Tyson, Tillis, Douglas

[billeau2]

There's certainly an element of Tillis in there and perhaps a smidgeon of the half-forgotten James Smith as well?

Bonecrusher kind of choked Tyson in their fight with a lot of mauling and pushing and used his size and height to nullify Tyson fairly effectively; but whilst I am fairly sure he never got beaten-up he also totally failed to do any meaningful work or manage to fire back convincingly.

Tyson won a stinker but I seem to recall that Smith (whilst being criticised for not making it a fight and only throwing any meaningful late on) raised the first questions about Mike's ability to cope with big, ring-savvy guys.

Douglas, uniquely, put all three winning elements together. The physical size not to be bulldozed, the self-belief not to be intimidated and keeping on the move behind a solid jab...all came together for Douglas.

Its funny you should mention Smith. Smith was a big strong raw boned sort of guy...well edumucated tooo! Tyson did have issues with strong guys when fights lasted. He had a similar problem with Razor Ruddock...Ruddock hung in there and both times almost tired Mike out.

Douglas did something different in that he used his jab and reach. Holmes had Tyson at bay with the jab for a while as well. The problem for Holmes was his jab (at that time in his career) was not strong enough to back Tyson up.

[Bodyshot3]

@billeau2.....I think Smith was the kind of guy who could have been a whole lot more relevant and important in the great scheme of things if he'd only started his career 4-5 years earlier. Seem to remember that he was a US Army soldier first.

He hit extremely hard indeed, had the right mindset and was as tough as they come. Sadly, he started a bit too late and a large amount of his boxing was learned 'on the job' and by the time he'd picked-up these skills his physical powers were beginning to ebb. Ended his career losing to all sorts of guys like Joe Bugner, Brian Nielsen and Lionel Butler!

The guy had some big wins all the same; Bruno in London, Tim Witherspoon, two wins over Mike Weaver and the once-fancied Ribalta.

[ShoulderRoll]

Tyson mentions in his autobiography that he slept with two maids at the same time the morning before fight day and then with two separate women later on the night before.

He was totally out of control and ill prepared and it showed in his performance.

Considering that, it's amazing that he almost won anyway when Douglas got a bit of a long count.