Tyson – The Heavyweight Division Needs Someone Like Him

By Boxing News - 12/31/2008 - Comments

tyson333By Dan Ambrose: It’s been over three years since former IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) has last fought, but yet there’s been no heavyweight that has come close to matching Tyson’s huge appeal and domination since that time. In his prime, Tyson was unbeatable, stopping excellent fighters like Razor Ruddock, Michael Spinks, Larry Holmes, Andrew Golota, Frank Bruno and many more. When he was in shape and focused, in particular earlier in his career, Tyson may have been the best heavyweight that every lived.

With incredible hand speed, enormous power and a pressure-oriented style of fighting, the 5’10” Tyson, was without competition as the best heavyweight fighter in the division.

Short for a heavyweight, Tyson was able to get enormous power in every shot, made more powerful by his stunning hand speed which was possibly the best in the heavyweight division for a number of years.

Unfortunately for Tyson, his prime only lasted a short amount of time, as after only five years in which he was the best heavyweight in the division – from 1985 to 1990 – Tyson be began to slip as a fighter, losing a 10th round TKO to James “Buster” Douglass in February 1990. From there, Tyson was much more vulnerable, beaten by Evander Holyfield six years later in a 11th round TKO in 1996 and then disqualified in the 3rd round in 1997.

Yet as flawed as Tyson remained from 1990 to his retirement in 2005, he remained an exciting fighter, capable of knocking out opponents with a single punch if able to connect.

The current heavyweight division has two Klitschko brothers holding three of the four titles, and another two Eastern European fighters, Ruslan Chagaev and Nikolay Valuev, sharing the 4th title. None of them, however, have the power, charisma, excitement, speed or ability to dominate their opponents that Tyson had in his prime.

As a result, boxing fans have been slow to take interest in them, despite the fact that Wladimir Klitschko, the IBF/WBO heavyweight champion, has been considered to be the best heavyweight in the division for the past two years. However, with a safety first style of fighting and a glass jaw to match it, Wladimir is about as interesting to watch as paint drying.

With power, size and speed going for him, he continues to frustrate fans with each bout, fighting timidly, rarely engaging and mostly pecking away at his opponents with a jab and clinching often. His brother, Vitali, is considered to be the much more watchable fighter, and who isn’t afraid to engage with his opponents.

However, incredibly injury prone, Vitali has been unable to take advantage of his skills and superior size by not fighting enough. Who knows what Vitali could have accomplished if he had remained injury free his career and continued fighting from 2004 to 2008, a time when he was retired from the sport.

Nikolay Valuev, the seven-foot giant heavyweight who currently holds a portion of the WBA heavyweight title, is perhaps the worst of the heavyweight champions by a long shot. Slow, weak and dull to watch, he has fought few quality opponents during the time he’s been a champion, and looks to have been very carefully matched for most of his career.

He looked incredibly poor in his last fight, a 12-round majority decision over a 46-year-old Holyfield on December 20th. Many people felt that Valuev lost the fight, and as of now, the fight is being reviewed by the WBA and it might be overturned. Chagaev (24-0, 17 KOs) is equally frustrating, only defending the WBA title once since defeating Valuev in April 2007.

Chagaev has been either ill or injured since then, preventing him from defending. However, even when he’s fought, he’s looked average. Only 6’1”, Chagaev has little speed and average power, and looks more like a good bottom 15 fighter than a champion. He, too, has been matched carefully, and has fought few quality fighters since turning pro in 1997.



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