Why does Tyson get a pass?

As a Duran fan i 100% agree, but not to the point alot of people make it out to be

 

I confess that I’ve been one of the people who have pointed out some of the challenges he was dealing with which may have contributed to that loss. But I have to disagree that he gets a pass. Tyson has been criticized mightily for that defeat and is often even picked to lose a lot of fantasy fights because of it

 

He would self destruct for some of his biggest fights funnily enough. If he didn't overtrain, because that was seriously his excuse for Benitez.

Poor veteran, just couldn't get it right for some reason. Despite having over 80 fights and fighting at a world class level for at least a decade.

 

Holmes was 10 years older than Tyson against Douglas at the time he was seen as starting to slip a bit.

 

100% club:
1. Berbick
2. Bonecrusher
3. Brunox2
4. Williams
5. Biggs
6. Ruddockx2
7. Seldon
8. Stewart
9. Spinks (close enough bc outcome had nothing to do with knee)
10. Botha
11. Golota

 

Of course, you can't show any credible proof that Thomas had anything to do with heroin anywhere near the lead up to fighting Tyson.

 

Lost to Benitez by training too hard and then lost his next fight because he accidently trained too little. Poor guy.

 

Five fight records of guys going into the Tyson fight


James Douglas. 5-0-0
Berbick. 5-0-0
Spinks 5-0-0
Tucker. 5-0-0
Carl Williams. 5-0-0
Seldon. 5-0-0
Ruddock. 5-0-0
Mathis Jr. 5-0-0

Etienne. 4-0-1
Tubbs. 4-1-0
Biggs. 4-1-0
Stewart. 4-1-0
Bruno II. 4-1-0
Bruno. 4-1-0
Smith. 4-1-0
Fergusson. 4-1-0
Green. 4-1-0
Golota. 4-1-0
Botha. 4-1-0

 

People often bring up excuses for Tyson's opponents

Spinks = Bad knees.

Tubbs = Overweight.

Holmes = Coming off a lay off and 38 years old.

These examples for the fighters above are often used especially Spinks and Holmes.

But Tyson did beat the best available and cleaned out the division fighting 8 top 10 ranked Heavyweights in 4 years which puts the Heavyweights now to shame.

I think Tyson did show alot of heart in the Douglas fight he took a beating didn't stop trying almost turned the fight around coming close to scoring a KO with Douglas just about getting up in time.

Tyson did also show adversity in the Ruddock fights.

 

Agreed. I’ve made my feelings known before re the excuses made for Mike as well as the inequitable treatment when there is no allowance of same made for other fighters.

Also, while Mike might’ve been under par I don’t believe he was as badly off as many would have it.

Mike himself said everyone has a plan until they’re belted in the mouth - well, if same held for Mike, Buster was belting him good in the first round already, immediately taking the play away from Tyson.

But….vs Douglas, being perfectly even handed, that count was long and, just imo, it wasn’t so much Buster reacting and duly rising to the count afforded to him - rather, it seemed Meyran’s count, consciously or unconsciously, was tailored and slowed down, particularly at the business end, to facilitate Buster to rise in time….

While Mike was later afforded a long count himself, that of course doesn’t take into account the all important chronology - Buster being saved in the first instance.

Despite the complexion, Mike showed plenty of moxie, and the uppercut in round 8 was an absolute beauty. An ATG shot imo, and it would’ve been more broadly viewed as such had it seen Buster counted out.

There likely would’ve been a somewhat different view of Mike (and perhaps Mike’s own view of himself might’ve changed also) had Douglas been counted out - a classic come from behind victory and a solid example of Mike overcoming adversity - rather than his apparent inability to do so hanging over him for that fight and the balance of career.

 

Mike gets asterisks by all his losses by apologists because he was the heavyweight who was at the top at a certain time and hyped to the skies by the NY press (and NY-centric world press) starting when he was a teenager — thus he’s the guy that brought a certain generation of fans into the sport.

Some of them simply cannot bear that he got beaten up by a unheralded longshot (Buster) who never did anything else remotely like it in his career (thus Mike got KO’d by a pedestrian fighter to whom they afforded zero chance of winning). And of course neither of the Evander losses count, nor the ones when Mike was older.

Simply stated, they view Tyson as unbeatable monster, but rather than change their narrative and viewpoint to meet the evidence, they change the narrative and evidence to meet their viewpoint.

Of course, Mike had sex before he fought Buster. He had been a virgin up to that point, that’s the ticket!

He got a boo-boo against Evander — no fighter ever prevailed after being cut (butt or otherwise)! Everyone knows that!

Etc, etc.

 

it was absolutely Tyson’s fault for the condition he entered the ring but he was a mental wreck and poorly trained. To nota pass but the facts .. it’s how you look at it.

 

Its not really excuses for tyson,s losses....more reasoning for them.

Tyson or his fans shouldnt have an excuse for his loss to douglas but its also stupid not to put reasoning behind it.

The reason he lost was because he was training and living like a bad amatuer boxer....fighting a guy that turned up who,d be living and training professionaly.

No excuse just the reality of it. When he stopped training and living like a professional fighter he slipped a lot. He went from training like one of the most dedicated fighters to live to a guy that barely trained....was drinking heavy and messing around.

The story is pretty much that simple. Their cant really be an excuse...other than he stopped doing what made him great and he slipped far enough for a motivated guy with pretty good skills to beat him up.

Tbh its really just reasoning behind how he never really reached the heights of his early career.

 

Excuses for Tyson? Where? All I hear is people accusing him of being defended? That time has long passed IMO. The main guys who are being defended the “old school grit” fighters like Norton, Ali and Foreman get a thousand different exemptions at a million angles lol.

 

Other HW’s like Foreman, Ali, Liston and Norton all get the same treatment endlessly but it’s just more fashionable to slavishly defend them lol.