Comments Thread For: Frank Warren Reflects on Mike Tyson, His Shortcomings

[La_Vibora]

Well said.

There was a difference in his posture, his approach, and even his patience from one fight to the next.

He obliterated Spinks because he had studied his opponent, was ready from the word "go," and had perfect timing. What people also ignore is that Tyson could have kept that up for the entire fight because he was in fantastic shape.

"But he struggled with taller fighters..."

No he didn't. Every fighter was taller than him. Consider that the only 12 round fights he was in, he DOMINATED. He won almost all of the rounds, short of one awkward match against Tillis. Why? Because he could also box, not just punch.

After that night against Spinks, he just hoped to show up, land one clean punch and knock the guy out of there.

I contest that we never got to see a "prime" Mike Tyson. He was a kid when he won the belt, and threw everything away when he should have been hitting his peak.

I always wondered what would have happened if Buster Douglas would have been counted out by the ref after that knock down, would that close call be a turning point in his career to realize that he couldn't just BS his way through training camp anymore and that he would have to start taking his career seriously again. I wonder if it would have woke him up or not.