I know you all remember how a fight between these two had been talked about years ago. After looking back on it, I think it could have been an intriguing fight at that point in Mike's career. As we now know, Toney could take some heavyweight leather; he did it against Peter and to an extent, Rahman. I figured with Toney's defense, he had a chance to hang in there longer than the half of a round I had given him initially. I remember the early troubles a younger Tyson had against the feather fisted, but defensively slick, Buster Mathis Jr. Also, his problems with Francois Botha who countered the hell out of him until the bomb was dropped. Anyway, I just wanted to solicit a few opinions on this "Almost" match-up if you remember. As a side note, remember how that was the last boxing match on regular fox television, at least that I could remember. In fact, Don King thought he was doing us a favor by putting that crap on free t.v. They had freakin John Madden doing boxing interviews, now that was funny shit!
I'm not looking at Jake's link, but Toney would have stopped the older Tyson (if that's the one we're talking about). Tyson never had much heart to begin with, but the older version would give up at the slightest hint of adversity. Toney would have taken the odd bomb from Tyson, avoided most of the others and gradually broke him down and make him quit. Funny how time is. If we were even entertaining such a discussion about these two in the late 80s early 90s, everyone would have thought us insane.
When did Tyson ever pass a test of heart? Trust me, there's no bigger Tyson fan than me. Y'all think I'm a Mayweather groupie? I'm a far bigger fan of Tyson. But it is what it is. When faced with adversity the man always folded.
FREAKING THANK YOU!!! I've been saying that for years..... Like you, I'm the biggest Tyson fan, only second to Muhammad Ali. It does not even pain me to say it because it was so true and there isn't any disputing the obvious, unless you're the nutthugger of the century! He never had a rematch with Douglas, although Douglas did lose to Holyfield immediately; he only had success in one return match and that was Ruddock; and he found a way out of the second Holyfield fight, although I thought he still had a shot. That goes back to him folding at the slightest hint of adversity. Mike was not willing to see a physically and mentally tough fight through and when he tried, he lost.
Tyson was physically tough but to not question his ability to overcome in-the-ring adversity is foolhardy
I thought he showed quite a bit of heart in the Lennox Lewis fight. He got absolutely hammered and still hung around for 8 rounds.
I remember thinking the same thing. However, I also remember Teddy Atlas calling Tyson a "Game Coward" for taking the beating he took against Lewis. Yeah he took the ass whuppin, but he had no intention of trying to win that fight.
That's why I said physically AND mentally tough. Physically tough allowed him to blow guys away, mentally allowed him to weather through beatings and then come back and batter opponents back. That part of his career has never been defined. Maybe the second Ruddock fight is somewhat an example of him taking a little and then coming back.
I absolutely love Tyson too, in fact he's one of my all time favourite fighters behind Duran, alongside Pacquiao and Morales. But let's face it, mental strength and determination weren't exactly his plus points.
