(06-02-2019 11:53 AM)TigerBlue4Ever Wrote: (06-02-2019 10:40 AM)ericsrevenge76 Wrote: Good stuff but I'm not sure how it relates to Douglas-Tyson, which was by far the biggest upset in sports history.
Neither guy was 1/100th the historic fighter and megastar Tyson was.
Top heavyweights today are a bum of the month club compared to the 70s thru the 90s.
Tyson is in a class unto himself. There will never be another like him. I absolutely believe he was better than Ali. Tyson never needed to lay on his opponent or the ropes. He has a pretty darn funny comedy act he's doing these days and appears to have gotten his demons in check. Good for him. He entertained me more than any other fighter ever has with maybe the exception of Sugar Ray Leonard. Those Hagler fights were epic as were the Hearns fights.
I'll never forget Leonard going to his corner at the end of the 12th round against Hearns in the first fight and Dundee telling him, "You're blowing it now son. You're blowing it!" to which Sugar Ray responded with a furious barrage to open the 13th round, one of which sent Hearns through the ropes. Then in the 14th Leonard staggered Hearns with a right, pinned him to the ropes and unleashed hell on Hearns such that the fight was stopped.
That may have been the greatest come back ever as Leonard was down bigly on the score cards, even thought there was some drama surrounding the scoring.
Tyson was the most exciting fighter ever imo, but I don't think he was the greatest of all time. He was not doubt one of the greatest though. Top 5 imo. I would have loved to see him fight George Foreman, Sonny Liston or Jack Johnson.
He did have one big weakness, he can't fight backing up or on his heels. He got those big bombs off by leaping into them from his toes. He would crouch/lean forward and leap upwards off his toes with blistering power, speed and accuracy. You look at his highlight reel, he was almost always leaping forward into those big punches. His accuracy and speed were just as key as his power. Larry Holmes even said Shavers and a few others hit harder, but Tyson was faster and sharper with the punches.
What Holyfield figured out was the key was not running and ducking from his punches, but smothering him inside and pushing him back so he is back on his heels or against the ropes. Then he can't get those bombs off with the same power and leverage.
Conventional wisdom would say fighting Tyson on the inside is suicide, but its not just fighting inside but getting right up in his grill and smothering him, and most importantly not giving him room to duck and leap into those powerful combinations. If your too close and wrestling with him, he can't do that, and if you lean on him and push him back on his heels it takes a lot of the edge of his shots. He just didn't have the same power leaning or going backwards.
Most fighters simply would not have had the courage to go inside and stay close though. You get a wiff of the speed and power of those bombs in the first 10 seconds and fighters were running for their lives. And that played right into Tysons hands because he would duck low and leap into those combos as they pulled away from him.
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Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson Part II Last Night
Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson Part II Last Night 
