This is just a quick response to the earlier post by my fellow correspondent on Tyson. We had a little debate the other day with each other on the "relevance" of Mike Tyson in the history of boxing. It is my opinion that Mike was only relevant from November 22, 1986 (when he beat Trevor Berbick to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history) to February 11, 1990 (when he lost to Buster Douglas in Tokyo, Japan) basically by default. I would say that his only true relevance in boxing history was being the reason 'Mike Tyson's Punchout' was created.
Due to no fault of his own, the heavyweight division was void of any challengers for the so-called "Baddest Man on the Planet". Beating the likes of Michael Spinks, Tony Tubbs and Larry Holmes in the ring is the equivalent of him beating Michael Jackson, Tony Danza, and Larry from Three's Company. As he admits in one of the clips from the movie, Tyson won the majority of his fights from the fear that he was able to instill in his opponents even before they walked into the ring. Leading many a fighter to resemble Glass Joe against Mike.
Once Buster Douglas (who after beating Mike, became so big he was immediately cast as 'The Human Beatbox' for the new Fat Boys documentary) defeated Tyson, the aura of invincibility that he once had was now gone. Once that happened, Mike began looking more like Bald Bull in the ring.
It was after this where boxers began exposing him for being a great and awesome puncher but just an average, at best, fighter. If you need any evidence, just ask Lennox Lewis.
And Lennox did that without knowing the "up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-select-start" code. (or was that Contra?)
I am still waiting for a point to all this Tyson hate. Especially when let's say a certain demographic, let's call that demographic CB... knows that they were Tyson fans in his hey day. Why was there nobody shouting from the highest mountain in 86? Why is it only now 20 years later that Mike is "overrated?" Mike was a lot of things, but not overrated... Don't get caught up in your own comedy CB...
ReplyDeleteThere's no point at all, I was just giving you my "evidence" of why I feel the way that I do. And you were right,I was a Tyson back back from 1986-1990 because I was 9-12 years old and didn't really know much outside of "dagg, dood hit hard as shid". Now that I am a tad older, I see things a little differently when it comes to sports I follow.
ReplyDeleteAnd again, I just gave you information to "support" my "opinion" on why I feel the way I do about Mike. So I'm just waiting for the same "support" of your "opinion" outside of "well, everyone just knows that Mike was the shid so I won't comment." It's called a healthy debate. 'tis all for now ... I BID YOU GOOD DAY !!!