BOXING NEWS last week were asking what Mike Tyson‘s best and worst performances were.
I was surprised to see that three members of the team placed his demolition of Michael Spinks as his best performance when Michael was only a blown up light-heavyweight. Although he was world champion at that weight, and a good one at that, we all know that a good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un. Probably the two greatest light-heavyweights were Archie Moore and Bob Foster and we all know what happened to them when trying to capture the heavyweight championship of the world.
In the same issue I turned over to the next page of our Boxing News and there was Brian Rose telling all and sundry that he had finished with domestic level fights two years ago. Brian is quoted as saying he is using that defeat to Demetrius Andrade as a learning curve. Well if I had ever taken a beating like he’d taken in his foray into world level I would have had a massive re-think and got back to domestic level and learn my trade all over again. The wording in the article was that he was unsuccessful in his challenge against the WBO’s champion Andrade, the only thing Brian was successful at on that fateful night was his ring walk to the fight. The rest is best forgotten, and if he beats Carson Jones, who incidentally is not a top ranked fighter nowadays, he needs to think about top domestic fights, because there are plenty of top British and European light-middleweights that need seeing to first.
One Brit that did look world class in his last fight was Kevin Mitchell, he looked brilliant and he could beat WBC champion Jorge Linares but can he produce two performances of that level on the trot? It won’t happen, but I would like to see him in with one of our top lightweights next and see if he can repeat the performance before a world title shot. He’s a great talent that seems to have something wayward in his lifestyle, but hopefully that has been rectified. Another fighter who has seemed to pull his wayward self round is my old buddy Derry Mathews. Now with Derry you know what to expect and that is 110 per cent effort, a never say die attitude, a fair touch of skill and a goodnight Vienna punch. Whether that will be enough to beat Richar Abril for the world title, I don’t know but I hope so he deserves it.
WE SPEAK TO MIKE TYSON’S CONQUERORS…
Douglas: “What had been a wonderful childhood dream come true became a nightmare…”
Holyfield: “Mike looked at me and I looked at Mike, I made it clear that whatever he did, however he played, I would do it all night…”
Lewis: “All of a sudden Tyson turned into King Kong. Where did that guy come from?…”
Williams: “It was the second or third round when I just thought, ‘Forget it, I’m going to war with you.’…”
McBride: “Thank God he had the mouthpiece in, or I’d be the only guy in Ireland with just one nipple…”
…IN BOXING NEWS’ EXCLUSIVE AND IN-DEPTH FEATURE. DO NOT MISS OUT!
