Originally posted by Benny Leonard
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It's interesting hearing how an opponent can face Fighter-A and say Fighter-B hit harder...then have another fighter that faced those same two fighters and say Fighter A hit harder than Fighter B.
Of course in this case, and even though Power is said to be the last thing to go, Shavers was around 36/37 ???...but Tyson was still only 19 so he still had room to grow in the strength/power department as well. Not sure how that works.
Article:
The 19-year-old man-child snorted in disgust and stepped back to compose himself. This was an unusual move for young Mike Tyson. Until Saturday's fight with James (Quick) Tillis at the Glens Falls ( N.Y.) Civic Center, he had rarely taken a backward step in a boxing ring. Clearly, Tyson was nonplussed. He had moved up in fighting class, and it showed.
Tillis had befuddled Tyson by absorbing or tying up his insistent hammers for the better part of four rounds, and this moment of indecision appeared to offer Tillis his best chance to shake up the boxing world. "Now," thought Tillis. "Now's the time." He threw caution and balance to the wind and launched his best left hook, intending to circle Tyson's peek-a-boo defense. The hook missed. Tyson, presented at last with an unprotected target, fired a short left hook. It was not his best punch—not by a long shot—but it landed cleanly on Tillis's jaw.
Tillis's eyes rolled back as he went sprawling to the canvas with 13 seconds left in Round 4. Tillis was grateful for the bell. Once his head stopped ringing, he would get back where he belonged. He would show this ferocious kid how one survives in the ring. Let somebody else suffer the consequences of trading haymakers with Mike Tyson. "I've heard of baby-sitting," Tillis said later, "but this is ridiculous."
"It's tough to hit shadows," Tillis's manager, Beau Williford, had said just before the fight, and with that knockdown as a warning, Tillis went back to ducking Tyson's bombs while occasionally punching out smart combinations. At times Tillis made Tyson look awkward, but mainly Quick merely survived. The battered and bloodied Tillis lost in a 10-round unanimous decision, though he became the first fighter to go the distance with the man-child. That accomplishment just might be worth an asterisk one day.
Such is life for Tyson, who of late can't seem to win for winning. "He punches harder than Earnie Shavers," Tillis said as Tyson came into the interview room after the fight. "Boy, you punch harder than...."
Tyson received the compliment with a knitted brow. He was not in a particularly good mood, though he had just won his 20th-straight pro fight and had handled his 28-year-old opponent with relative ease. And he was still just 19 years old. The trouble with being Mike Tyson is that you can't become heavyweight champion soon enough to suit the world. The world takes one look at your sculpted 215 pounds, your ominous glower, your wrecking-ball punches and says, "That's my champion." It reads wondrous things about you in Rolling Stone and Advertising Age and thinks, "Well, come on now." But Tyson isn't the champ. Not yet.
"Some people want to rush Mike," says Jimmy Jacobs, his co-manager. "The object isn't for him to fight for the heavyweight championship. The object is for him to win the heavyweight championship." So everybody, including Tyson, will have to keep his shirt on for a while. That may be harder for Tyson than for anyone else.
After he had won his previous fight, a third-round knockout of a tomato can named Steve Zouski in Uniondale, N.Y. on March 10, he felt he had to apologize for not dispatching Zouski in a more expeditious fashion. "I'm having personal problems," Tyson said. He is still very much a 19-year-old. As such, he yearns quite understandably for the joys of youth, joys that are usually denied a working heavyweight contender. "Girlfriend problems" is co-manager Bill Cay-ton's succinct diagnosis.
It seems that Tyson sometimes goes a little stir-crazy up in the Catskills, with nobody but trainer Kevin Rooney, "stepmother" Camille Ewald, a few pet pigeons and some sparring partners to keep him company. "I was running around looking for girls," Tyson says. "Girls were looking real good to me.
But I had to decide, did I want to hang out at night, did I want to be a playboy?
"I decided I didn't."
Of course in this case, and even though Power is said to be the last thing to go, Shavers was around 36/37 ???...but Tyson was still only 19 so he still had room to grow in the strength/power department as well. Not sure how that works.
Article:
The 19-year-old man-child snorted in disgust and stepped back to compose himself. This was an unusual move for young Mike Tyson. Until Saturday's fight with James (Quick) Tillis at the Glens Falls ( N.Y.) Civic Center, he had rarely taken a backward step in a boxing ring. Clearly, Tyson was nonplussed. He had moved up in fighting class, and it showed.
Tillis had befuddled Tyson by absorbing or tying up his insistent hammers for the better part of four rounds, and this moment of indecision appeared to offer Tillis his best chance to shake up the boxing world. "Now," thought Tillis. "Now's the time." He threw caution and balance to the wind and launched his best left hook, intending to circle Tyson's peek-a-boo defense. The hook missed. Tyson, presented at last with an unprotected target, fired a short left hook. It was not his best punch—not by a long shot—but it landed cleanly on Tillis's jaw.
Tillis's eyes rolled back as he went sprawling to the canvas with 13 seconds left in Round 4. Tillis was grateful for the bell. Once his head stopped ringing, he would get back where he belonged. He would show this ferocious kid how one survives in the ring. Let somebody else suffer the consequences of trading haymakers with Mike Tyson. "I've heard of baby-sitting," Tillis said later, "but this is ridiculous."
"It's tough to hit shadows," Tillis's manager, Beau Williford, had said just before the fight, and with that knockdown as a warning, Tillis went back to ducking Tyson's bombs while occasionally punching out smart combinations. At times Tillis made Tyson look awkward, but mainly Quick merely survived. The battered and bloodied Tillis lost in a 10-round unanimous decision, though he became the first fighter to go the distance with the man-child. That accomplishment just might be worth an asterisk one day.
Such is life for Tyson, who of late can't seem to win for winning. "He punches harder than Earnie Shavers," Tillis said as Tyson came into the interview room after the fight. "Boy, you punch harder than...."
Tyson received the compliment with a knitted brow. He was not in a particularly good mood, though he had just won his 20th-straight pro fight and had handled his 28-year-old opponent with relative ease. And he was still just 19 years old. The trouble with being Mike Tyson is that you can't become heavyweight champion soon enough to suit the world. The world takes one look at your sculpted 215 pounds, your ominous glower, your wrecking-ball punches and says, "That's my champion." It reads wondrous things about you in Rolling Stone and Advertising Age and thinks, "Well, come on now." But Tyson isn't the champ. Not yet.
"Some people want to rush Mike," says Jimmy Jacobs, his co-manager. "The object isn't for him to fight for the heavyweight championship. The object is for him to win the heavyweight championship." So everybody, including Tyson, will have to keep his shirt on for a while. That may be harder for Tyson than for anyone else.
After he had won his previous fight, a third-round knockout of a tomato can named Steve Zouski in Uniondale, N.Y. on March 10, he felt he had to apologize for not dispatching Zouski in a more expeditious fashion. "I'm having personal problems," Tyson said. He is still very much a 19-year-old. As such, he yearns quite understandably for the joys of youth, joys that are usually denied a working heavyweight contender. "Girlfriend problems" is co-manager Bill Cay-ton's succinct diagnosis.
It seems that Tyson sometimes goes a little stir-crazy up in the Catskills, with nobody but trainer Kevin Rooney, "stepmother" Camille Ewald, a few pet pigeons and some sparring partners to keep him company. "I was running around looking for girls," Tyson says. "Girls were looking real good to me.
But I had to decide, did I want to hang out at night, did I want to be a playboy?"I decided I didn't."
Ivich
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