There are well known reasons for the Douglas loss. A reason is not an excuse.
Tyson had no excuse to party and not take training seriously. Thatās on him.
His corner had no excuse not to fix the swelling in his eye so he wasnāt half blind for most of the fight.
Thatās on his corner.
There was absolutely no excuse to lose to Buster Douglas, who Tyson had no business losing to.
The version of Tyson who lost to Holyfield and Lewis has no excuse either.
Even āspinalā is no excuse.
You take the fight, you show up, you lose ā no excuses.
None of this has anything to do with identifying at which point in his career Tyson was at the peak of his abilities.
And I havenāt been using the word āprimeā either.
Actually now that I mention his name, Mike Tyson is much more like Conor than the Shogun reference you kept using.
Shows up, gets some big knockouts against lesser competition, gets the title and becomes famous. As he moves up into harder competition, he gets figured out and starts losing. All his fanboys jump to defend his honor and explain the losses.
Well the second isnāt footwork at all, and the first thing is a funny looking thing to impress media and confuse dumb fighters. The shuffle is a showboating technique, not footwork. Thereās a reason no one does it ever unless theyāre just referencing him.
Constant lead foot dominance, entering and exiting with head movement and punches, smooth switching and anglesā¦no offense, but the shuffle is a gimmick that looks like something from Punch Out, not high level footwork.
Usyk is a great fighter but no one who knows boxing is going to agree that heās as fast as Ali. Ali has the fastest hands in the division. Look at his fights with Cleveland Williams, Zora Foley Patterson (who was also faster than Usyk) Moore. The guy is dazzlingly fast, even in his later career. His critics even marveled at his astonishing quickness. No offense to the great Usyk, but heās workman like in comparison. Ali seemed to be a perpetual motion and moved so smoothly, his feet were among his greatest assets. He was in position, then he was blasting people as he glided out of range. Sometimes he would stand and slug, just because he also enjoyed brawling, but only the very best guys could force that and only a few could effectively cut him off. His first fight with Liston, who was Mike Tyson before Mike Tyson, was a masterclass in boxing ability (hit and donāt get hit). Liston, whom Ring Magazine was predicting would be the greatest heavyweight since Joe Louis and who absolutely annihilated the great and first ever 2x champion Patterson, looked foolish as he tried to catch Ali and got completely batted for his troubles. Go ask who has better footwork and who has better speed between these two to a boxing forum or 100 boxing writers. Iād be surprised if over 20%, even with recency bias, would pick Usyk.
It really stinks that Iāve spent my life watching boxing and paying attention to what real boxing experts say.
I coulda just hopped on the interwebs and found the truth. Ali is overrated and only considered the greatest because of out of the ring stuff. Getting knocked out doesnāt mean you have a weak chin. And Mike Tyson was past his prime at 23.
Holmes jab was other worldly. It made some of the best punchers of his time fight like amateurs durable and freaking mean as a rattlesnake. See Mitch Blood Greenās snitching on tv how Holmes āpunched me and kicked meā . Cooney had a devastating left hook and had some durability and tall and Holmes took him apart. If I am not mistaken Big George said Cooney was in the top few of punchers he had faced.
Mike Tyson d looked his most vulnerable fighting tall fast movers⦠see Quick Tillis⦠Mike did overcame that puzzle. But, Lennox and (Bowe) were fast , tall great jabs and had the power to close the show. Lennox sparred and fought in the Amatuers and success against both.. though I dispute the TKO over Bowe in the Olympics.