Tyson-Spinks: Memories of Tyson's prime

[JT Rock]

to be honest vitali is not a fighter known for fighting a full 12 rounds himself, tyson can fight 12 handily...and it doesnt mean you've beaten him. it means you have survived. tyson beats vitali by easy decision...

foreman himself shows a lot of respect for mike tyson, quite possibly because he knows prime tyson is too much for him...

marciano would have faced nothing like tyson ever before....build, size and weight....tyson was exceptional...

i will stop there because im getting bored....tyson is a great lyle, no matter how much you protest that "the greats" could all beat him....

Yeah well when you KO all but 3 of the guys you fight and you only lose 2 times you don't get the oppertunity to "go the distance".

What I am saying about Mike I don't do with malice, but I am trying to be real. Mike is closer to a Frank Bruno or Donovan Rudduck (not saying those guys are great, just Tyson is closer to them than Holyfield and Lewis) level than a Holyfield or Lewis level. And I will admit Vitali Klitschko is not a great becauise he didn't fight long enough, had he had maybe 5-8 more fights cleaning out the division (winning the way he usually does, by KO) yeah he'd be a great but not a Top 10.

No matter how much the Tyson fans talk about it, Mike will NEVER be a Top 10 All-Time Great Heavyweight...that is an elite list which Tyson sadly couldn't work his way on to....had he beat a Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis, Moorer, or even a Mercer, McCall, Morrison type fighter he'd be better in my opinion. But I know he spent some good years in jail (which may have actually prolonged his career) but after he got out he was a shell of what he was...and the Douglas fight....that was HORRID I haven't seen an a** kickin like that for a long time.


jtrock
1) He never got up to win
2) Buster took Tyson's power but apparently Holyfield punches harder than everyone thought
3) Mike might have "pressed on like a warrior" but where was his head movement? where was his work on the inside? where was his talent? All he showed in that fight were bully tactics and a hard head....and the dumbest corner in the history of the sport!

How do you figureMike Ko'd Buster despite the beating he was enduring

Buster got a 2nd lease on life and I applaud him for taken advantage of it!!

I will never take anything away from Buster..That nite he was untouchable he was in a zone and would of beaten JUST ABOUT ANY HEAVYWEIGHT EVER..

Even at the young age I was (14) I could see a different Tyson with the head movement and the Bombs away so I'll give you that...He was losing focus..

At that time the Proverbial Buzzards(Robin Givens,Ruth Roper,Don king,Fake friends) were picking apart the carcass of his personal life and his emotionaly tortured being....

anyone saying thats no excuse and dosent matter is a liar plain and simple !!!!!!!! You ever go to work or school or anywere with big life changing desicions and distractions on your mind? Be honest think now...Yeah it does matter

It changes your focus mental capacity,desicion making and personal moral...If you arent mentally strong to begin with its an even bigger challenge

[El Kabong]

...personal life? He had NO personal life, how do you think Rooney, Jimmy Jacobs, and Cus kept him out of trouble? They had him fighting every month and just training continuously...he truly was a caged animal....Don King let him out and he got in trouble, he quit training and those are things great fighters don't do!

Tyson was exciting and fun to watch, but his opponents were hand picked and he never beat any of his TRUE rivals. I think the Bruno and Rudduck fights are the best ones, the best back and forth action.

[JT Rock]

Regardless..There is no way on God's green earth that Tyson vs Foreman,Lyle,Frazier,Marciano,Liston,Morrison,Both Klits is going more than 5 rounds anyway!!!

[The Promoter]

...personal life? He had NO personal life, how do you think Rooney, Jimmy Jacobs, and Cus kept him out of trouble? They had him fighting every month and just training continuously...he truly was a caged animal....Don King let him out and he got in trouble, he quit training and those are things great fighters don't do!

Tyson was exciting and fun to watch, but his opponents were hand picked and he never beat any of his TRUE rivals. I think the Bruno and Rudduck fights are the best ones, the best back and forth action.

Spot on...Unfortunately most "Tyson Is Invincible" believers will look for any excuse as to why he loses or lost...Instead of basing their opinions on the reality or fact that he just wasn't as great as they believe...I suspect most of these same believers are huge WWE fans...

