How many agree Tyson peaked with Spinks and then went on the decline?

[Benny Leonard]

I've always thought and said that when a fighter is no longer mentally and physically at his best, that counts as his decline no matter how old. Two fighters I think we never actually got to see them at their best, or what should have been their best, was Ali and Tyson. Ali was forced into exile and missed years of what should have been prime/peak years and Tyson threw it away in his early 20's by not being able to deal with the many issues outside of the ring and entrusting the wrong people with handling his career. 25-29 years of age should have been their best years if they had stayed the course and were able to stay active with proper training.
With Ali, he was in the ****** cult, while Tyson was in the Don King cult; but what Ali had over Tyson was that he stuck with his whitey in Dundee while Tyson got rid of his in Rooney.

This is part of one of the documentaries done on Tyson. The Man talking at 1:07 on, is Jack Newfield...


http://www.jacknewfield.com/

It's good to watch the whole thing but pay attention to 1:07 on.



Chris Rock on his show had Don King as a guest. I remember Chris asking Don about Tyson by saying something like: What happened to Mike Tyson? One moment Tyson is Champion of the World and the next thing I know, he is with you and he is on the ground trying to pick up his mouth piece.





Extra info:

Jack on Tyson is to blame...and interesting thoughts by Tyson

4:00 on...

[Silencers]

The Spinks fight was definitely Tyson at his best.

[Underdog82]

Yes. And beating a decent "not exceptional" boxer who was a natural light heavy weight and old proves that Tyson was one of the most overrated boxers in history.

He never once beat anyone great and lost all of his big fights.

He looked good beating complete nobodies. That was his mark to fame.

[Squirrel]

It was definitely his peak performance, though it certainly wasn't his definitive peak. It's all what-ifs, buts and maybes, but i'm adamant that he could have gotten a LOT better. I think one of the biggest tragedies is that we never really saw what a prime Mike Tyson was like, he fell of the rails before he reached that point (imo).

[Abstraction]

Had Mike Tyson's career progressed like any other normal HW. He could possibly have been No.1 of all time.

But i dont think there is any other boxer that has had the same sort of chaotic problems outside the ring.

Nearly every so often his manager died, and the day Don King influenced Tyson to sack Keven Rooney, his Career was over.

In that video "Benny Leonard", even guys like Larry Merchant says it how it is: The guy surrounded him were Semi-Professionals, Another guy says how he stopped preparing properly for his fights. It was a Train-Wreck waiting to happen

[Davros?]

Yes. And beating a decent "not exceptional" boxer who was a natural light heavy weight and old proves that Tyson was one of the most overrated boxers in history.

He never once beat anyone great and lost all of his big fights.

He looked good beating complete nobodies. That was his mark to fame.

Micheal Spinks was an excellent boxer who was a good heavyweight, he had just come off an excellent win of Cooney and had 2 wins over Holmes although i did think Holmes won there 2nd fight. No one had beat Spinks in the pro's it was a great win for Tyson.

[Mud]

Difficult to tell how good a fighter is in 91 seconds.

But yes, that was his last great performance, after that against Bruno he was wild and reckless.

I thought the first knockdown against Spinks were two of the best punches ive seen, the body shot and uppercut. Just perfect.

[ACHlLLES]

I hate excuses when fighters lose

[MANGLER]

That was the best he ever was in terms of his career, but not necessarily his best individual performance. Even tho it turned out he wasn't at his best anymore, comin back from 3 yrs in the pen to KO 2 titlists back to back was impressive, even tho Seldon and Bruno ain't that good.

[Testdead]

Tyson imploded with the fame that came after Spinks.

His fatal error was listning to King and getting rid of Bill Cayton and not finding a real trainer after Ronney.

Had he had a better head on his shoulders he would be top 10 heavy no question.

O and had he had Rooney in his corner for the Fouglas fight, Buster wouldnt have gone 5rds.