A review of career of Mike Tyson
Background
Mike Tyson, oh what could have been…or perhaps what should have been. As a boxing fan I will try and keep this to boxing, rather than the out of the ring troubles, and the problems he’s had, as I’d rather remember him for what he did well.
There’s many people who dislike Tyson’s boxing, and others who loved it, but lets get it straight, Tyson after the death of Cus D’Amato was never the same again. The destructive puncher, stocky muscle man who used the peek-a-boo technique so well and actually was a lot more of a complete fighter than people remember was possibly one of the most enthralling fighters ever. Few could have kept up with him before D’Amatos death where he was everything a stocky but freakishly well built heavyweight could be.
Stocky Heavyweights
When talking about stocky heavyweights we always mention Marciano, (Rocky); and Dempsey, (Jack) who were both considered hard swarming fighters, with fists of steal and an unbreable will to win. A prime example being when Rocky’s nose was split (up the middle) and he want on to KO his opponent, this sort of heart was needed of the smaller men, often fighting people taller than themselves. I mention this due to the fact this was one of the problems later Tyson (and possibly early Tyson) suffered from, a lack of heart. When feeling he’s getting beat, Tyson would often don the dirty tactics many of us now remember him for, such as the ear biting against Evander Holyfield in their second match.
However despite this obvious flaw, it was rarely exposed, possibly due to it being found out rather late in his career for many of his “victims” to do much about.
The early years
With 19 fights in just over a year after turning pro, he was incredibly active (over a third of his career fights came in this period), which ended up with 19-0 (19 KO’s). Despite D’amato’s death after around 11 of these, Tyson’s activity kept him in the right direction even with his 15-2 amateur record he was becoming something of a feared puncher.
The first man to take him the distance was “Quick” James Tillis who Tyson beat by UD (Unanimous Decision) with the judges giving him it 6-4 (Twice) and 8-2. Tillis went down in the 4th round of the 10 round fight.
World Champion
Just over 6 months after Tillis Tyson would fight Trevor Berbick, for the WBC (World Boxing Council) version of the World heavyweight title. It took Tyson a mere to rounds to score a TKO over his over-matched opponent. This match with Tyson being a paltry 20 years and 4 months (Beating the previous record set by Floyd Patterson in the ’60s by around 18 months).
After the Berbick Fight Tyson went on a spell of title collecting, picking up the WBA title (From James “Bonecrusher” Smith) and the IBF (From Tony Tucker). He defended his 3 titles against highly rated contenders such as Tyrell Biggs, Larry Holmes (KO’ing Holmes for the only time in his 75 fight career), Tony Tubbs, Carl Williams and his dominating performance against Michael Spinks which he won by KO in 1.
Mike’s loss
After the firing of Kevin Rooney in late 1988 Tyson seemed to lose what had made him a dominating force, even in his wins after Rooney was sacked Tyson didn’t look himself. He failed to utilise the Peek-a-boo style, the defensive technique that had made him such an intimidating factor, he started going for a 1 punch KO and started to avoid his body punching skills.
In early 1990 he faced James “Buster” Douglas, who was a 42-1 outsider at the bookies. Buster fought the fight of his life and decked Tyson for the first time in his career, and ended up scoring a KO over Tyson.
The comeback
His first fight after the loss was against Henry Tillman, who’d beaten Tyson as an amateur before then beating Alex Stewart (No not the cricketer), both by KO in 1. He then fought Donovan “Razor” Ruddock twice, they were ranked #1 and #2 in the world to fight the new undisputed champion Evander Holyfield. The first fight was controversially stopped, so a rematch too place with Tyson winning both fights.
Conviction
In 1992 Tyson was charged and convicted of raping Desiree Washington and was sentenced to 6 years (despite serving just over 3). This scuppered the chances of Tyson getting Holyfield between 92-95. (Sorry for not dwelling on this part of Tyson’s life but I’d rather keep to the boxing).
The comeback II
Tysons first fight back after his stint in jail was against lowly regarded (and future Butterbean opponent) Peter McNeeley who was DQ’d when his corner threw in the towel in the first round. This set PPV records and was bought in around 1.52 million US homes. His second fight back on this comeback trail was against Buster Mathis Jr. who was 20-0-0-2, but was a very light puncher (6 ko’s from the 20 wins).
Two time World