[El Kabong]

When was Lyle brought up besides that being my name...I didn't say I'd fight Tyson....well maybe now but in the 80's he'd be thrown in jail as I was born in '82.

I guess Tyson is just the mother fuckin best ever, christ jtrock study up some...who were the "greats" of Tyson's era?

Bowe
Lewis
Holyfield

And he would lose to every last one of them!

And as for the other greats? He'd lose to pretty much all of them too.

I'm not trying to hate on Mike eventhough it might seem like it, I like the guy, I just think he put it on cruise control after the Douglas fiasco. he MIGHT have been able to accomplish more but we'll never know.

Foreman would demolish Mike
Frazier would have kept it close
Marciano would have stood his ground vs Tyson
Liston would have scared Tyson
Vitali may or may not have beaten Tyson in his prime...you have to lable that one as a toss up, yeah Vitali gets hurt every now and then but he NEVER hit the canvas, and that's damn impressive.

I never said Wlad would beat "Prime" Tyson
I never said Morrison would beat "Prime" Tyson

What about post 1990 Tyson?

[JT Rock]

...personal life? He had NO personal life, how do you think Rooney, Jimmy Jacobs, and Cus kept him out of trouble? They had him fighting every month and just training continuously...he truly was a caged animal....Don King let him out and he got in trouble, he quit training and those are things great fighters don't do!

Tyson was exciting and fun to watch, but his opponents were hand picked and he never beat any of his TRUE rivals. I think the Bruno and Rudduck fights are the best ones, the best back and forth action.

The time of the Douglas fight he had ALL that shit going on.... so to say he had NO personal life was ridiculous..

Lyle according to your profile you had to be about 6-7 yrs old(dont know if you were a educated boxing fan at that age) I remember that time clearly... Tyson was a celebrity on a world wide scale his personal life was in the media spotlite..He was in all the Tabloids(more than Brittney spears and kevin federline) I believe he might of been in Time magazine and all the other well publicized Magazine and Newspapers...So his problems were very much real..

Now that I think about I cant think of anyother fighter since Tyson that was a celebrity and Got that much exposure not since ALi had that been the case and no one since Tyson got exposure of that Magnitude...Not even Roy Jones jr

[El Kabong]

...I know all about how big Tyson was, I have the Tyson-Douglas fight and many other Tyson fights on tape, I've watched them thousands of times.

Good exciting heavyweights ALWAYS get exposure like that...Sam Peter was on the way til Wlad beat him (granted he never put his punches together as well as Mike). Tyson was good, I know it, Givens and King fucked him over numerous times, I know that, but at some point the blame falls on him for not doing his job or taking it seriously, boxing is not just a sport it's something you can get hurt/die doing

[JT Rock]

Foreman would demolish Mike
Frazier would have kept it close
Marciano would have stood his ground vs Tyson
Liston would have scared Tyson
Vitali may or may not have beaten Tyson in his prime...you have to lable that one as a toss up, yeah Vitali gets hurt every now and then but he NEVER hit the canvas, and that's damn impressive.

I never said Wlad would beat "Prime" Tyson
I never said Morrison would beat "Prime" Tyson

What about post 1990 Tyson?

Again Skill for skill I have broken down Tyson vs Frazier and Foreman and Marciano fights before...You have not as to bring Validity to your arguments...

To further say that Tyson would be afraid of Liston is just plain Proposterous!!!!

of all those guys Marciano stands the worse chance against Mike

Slowest Heavyweight champ of all time, one of the smallest, questionable defense,Fought more aging greats than Lennox Lewis Oh and Coming forward CONSTANTLY ...Easy pickings For MIke EASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON KING WOULD OF MADE THAT FIGHT FASTER THAN YOU COULD KISS WLADS ASS!!!!!

So done talking to you about this, I forgot who I was dicussing things with THE GREAT BENOVOLENT END ALL BE ALL OF BOXING SUPER INTELLIGENCE WHO LACKS A HUMBLE BONE IN HIS BODY!!!!!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMAN I PRESENT TO YOU THE GREAT LYLE!!!!!!!! BOW TO YOUR BOXING KING!!!!

Like I said done with this one

[El Kabong]

Why is it "proposterous" that Tyson would be afraid of Liston? Liston tought Foreman how to be mean and Tyson idolized Liston...and look what Sonny did to Cus D'mato trained Floyd Patterson...TWICE. Honestly I think those losses by Patterson made Cus train Mike the way he did, Floyd was nice, Cus trained Mike to not be nice but like Floyd he was still scared.

