For those who say Lennox had a soft chin, maybe he did.
If he did, that would make him even more impressive.
Imagine going through so many great and powerful HWs, completely dominating many, winning the title twice, defending it multiple times, all while having a weak chin.
Lennox must have been the HW version of Floyd, Sweet Pea, or Willie Pep.
Itâs boxing. A lot of managers are very careful with their guys because they donât want the gravy train to end.
I am not as down on Mike as I probably seem on this thread.
I just think itâs absurd to say that you canât consider a huge glaring issue with a guy for some arbitrary reason lol
Yeah, I agree. This is fake as fuck. He fought crazy big hitters and ATGs and beat every single person he fought. Heâs clearly elite.
Yeah but Tyson brought the navigation to a whole new level. Jacobs and Cayton very, very carefully selected who he fought and when. Itâs smart. In post fight interviews he openly acknowledged when asked who he wanted next, that Jacobâs made those decisions, not him. By the time King got him, he was a golden goose. Holyfield and Bowe were beating each other up, a bunch of good fighters were coming up but most people gave zero shits who Tyson fought. He said himself he could sell out MSG masturbating. King fed him guys he knew Tyson could beat. The average fan would pay a premium to see Tyson against a complete can with a terrible undercard. Thatâs really good business. Why would you have Tyson fight a guy like Oleg Madkaev, who heâd probably beat, but could box well and was very tough. He avoided Rahman types and started being put in with guys who were afraid or would stand in front of him.
Whoa you think Usyk and Ali are equal in handspeed? Iâd definitely lean towards Ali in that area..
Do you think think Tyson has better hand speed than Ali?
When that came out Cooney was not even in the picture. He lost to Holmes in June of 82. Didnât fight the rest of the year. Didnât fight in 83. Fought twice in 84. Didnât fight in 85 and had one fight in 86 when that published. Reinforces that he was way out of contender land. His next fight was in â87 and he got knocked out by Michael Spinks.
Cassius had the fastest hands of any HW champ.
This is all true, but he would still have been a tough match up and Cooney did fight again. I think he could have been drawn out. He was another guy who was treated pretty unfairly by getting the white hope/hype tag slapped on him. Tyson would be a heavy favorite and Iâd pick him.
That wasnât one that I see as a âduckedâ or protected.
There is absolutely nothing arbitrary about it.
I agree but Tyson is right up there with him.. I donât have Usyk in the top 3 in terms of handspeed
Bruce Seldon got steamrolled by Tyson but he had a fantastic jab
I am a giant Bowe fan and although I think it had more to do with politics/money than anything else I was disappointed at Bowe for not fighting Lewis. But, I also think Bowe won all three Holyfield fights and those wars were not kind to Bowe. He was a different fighter after those three fights.
Pretty good video showcasing Tysonâs chin.
Also shows the Douglas long count.
The idea that Tyson never beat opponents who fought back, or he âfell apartâ any time he got hit â is one of the bigger myths perpetuated by uninformed haters who parrot the comments of guys like Teddy Atlas â and probably didnât follow Tysonâs career in real time.
Again, he didnât have a Thrilla In Manilla.
But Tyson took clean shots from some big punchers.
He had a hell of a chin.
.
Tyson definitely had a good chin. Thatâs part of the reason he was knocked out by Holyfield and Douglas was even more impressive. Tyson also got a very long count in the Douglas fight for the record.
Hereâs a good Ali clip for your enjoyment
The three fights that give people this idea are the Douglas fight and the holyfield fights.
Two of those fights ended in Mike being stopped. The other one ended with him biting someone in a boxing match lol.
You act like youâre such an expert that we should ignore what we saw with our own eyes and just take your word for it.
Mike melted down on those fights, and he melted down about a hundred times outside of the ring. Trying to convince people that his mental game wasnât weak is a losing battle.
Iâll definitely say this. I believe Tyson knew walking into the Lewis fight, he was going to get knocked out. He went out on his shield in that fight and showed real courage and went out hard.
Completely agree. I believe he was completely checked out of the game by then. But he made the walk and he went after it. Went out on his shield. Thatâs highly respectable.
i wish some things would have went differently for him. What he did was great, but could have been so much greater. But boxing very rarely works out like that.
What gives people this idea is a narrative more than anything. It gets blow out of proportion into the âTyson canât handle adversity or beat people who fight backâ bullshit, which is demonstrably false.
Getting stopped after a significant accumulation of punches is not some kind of outlier for a professional fighter lol.
Judging by some of your comments in this thread, Iâm not sure your own eyes are good enough.
You seem to think any fighter who gets KOd more than once has a âweakâ chin.
Itâs one of the more ridiculous takes Iâve seen in a boxing thread.
You also for some reason didnât seem to think Tyson had a strong chin â but maybe you were laying it on a little thick for lols.
He showed no signs of âmelting downâ when he was clean and focused.
He lost one fight that he should have won because he didnât take it seriously, and was 41-1 prior to going to prison.
As the video above demonstrates, he faced plenty of adversity in those fights.
Again, Iâm not saying heâs Joe Frazier.
But contextual and nuanced observations are more in line with reality than blanket statements.
When Tyson was clean and focused he was a disciplined fighter. He would move forward with the gameplan and didnât deviate from that or show frustration even when getting hit clean by some serious punchers.
Thatâs just the reality.
