Weaknesses in prime Tyson.

[Joe Beamish]

Tyson's main weakness was between the ears. He usually couldn't handle guys often who could take his punches for a few rounds, that could also come back with hard shots of their own, but mainly it was discipline. If he had kept working as hard as he did early on for his entire career and stuck with Rooney and Cayton, it would've been interesting to see. Still don't see him beating Lewis, at least not the first time, but could see him catching him with a good shot and winning a rematch, leading to a trilogy. Holyfield probably still wins, but nowhere near as easily, at least not in the first 6 rounds, but see Evander weathering the early onslaught and winning a decision, probably 7 rounds to 5, 155-113.

I love it whenever somebody nails the truth in a pithy phrase that says so much more than all the long paragraphs in this thread. Bravo.

[SthPaw]

A few guys have said as much already but I feel like just hopping in and saying I agree. Watch Tyson's career from start to finish and you will see it becomes very very apparent that at a certain point he is flawed. What are those flaws? As guys have said - he allowed himself to be clinched and his lack of mental toughness whenever he didn't get his own way. Mike looked incredible when he could blitz through guys, no doubt, but when he started to come up against guys who either knew how to tie him up and/or could withstand a beating and still be there fighting, he didn't look the same animal. He was still impressive, it just becomes clear at a certain point that there was a glaring aspect or two in his game and they did not get improved upon necessarily and therefore we can class them as a weakness.

In the clinch and his mental game. Not his inside game and not his heart. Mike had some great short shots on the inside of his opponents range but he was very often passive in the clinch and allowed the action to dip.

Mainly I would say his heart isn't in question, it was his head.

[Metho_4u]

I have always thought Tyson was overrated, but a big weakness imo was simply that he was pretty small. He had plenty of power and all that of course, but can you imagine Tyson as a crusierweight?

[Brutus1]

Too much head movement, too aggressive. Relied too much on his power. Was short.

[OctoberRed]

Too much head movement, too aggressive. Relied too much on his power. Was short.

I actually think his height was what made him harder to beat most fighters.

[Brutus1]

I actually think his height was what made him harder to beat most fighters.

I was joking.

[OctoberRed]

After watching some recent Tyson fights, I noticed few opponents if any ever went to his body.

[GelfSara]

IMHO, the real "weakness" of "Prime Mike Tyson"--i.e., Mike from the advent of his professional career until he fired Kevin Rooney in late 1988--is a quality which took extreme circumstances to emerge as such; in an alternative universe it might well be viewed as a strength or have passed largely unnoticed--it is this: Mike was not primarily self-motivated. Rather, he was driven by a desire to win the love and regard of key figures in his life whose esteem he coveted: namely, Cus D'Amato, Jimmy Jacobs, and Robin Givens. The fact that the first two died within a few years of each other, and Robin both abandoned him and had her true motivations come to light, left Mike rudderless and lost.

[Anthony342]

Yes and which made him bitterly angry for years until well after he retired. He's quite beloved now and seems to be in a good place emotionally.

[OctoberRed]

Tyson's biggest weakness in his prime was Robin Givens and her mother.