he started deteriorating was that he used the sheer threat of his power to lazily walk in, which in cases where the other guy wasnt covering up left him to be sniped off on the way in, instead of using the jab+headmovement to bridge the gap safely.

In some ways it was inevitable, almost all great agressive Punchers and athletic talents, especially at heavyweight develop deficiencies simply because their talent allows them to get into bad technical habits without being punished.

But the Rooney camp seemed to be relentlessly drilling the technique into him.

 

He fought Tyson very well? Now that is an original opinion on that fight

 

Wasn't Michael hurt to the body real early on? All I remember is him trying to get some kind of weight into the fight and instead getting buffeted about. Michael looked like a badly scared fighter imo.

 

I’m not so sure there was a big difference between Tokyo Tyson and Tubbs Tyson … Tony boxed Mike’s ears off in the first round.

Difference is, Tubbs didn’t have nearly the oomph on his shots (particularly the jab) as Buster, and Mike actually landed the big shot against Tony that he didn’t on Big Bus.