Good afternoon fellow Saddo-boxng members!
I know the Tyson topic has probably been done to death, but I have not seen anyone approach it from the angle I'm about to now.
First off, my hypothesis is that Tyson was doomed to defeat from the very begining, and now I will explain why that is.
But first lets get the obvious commonly-cited reasons out of the way: With age Tyson increasingly used less head movement, inreasingly began to rely on single punhes instead of combinations, and he stopped punching his way into range.
That last point is the most pertinent to what I am about to point out.
Following Tysons record, it is most interesting to note the fights in which Tyson failed to KO his opponents. These are the key fights to watch. Why was Tyson unable to KO these opponents? Well, some of them were indeed running scared and engaging very little, true. Others were simply very durable. However, there is one thing they all seemed to have in common: they were taller fighters with the ability to effectively tie Tyson up when in close.
In fact, I would go as far to say that with each additional fight Tyson was engaged in where a KO did not occur, opponents became increasingly skilled at exploiting what for me, was one of Tyson's consistent weakness. It was as if trainers honed in on this weakness, and the blue prints to throw a monkey wrench into Tyson's fighting technique became better and better developed.
Buster Douglas would be the first to employ the technique combined with enough consistent firepower to hand Tyson his first defeat. Sure, Tyson had not trained as he should, but watch Douglas' effective clinch and just how much Tyson was frustrated by it. Holyfield had the right idea immediately, and also effectively clinched Tyson and frustrated him into total ineffectiveness. Again, I know Tyson's technique was always in decline around this point, but the weakness was a fundemental one which was there to be exploited to some degree even from the beginning! Lennox would eventually also effectively use the technique, basically ending what little of Tyson was even left by that point.
And this, gentlemen is why Tyson would never have beaten Klitschko... at least not the Manny Stewart-trained version. Klitschko's extra height and amazingly consistent clinching would not leave the much shorter Tyson any chance to score hurtful shots other than the occasional single one that may slip through. Tyson would be thoroughly frustrated and tied up, and when free, would almost never be able to reach the very much taller Klitschko's head. A Jab and grab fest would ultimately end with a tired Tyson, likely TKO's as he was in other fights.
If you disagree, I invite you to watch Tyson's fights ending in UD, or ending in him being defeated by TKO/KO. Please let me know if you don't see it, this consistent pattern. But I believe you too will see what I have noticed.
James Tillis UD 10 May 3, 1986
Mitch Green UD 10 May 20, 1986
James Smith UD 12 Mar 7, 1987
Tony Tucker UD 12 Aug 1, 1987
Buster Douglas KO 10 Feb 11, 1990
Donovan Ruddock UD 12 Jun 28, 1991
Evander Holyfield TKO 11 Nov 9, 1996
Lennox Lewis KO 8 Jun 8, 2002
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