why didn't francesco damiani fight mike tyson ?

Would've been good at that point. I imagine he turned it down because he would've got destroyed.

 

Yeah, but he also got smacked in the nose against Mercer. I rate him but not that much.

 

I think your answer is right here.

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Tyson/Damiani was never on the table as far as I can remember. Damiani was scheduled to replace Tyson in a 1991 match up with Evander, but I believe, broke his nose, leading to Holyfield/Cooper.

 

I don't recall any discussion of a Tyson-Damiani match either. But Dougie did post a news clipping, which stated that an offer was made. Weather or not its from a valid source, I don't know. It was dated June 1989. The only future fights that I recall being thrown around at the time of the Carl Williams match, was a scheduled bout with Razor Ruddock for November of 89' ( which never came off ) and of course his eventual meeting with James Douglas shortly thereafter.

 

Wasn't there something about Tyson hurting a rib or some such? :think

 

Dunno.

Hope that was helpful.

 

The only other match I remember being 'pencilled in' at that time was Tyson/RibaltaII for the Tokyo date. But as you wrote, Douglas got that, when he looked much better beating McCall than Ribalta did beating Sims on the Tyson/Williams undercard.

(I must confess I did not see the Dougie quote on the thread opener)

 

Francesco was smart, he knew Mr. Tyson would whup that ass.

 

Mr Damiani was not that smart. Why get your ass whipped by Mercer for peanuts, when you could get destroyed by Tyson for Quadrillions... of Lira!

 

Damiani was being touted as an opponent for Tyson as early as early 1988, before Tyson faced Spinks.
The Colosseum in Rome was even mentioned as a possible venue. Just imagine that.

 

It would be a ruin...

 

In fact, even on the eve on Tyson's fight with Pinklon Thomas (May 1987), Damiani was on the schedule.


New York Times, May 28, 1987
Phil Berger

As of now, Tyson is scheduled to fight again on Aug. 1 in Las Vegas against the winner of the International Boxing Federation's heavyweight title - either Tony Tucker or James (Buster) Douglas, who fight on the same card as Tyson Saturday.
Douglas has already agreed to fight Tyson, should he win the I.B.F. title. Tucker remains unsigned, and his promoter, Cedric Kushner, is reportedly asking $400,000 more than the unification series' surviving promoter, King, is offering.
After the Aug. 1 date, Tyson is scheduled to fight Tyrell Biggs, the W.B.A.'s mandatory challenger in October, probably in Las Vegas. The rest of Tyson's HBO commitment could end up being fulfilled abroad, with Tyson facing Francesco Damiani in January in Italy, an unspecified ranked opponent on March 21 in Tokyo and Frank Bruno in June in London.



The whole article is quite interesting ...

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/28/sports/boxing-notebook-tyson-set-to-begin-a-whrilwind-tour.html[/url]


It seems Larry Holmes coming out of retirement to fight Tyson might have pushed Damiani out of the picture.