By Mike Samuels
27.07 - Back by popular demand yet again, the fans just can’t seem to keep their traps shut (and that’s a good thing)! This week we dive right into various topics. From the legacy of Bore Jones Jr., to the beginning rumors of negations between the Ukrainian Giant and Lennox Lewis, and whaddya’ know, Mike Tyson has managed to mingle his way in this puppy! My question is, WHERE IN THE FREAK is the Ruiz/Johnson mails? What about Butterball and Larry Holmes? Come on, people! Don’t you realize that the WBA (the most prestige’s belt in the world…yah, riiiiight) is on the line this weekend? Anyhow, let’s not hold you up any longer! Dive in with caution!
Hi Mike,
I think all this talk about who’s the greatest is a waist of time.The only thing I think is important, is that the boxing fans get the fights they want to see. I don’t think anybody wants to see Lewis fighting anyone else but Wlad. So here’s my suggestion. Why don’t you guys) start a poll, were the fans can choose the next opponent of Lennox ( I bet 99% want so see Wlad). And after a while you could send the result to Lennox’s promoter. At least then Lennox can’t say the fans wanted somebody else, and that’s the only thing that counts, right? My personal comment on the fight Klitschko-Lewis is that Wlad is going to wipe the ring floor with Lewis’ intestines. Lewis is just a big chump. He has no special boxing skills. The only reason why he wins a fight is his height and weight advantage to most other heavyweights. So if we take it down to maths, we could say. Klitschko = Height advantage + Weight advantage + Speed advantage + Skill advantage (Period)
But after all, I think it would be better if Lewis would retire, if he doesn’t want the rest of the world to know this equation too.
CU
Kris L
If I said it wasn’t normal to be frustrated that Lewis-Klitschko might not happen, well, then I’d be lying. As much as I want the fight to take place (as well as everyone with a brain on boxing), the fact that it may not doesn’t give the general public the right to bash Lennox Lewis’ overall career. If he wants to prove he’s the best, then let him fight Klitschko. That’s part of the territory of being champion. And if he decides to take a fat payday with Tyson again (let’s hope not) then you can expect to see the people come out of the woodwork to throw caution to the wind at the British champion.
However, the man is a champion time over. The man has avenged all his losses and has fought nearly everyone in his era (no matter how weak it may be), so you have to give the guy props for doing that. He may be boring and his style may put you to sleep, but I’ve seen many fighters in boxing that were A LOT more boring than Lennox Lewis. Not to mention that Lewis has toned his style up a bit and has been a bit more devastating in his last few fights. So at least he is trying. Because let’s be honest, he could have easily won a tactical decision over Rahman and one over Tyson, but he went out to prove a point – he starched Rahman and embarrassed Tyson – that he is the best in the world. And he did just that.
I admit that I’m not a great math student (it was hell in high school) and your theory appears correct, but it isn’t always. Lewis’ uses his size to his advantage much as Ali used his footwork, Tyson used his badass image, and Holyfield used his courage and heart. If you have the tools, why not use them to the best of your knowledge and ability? So don’t blame Lewis for being as big as he is (fast, well he’s definitely one of the slower heavyweights), otherwise you could dissect the career of EVERY fighter known to man and come up with pointless theories as to WHY THEY WERE CHAMPIONS. Perhaps Sweet Pea was only a champion because he was fast and knew how to ride a bike. Maybe Tyson was only a champion because he fought a bunch of B-rated fighters on smack. You see what I’m saying? You just have to suck it up and keep the negative out of your approach (there’s already enough negativity in the sport as we speak).
And, hey, if Lewis-Klitschko happens, get a hold of me and I will take you up on that bet of yours.
What’s up man, response to you comments on Tyson, I’ve been following his career since the start, and I’m a fan but I know if you compare him to any of the greats the general public and most of your friends will say he would lose, everyone hates him at the moment, and this has been transferred into people saying he could never fight. He has been embarrassed by a fight he shouldn’t have taken just like Ali, and just like Louis before him, but because of his past it has been seen in a very different light (apparently he always sucked). In my opinion Tyson was most certainly a great in his prime and i would place him as high as forth in listing the greatest behind Ali, Louis and Marciano. Foreman and Frazier would never in their wildest dreams have KO'ed a 1988 Tyson, he is easily the most powerful puncher the division has ever seen, but in his prime possessed enough speed to hit a bag 6 times in a second and also had amazing head movement that made him hard to hit, Foremen and Frazier may have possibly had the heart to beat him, but at this time so did Mike, and Foremen was f__kin slow. If we travel further back in time to the era of Jack Dempsey say, the heavyweight division was much smaller than Tyson, and he would have been a dominating force. Basically I’m trying to say that I have spent time trying to rate the greatest heavyweights and nobody denies how good Tyson was (if their intelligent), but no one seems to want his name to tarnish that of the greats. Anyhow go hire some old tapes and sit back and be objective but critical and I hope you can see Tyson definitely is greater than some of the so called greatest, like the glove cutting, fight fixing, draft dodging Muslim, who in his day was surly the greatest, but is he now?
