MIKE TYSON IS NAMED THE SECOND GREATEST BOXER!

MIKE TYSON TOOK ALI'S FOOTSTEPS.

PHOTO CREDIT: WARNER BROS

BY:REFENTSE MAKGAMATHA



 

Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times , including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno.

 A quick reminder, Larry Holmes is the man who defeated Muhammad Ali at his prime and Muhammad actually asked Tyson to beat Larry for him. From the day Tyson made it to the ring, Ali saw potential in him which is quite rare for the late egotistic former champion.

In 1990, he lost his titles to underdog Buster Douglas, who knocked Tyson out in the tenth round. Attempting to regain the titles, Tyson defeated Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991, but pulled out of a fight with then-undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield (who had defeated Douglas later in 1990) due to injury.

Tyson had pressure as a black man to make the great Ali proud though he fumbled here and there.

Tyson fought Holmes in January of '88. Holmes was 38 years old and coming off a two-year layoff. For three rounds, the old man used everything he could -- his height, his infamous jab, his experience -- to prevent Tyson's full-out charge. But in the fourth, the animal was unleashed. The last minute of the fight was the longest of Holmes' wonderful career. It started with one of the most beautiful combos in heavyweight history. Larry was too proud to let one knockdown stop him, but lunging Tyson hook after lunging Tyson hook kept connecting. With seven seconds left in the round, the third knockdown squashed the fading legend.

No one had ever done that to Larry Holmes, before or after that fight. In 75 matches, it was his only knockout loss."But I had to win that fight because I made a promise, you see," Tyson said.A promise?"No one knows this story, man. It's kind of a secret. About the promise I made."Promise to who?"Muhammad, man. I made him the promise. I owed it to him. Because of what happened between Holmes and Ali."

Months before Muhammad Ali's death, Mike Tyson paid Ali a visit as old as he was, unable to mumble a thing. Ali's humour never died as he showed Tyson his shaking fists and trying to keep a mean face on. The two got along very well, but Tyson lives on to train even more young boxers, so that they might also have a GREAT ROLE MODEL.