When Mike Tyson burst into the heavyweight boxing scene in the mid 1980s, he was swiftly branded the saviour of heavyweight boxing. Not since Ali had someone captured the imagination of the boxing fraternity and sold out stadiums by his mere presence in the card. He was a two-fisted puncher; in other words, he had the ability to knock out opponents with either hand. His style was described as explosive; his ducking and weaving style made him difficult to hit and opponents unavoidably found themselves on the defensive from the opening bell. He became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The debate inevitably gained momentum: Was Iron Mike better than Muhammad Ali?
I would say no. Here are my reasons. When Tyson lost to Buster Douglas (a 42-1 underdog) in 1990, he fought a man with more courage than any other fighter he had come across. When people stood up to Tyson, there was no plan B.
Muhammad Ali always had a plan B... and a C and a D if necessary. His famous ‘rope a dope’ against George Foreman in Zaire in 1974 was perhaps the greatest example of self-belief in sports history. He stood on the ropes believing (not hoping) that Foreman would punch himself out. Big George duly did. Ali made up his mind to soak up punishment from possibly the heaviest hitter in boxing history. He left his body open to hammer-like shots till Foreman could throw no more. One sharp right hand in the 8th round and Ali was champion of the world for the second time.
This was Ali’s second coming as a boxer, following a three year forced sabbatical in the late 1960s. Tyson was never the same after serving his rape conviction. Ali was never knocked out in his career. Tyson looked up at the lights more than once as the referee counted to ten. Ali dominated inarguably the finest era of heavyweight boxing. In hindsight, when Tyson bestrode the division, he was in with pretenders and has-beens. He was a shark all right, but one manning mediocre waters.
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”When Tyson lost to Buster Douglas (a 42-1 underdog) in 1990, he fought a man with more courage than any other fighter he had come across. When people stood up to Tyson, there was no plan B.”
The problem with building your article on this premise is that Tyson the fighter was already heavily diminished by the time of the Douglas fight. Far from it being simply a case of someone trying something new (standing up to Tyson) it was a case of Tyson no longer training properly. Tyson started a rapid downhill descent after his troubled marriage to Givens, was forever in the papers for all the wrong reasons - starting up around the time of the leadup to the first Bruno fight - and Douglas was just the fortunate one to catch Tyson once he was sufficiently degraded to finally tumble over.