My honest take on Mike tyson

[Khalid X]

This is kinda lenghty so if you dont like to read move on to another thread. With that said i have followed Mike over the years and there are alot of Misconceptions about him that i would like to bring up and get other peoples opinions on them.


Mike tyson's heart
I see alot of people and spectators bring up mike's lack of heart and how if you can stand up to him he will back down. Man there have been a few boxers even during his prime that stood up to him and mike still handled them. As far as Douglas Mike just didnt show up, even after taking the shots he did and getting KO he was still trying to fight and even got up willing to fight but was stopped by the ref. Holyfield 1, he took an onslaught of punches in the 10th and 11th round, not only did he not get dropped easily he stood there and took em like a man. Even more so against Lewis late in his career he took a huge ass whooping but showed More heart than the majority of the boxers i have seen.


Mike tyson not a smart boxer I really wish Mike would do commentary so you could see his knowledge of the sport. He was trained by one of the greatest trainers in Cus D'Amato along with teddy atlas and use to spend hours upons hours watching tapes of old school fighters...analysing their style and breaking them down. The thing about mike is that he is so athletically gifted that he rarely had to use his skills early on. If anything he problems boiled down to him being undisciplined in the ring which was even more apparent post prison. If he was more disciplined and didnt lean so much on his devasting punching power and athletic ability he would have been a very skilled boxer.

To beat mike you just needed a good jab
I see this brought up whenever mike is compared to an alltime great. First of all mikes whole style was built around opponents using jabs against him. He Head movement early on in his career was so good that he rarely got hit solidly. During the buster douglas fight buster was effective with the jab but only because mike switching trainers, not showing up and his lack of head movement.

Mikes behavior
While i do think mike has mental issues, alot of stuff he does is actually just to sell tickets. He is the most controversal fighter of all-time and know that controversy sells. After the lennox press conference when he was ripping a reporter....one of his advisors asked him why he did that and mike smiled and said "im trying to make this the biggest fight ever". Also that comment about lennox was a good example because while everyone had a heart attack about him wanting to eat lennox kids mike clearly stated he knew lennox since he was 16 and knew he didnt have kids.


Last point: Mike being unintelligent as a person
Its pretty unanimous that people mention or allude to Mike being ******. IMO he is the most intellegent and well spoken boxers(when he isnt acting a fool) in the history of the sport. I think alot of times he goes over peoples head so they call him ****** in that regard. But a ****** person doesnt say things like "My style is impetious, my defense is impregnable", "Im not benevolent, i just am" and he has quoted several philosers over the years. If you really get past his rage and actually listen to what he is saying there isnt a boxer more insightfull as mike.


While im not a fan of mike I never understood certain stigma's about him. I know there are some tyson fans on here as well as unbiased people on here who can add some input on this

[Khalid X]

some of his more insightfully quotes

Mike after the Etienne fight and why he fought even with a broken back

"I've called off several fights throughtout my career, but in boxing its funny because we show our love for one other by fighting each other. How we take care our ourselves, family and loved ones depend on the next person willing to fight you. Sugar ray robinson refused to fight henry armstrong because he said he looked up to henry and admired and respecting him since he grew up watching him as a kid. But henry armstrong told him if you love me and respect me like you say you do then you would fight me because you know i need you to make money"


"History proves that everyone in boxing probably makes out well, except the fighter,'' he said. ''He's the only one that suffers basically most of the time; he's the only one that's on skid row most of the time; he's the only one that everybody leaves when he loses his mind. He sometimes goes insane, he sometimes goes on the bottle. I think it's a highly intensive pressure sport, and a lot of people just lose it. There's so much you can take and then you break.''


Last part is completely true. Look at the greats and what they were reduced to. Joe louis selling peanuts to make a living and dieing broke to muhamed ali and gerald Mcclennon being robbed of there health and completely abandoned by the sport.

[sugarshanenas]

Nice post

I agree about the head movement thing, early on that and his defense(hands always up) were amazing so he rarely got hit or felt it but once he went with King his **** started ****in up

[MindBat]

You forgot...

Mike's carnivorous appetite for the human flesh

But, on the serious tip, we can't forget that Mike was, arguably, the fastest and hardest hitting heavyweight of his era. With incredible upper body defense (movement).

Of course, that's before somebody smashed open the box of marbles in his cranium.

I'm just saying...