Marciano never lost a fight, could KO pretty much anyone to win the fight, more than anything that sets him apart from Tyson is Rocky won through adversity! Tyson never got close to winning through ANY adversity...the worst thing he fought through was I guess being stunned by Bruno other than that whenever he got cut or bruised or knocked down he lost.

Yeah for being slow and having lackluster defense he sure NEVER LOST A FIGHT. And with the kind of people Tyson fought if I were in your shoes I wouldn't talk shit about opponents faced.

[BoxingGorilla]

I can't get in on this debate. I've had it too many times with too many people. I'm an emotional wreck just reading these posts.

I'll just say that I'm pro Tyson.

[JT Rock]

Why is it "proposterous" that Tyson would be afraid of Liston? Liston tought Foreman how to be mean and Tyson idolized Liston...and look what Sonny did to Cus D'mato trained Floyd Patterson...TWICE. Honestly I think those losses by Patterson made Cus train Mike the way he did, Floyd was nice, Cus trained Mike to not be nice but like Floyd he was still scared.

Marciano never lost a fight, could KO pretty much anyone to win the fight, more than anything that sets him apart from Tyson is Rocky won through adversity! Tyson never got close to winning through ANY adversity...the worst thing he fought through was I guess being stunned by Bruno other than that whenever he got cut or bruised or knocked down he lost.

Yeah for being slow and having lackluster defense he sure NEVER LOST A FIGHT. And with the kind of people Tyson fought if I were in your shoes I wouldn't talk S*** about opponents faced.

Jersey Joe 39yrs old
ArchieMoore 39yrs old
Joe Louis 37 yrs old
Those are the alltime greats that Marciano beat

My favorite fights were against

Lee Savold W93- L39

Ted Lowry W61- L56- D10

Johnny Shkor W29-L18-D2

Eldridge Eatman W15-L19-D3

Talk about record Padding

I feel comfortable Talking all the shit I want about Tyson opponents

Like I said Lennox Lewis can only better the geriatric beatdowns that Marciano did

So then Why should people talk shit that Tyson beat an aging Holmes

[El Kabong]

no Ezzard Charles?

Also let us not forget Rex Layne and Roland LaStarza.

As for Tyson: Jamieson, McNeely, Johnson, Ratliff, Ribalta, Hosea, Gross, Jaco, Young, Scaff, ....actually this will take too long

Here are the good/great guys he fought: Bruno, Rudduck, Tucker, Green, Lewis (loss), Holyfield (2 losses), Golota....hmmmmmm....I guess Spinks and Holmes count

Larry Holmes 39 years old....aww damn shame, the ONLY all-time great heavyweight he ever beat

[cockey cockney]

I like both Marciano and Tyson. I refuse to get into a debate upon them two....altough i do think a Prime Tyson beats practically any heavyweight in history.

[El Kabong]

Basically what I'm saying jtrock is that the TOP LEVEL opponents were there for Tyson, they weren't there for Marciano but despite the lack of great fighters around Rocky's era he 1) Was still undefeated 2) Fought roughly a similar level of competition to Tyson's.

Tyson COULD have been the greatest EVER had he beaten Holyfield and perhaps 1-2 more fighters (Lewis/Bowe) but he lost to Douglas and basically gave up...he conned everyone for the rest of his career!


I like Tyson but to say in his prime he "easily beats" any All-Time Great is ridiculous, he ALWAYS had the problems he has now they just were not as obvious (mainly due to the lack of true competition he faced)...HEART and DEDICATION aren't things you lose over night!

Had Tyson fought an Evander Holyfield early in his career he would have been tried and tested and the result would have been the same a LOSS. Not that I ever wanted Holyfield to beat Tyson, I was fuckin happy when Tyson bit that dude's ear off, it's what he gets for headbutting EVERYONE HE EVER FOUGHT.

[bigragu]

That wasn't Tyson's prime. Tyson's prime ended with the right hand of Bruno just like Camacho's did with the shot of Rosario

You did mean "The most awesome combination of punches thrown" by James "BUSTER" Douglas not Bruno......