Muhammad Ali (56-5, 37 KOs) is widely viewed as the greatest heavyweight of all time. During his long and illustrious career, Ali has the unique distinction of being the only three time lineal heavyweight champion in the rich history of professional boxing.
The date of November 22 is an indelible one in the minds of all Americans. This was the date, back in 1963, that America lost its potentially greatest President; while in the far, far less unimportant world of sports – boxing to be exact – November 22 saw the birth of one heavyweight legend and the departure of another.
IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is ready to put himself in the same class as boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson if he can beat champions Deontay Wilder [WBC] and Joseph Parker [WBO] next year. Joshua feels he’ll be mentioned with those greats when/if he defeats Parker and Wilder.
Heavyweight legend Larry Holmes has heaped a ton of praise on new heavyweight star Anthony Joshua while at the same time he has surely annoyed a whole lot of Mike Tyson fans. Speaking recently and quoted by The Express, Holmes came out with the claim that prime-for-prime Joshua would KO Tyson.
Thirty long years ago today, a peak, or near-peak “Iron” Mike Tyson retained his heavyweight titles with a quite ruthless, nasty display of utter dominance. Tyson met a fighter he disliked in Tyrell Biggs and what was seen by some as a possible test for Tyson turned out to be something of a massacre.
Though Biggs, then unbeaten and having captured attention due to his winning of the 1984 Olympic gold medal up at super-heavyweight, had a decent opening round in which he used his height, his speed and his educated left jab to good effect, Biggs was doomed as soon as he signed the contract. Tyson disliked his 15-0 challenger – so jealous was he of him due to his own failure to make the team for Los Angeles in ’84 – and how it showed.
According to a short story that appears courtesy of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the on/off/on Mike Tyson biopic is very much on, with Jamie Foxx signed on the play Tyson and film giant Martin Scorsese signed on to direct.
“It’s on, as of right now,” Tyson said yesterday during an interview at SPI’s offices. “Jamie Foxx has signed on for it. Filming hasn’t started yet, but it’s going to happen.”
Was it really thirty years ago – three full decades; a generation – when a peak Mike Tyson put all the heavyweight belts around his 34” waist? It was indeed, as hard as it may be to believe for fight fans who were mere teenagers at the time.
It was August 1st, 1987 when a 21 year old “Iron” Mike met 28 year old Tony “TNT” Tucker in Las Vegas. The fight between the two unbeaten heavyweights was dubbed “The Ultimate,” and with everything but the lineal heavyweight title on the line, such a tag-line was apt.
Finally they are silent – for now. We’ve been “treated” to plenty of hype, nastiness, fun and games and, most notably, trash-talking these past four days; courtesy of Floyd Mayweather Junior and Conor McGregor. And, perhaps surprisingly, it is McGregor who gets most votes when it comes to who had the fastest, smartest mouth during the four-day press tour; with the MMA star getting off better, more amusing lines than his upcoming August ring rival.
Trash-talking has of course been around the sport of boxing for decades, with it today being as big a part of the game as stare-downs, catch-weight fights and rematch clauses. Trash-talking can be fun; if it’s done right. Mayweather, for once, found himself out-talked by McGregor (rest assured Floyd will make him pay in the fight next month) but “Money” is usually on the money when it comes to hurling both amusing and effective (effective at rattling his opponent) insults.
Here on the celebration of Mike Tyson’s 51st birthday – and just two days and 20 years on from the former heavyweight champ’s infamous “Bite Fight” with Evander Holyfield – it might be interesting to ask: who was the greater fighter, Tyson or Holyfield?
Dubbed, for obvious reasons, “The Bite Fight,” the return meeting between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson shocked the entire world like no other boxing match in history. Or rather it was the events in the third round, and the subsequent events that followed, that caused the enormous shock.
Twenty years have passed since that incredible night at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and no-one who was there has forgotten what happened – even if plenty of them, such as Sky Sports commentator Glenn McCrory, would like to forget.