I seriously enjoyed your piece up until the "glove cutting, fight fixing, draft dodging Muslim" comments. C’mon, brotha, GET REAL! Muhammad Ali is a true Muslim (that’s more than I can say for your boy, Tyson, as he is the only MUSLIM to want to eat someone’s children, stomp on the nuts of young children, and then afterwards have the sanity to PRAISE ALLAH). If Ali were using his religion as a ploy to get out of the war, then he would have changed back to Christianity immediately after the war. But the guy has been a Muslim for forty years, so get off those crazy comments. I mean, seriously, Ali could have gone to war and a bomb would have not touched him. They had it so set up that Ali would have been doing jack-off work, instead of fighting in the trenches. So I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that theory and it ticks me off to hear so-called fans rip apart at Muhammad Ali. I just get sick of it.
Tyson being the greatest of all-time is bullshit. (I’m really worked up now) I respect your opinion, but you have to be kidding me. I also have followed Tyson since day one and I have ALWAYS gone to bat for the guy (even when he did the sickest and most shameful thing in boxing by biting a CHUNK out of the Holyman’s ear), and I have NEVER denied that he was the best fighter in the late eighties. But he does not belong in a class with Frazier, Foreman, Ali, Dempsey, or EVEN Evander Holyfield (who spanked the shit out of him TWICE). It’s not because he isn’t a good fighter, but because you said it yourself – he has no heart. Frazier would have broken him down, so would Foreman. Be realistic and don’t forget that Tyson is a three-round fighter. After three-rounds if he hasn’t knocked you out, he’s a SHOT fighter (unless of course, fighters just hold on for an easy payday, ala Smith, Green, Tucker, etc). I didn’t want to believe it, but there’s no denying it now, bro.
As far as the people who think Tyson has "always sucked." Shrug their opinions off. They obviously don’t know JACK about boxing in the first place.
DEAR MIKE,
THERES SOMETHING THATS BEEN ON MY MIND EVERYTIME SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT ROY JONES THEY ALLWAYS ADD "HE'S NOT FOUGHT GOOD COMPITION IN 2 YEARS!" PLEASE! IS IT ROY'S FOUGHT THERES NO CHALLENGE IN HIS WEIGHT CLASS ROY JONES IS THE BEST BOXER IN THE LAST 15 YEARS HANDS DOWN. SO UNTILL HOPKINS "WHO IS THE ONLY ONE WHO POSES A CHALENGE." TAKES THAT 40-50 PAYDAYROY JONES WILL CONTENUE RUNNING THROUGH EVERY OBSTCALE IN HIS WAY!
WHAT DO YOU THINK MIKE?
Roy Jones is a great fighter. No matter if you respect him or not, he will go down as one of the greatest of his class (it’s not everyday that someone is a MULTI-WEIGHT champion). He is frustrating for the sport, as well as die-hard fanatics. I agree that he has cleaned out division after division (wins over Toney, X, Tate, Hill) and he has cemented his legacy as an all-time great. But on the flipside, he has let his arrogance and attitude ruin his persona. Now he doesn’t seem to care about the fans. All he is concerned with is promoting his album (whoever spent money on that, I pity you), and taking easy fights because he knows that HBO has to pay him at least FIVE MILLION a fight, even if it’s against Glen Kelly.
Hopkins is ducking Jones. I agree. Jones beat the hell out of him with ONE hand and now because Hopkins has one significant win over a BLOWN UP middleweight in Tito, he feels that he should be getting EVERYTHING he wants? Please. X didn’t even want any more of Tito and he whipped him around like he was a joke, so I honestly think that Hopkins is the one talking the talk, not Roy.
The problem with Jones Jr. is that he consistently calls out fighters he has NO INTENTION of fighting. If he wants to sit in his weight class and beat the hell out of bums, that’s fine. Nobody is asking him to do anymore than he has already done. But when you call out fighter after fighter and then nothing gets signed, fans become frustrated and start to Roy-cott. That’s the only problem anyone has with Jones. Hopefully after he wins a comfortable decision over Clinton Woods in September, he fights someone respectable. He needs a big fight to restore his greatness in my opinion. And after all, if he’s still the BEST, what’s stopping him from proving it?
To see your opinions in the next issue of Boxing’s Baddest: The Fans Speak: Issue FIVE, drop Mike Samuels a line at Tyson180@aol.com
