Actually fuck both of them. They should have fought five years ago.
I have watched boxing since I was a little boy. My dad would watch all the great middleweights, Duran, Hearns, Haggler, Leonard and then came along guys like James Toney, Roy Jones Jr, Bernard Hopkins, Calzaghe.
The Chavez, Whitaker, De La Hoya fights were awesome. So were they Tyson, Holyfield, Foreman, Bowe days. I love boxing. To the casual boxing fan it hasn't been good since those days, but to someone who watches more boxing than they do any other sport there has been good boxing, but it has all been middleweight and below. There hasn't been any action in the Heavyweights since the early 2000's really. The Klitschko's have all but dominated other than a stint where Lennox Lewis had the belts. No big guys, no one watches.
I'm just glad all the casual boxing fans can go back to not acting like they care about boxing.
Let me casually say, lick me.
But srsly, I used to be right there witcha' which is why I mentioned one of the greatest periods of boxing, in my book anyway. Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Benitez, Duran.... Yeah, the round 1 war between Hearns and Hagler that WE posted was something you don't see much of in any fight. But those guys during that time genuinely didn't like each other and they showed up to give the fans what they paid for.
As for Tyson, just not sure where to put the guy in the overall picture of heavyweights history. I tend to think he doesn't rate very high. No doubt, the guy was "Must watch TV", especially in his early career. Black trunks, black shoes, no socks....bell rings and he moves forward and throws every single punch with the intent of knocking his opponent in the 5th row. Never been seen before to that extent. But honestly, the heavyweight division was horrible back then and they basically lined up a dozen or so tomato cans for Tyson to destroy. As soon as he and Cus split and the competition level picked up, he became less of this indestructible machine with each passing year.
Oh, anyone who follows boxing even a little bit knows who Teddy Atlas is. Check out this little tidbit from teh Wiki's. (Which means it must be true.
)
Teddy Atlas trained as an amateur boxer with Hall of Fame trainer Cus D'Amato. He had some amateur fights but had to turn to training due to a back injury. Atlas was an assistant to D'Amato, although his role in the Catskill Boxing Club was short-lived. His duties included assisting in the training of D'Amato's teenage protégé Mike Tyson. However, Atlas left the camp in 1981 following an altercation with the 15 year old Tyson after Tyson had been sexually inappropriate with a 12 year old female relative of Atlas's (Tyson said he had grabbed the girl's buttocks). Atlas put a .38 caliber handgun to Tyson's ear and told him to never touch his family again or he would kill him if he did.[3] This altercation between Atlas and a young Mike Tyson led to Atlas' dismissal from the Catskill Boxing Club and he was told he was no longer welcome in D'Amato's home or around any of his adopted children (his fighters whom he had legally adopted, Tyson included).