Mike Tyson knows best….

By Nationvegas - 11/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Mike Tyson knows best....By Rusty Nate: This is not an article to provoke the hard core bloggers or start arguments. Its more of a little write up about the interview i watched and what stood out for me.

I don’t know who watched the Sky Special on Ringside last week (I had to record it and watch it back as I was at an event).

I managed to get round to watching it last night and found my self overly excited at the upcoming Mike Tyson interview at the end of the program.

For those that didn’t see the interview, he talked about his childhood, he almost broke down when discussing his long lost mentor and father figure Cus De’Amato and he talked about the current scene in boxing (predominantly the British fighters being that it was on British TV)

Tyson himself looks like a very different person to the man of old. I have no doubt that the fire and the temper is still in there somewhere because lets be honest a person will never lose that completely. But he looked content with life and his achievements, he showed no regret regarding any aspect of his professional life (obviously convictions were never mentioned) and he even displayed a humble side when told by Johnny Nelson that “in the late 80’s the Heavyweight Division needed a fighter like him”.

Watching him as he is now was nice to see, the anger and the contempt seems to be gone and what has been left is a fan of sport itself. Tyson was always known for his knowledge of the sport and past fighters as well as being able to analyze a fighters style very effectively.

One thing Tyson said in this interview did surprise me (that he was the one to say it) and it also got me thinking that maybe it’s the problem with a lot of the up coming fighters in the boxing world today.

“This is NOT a sport for tough guys”

It’s such a simple thing to say but for a lot of fighters and to some extent fans as well, a very difficult thing to comprehend and understand in a sport like boxing that gives the impression that everyone is “tough”.  

I completely agree with Mike, a guy who believes he needs to be the toughest in the sport will only ever get so far. The fighters that go down in history as the greatest of all time will ALWAYS be the thinkers, the intelligent fighters, the fighters that can look at a situation and adapt. Weather it meant adapting to a fight going wrong or to their aging abilities.

Robinson, Ali, Louis, Jack Johnson, Leonard, Haglar, Mayweather, Barrera, Charvez and there are many many more.

All fighters who at some stage of their career have had to adjust in order to keep themselves winning fights when the body wont allow them to do it the way they had 5 years previously.

On the flip side…..Duran, La Motta, Holyfield, Walcott and even Tyson himself. All fighters that will always be mentioned in the history of the sport as some of the best (and rightfully so) but who were unable to make the adjustment’s needed to adapt and continue winning past their prime years,  resulting in a career record ending in scattered defeats to upcoming new pro’s that didn’t deserve the stars name on their record.

Like i said there is no real point or argument here but its an interesting topic to discuss i think. I can always put it in a question to help get the posts started………..

Are today’s potential stars too worried about looking “Hard” or “Tough” to realise that doing so is likely to put a disappointing end to their careers when the body no longer carriers them through against the young guns of the sport?



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