you know what i'm getting tired of? kevin rooney

Guys have gone to Rooney, but most have left early. Think about the style. Its a offensive style that requires a lot of movement and infighting, but it takes a certain type of fighter to master it. It was perfect for Tyson. He was fast, and could punch hard even from an open or off balance stance.
The movement is to avoid your opponents punches and create openings to counter as your moving forward. Its a very exciting style, but very hard to master. It also has fighters punching from an open stance, which diminishes power. Most fighters also dont like to lead. I always thought David Tua would have been a lot more effective using that style because he would be less reliant on his left hand only and he was never an effective combination puncher.
I think Rooney did a lot of damage to himself, by demanding big shares of fighters purses, refusing to leave Catskill, and having problems with alcohol and gambling.

 

I told you in a previous thread. He hasnt had a lot of big name fighters since Tyson. He took Omar Sheika on during the nationals and trained him for about half his pro career. Sheika left him after losing on a bad cut against Calzahge for the title. He also had Pazienza after his car crash. Hes worked with a few high profile fighters, but none of them stuck. His main fighter now is a Hatian kid, cant remember his name.

 

That isn't the point,

kevin Rooney worked closley with Cus D'Amato training Tyson since Mike was maybe 13 or 14 years of age. He knew the ideology of D'Amato's training and style for keeping Tyson on the right track. He also knew Tyson more intimately. Could Angelo Dundee, Lou Duva, or Emanual Steward have done as good or better of a job with him? Its impossible to say. I do believe however that the men who Don King replaced him with after the Spinks fight were ill-prepared to work him.

 

On a hall of fame level, such as Tyson's? Probably nobody.

 

True,

I don't blame his bad life decisions on the separation between him and Rooney. That was HIS problem... Not his management's..

 

There is a book written by Tysons ex chauffeur that details alot about his personal life and how Tyson acted. Its written somewhat poorly, but an interesting read, nonetheless. There is a lot about Tyson sneaking out of training camp to pull all nighters to visit girls accross country. Rooney tried like hell to keep Tyson in check and on the right path, instituting curfews and making Tyson train and spar like a madman, and trying to keep him in upstate New York. It was inevtiable that Tyson would destroy himself without discipline, they took the guy from the street and a reformatory. Give a guy like that money and power, and watch out. Tyson definitely would have avoided a lot of problems had he stayed in Catskill and stayed more focused on boxing.
What I was always suprised at, was that even after losing everything, going to prison, seeing his skills diminish, he never went back to what worked for him in the past and never learned from any of his mistakes. Thats even more proof that a guy like that needs a strong disciplinarian figure keeping them in check.

 

I think a lot of that was Don King talking nonsense into his head. King took control of Tyson's career by using the very sort of tactics that led a young neieve boy into thinking that he was being taken advantage of.