Lewis & Tyson Fight

[SMOKE JENSEN]

in an earlier thread i said i was having a problem picking a winner. since then i have watched a lot of recent lewis & tyson fights from my video fight library. and i have devoted a lot of thinking to this fight. for better or worse. this is my conclusion.

to use an old gil clancy line. i believe this fight will come down to not who is the better pitcher. but who is the better catcher. that in my opion is tyson. he takes a better punch. in order to give some. lewis is going to have to take some. i believe at some point tyson will catch him. at that point i believe lewis will react the same way he always has when he gets caught. knocked out. a lot of people talk about tyson being past his prime and too old. while i agree he is not as good as in the past. lets not forget lewis is older. and lets also remember that just two fights ago lewis was laid out on the canvas wondering what happened. by rahman, who has nowhere the punching power of tyson or the mad dog meanness.

while lewis is the better boxer. tyson is the better fighter. he is also meaner. lewis has done a lot of talking about not being afraid of tyson. i don't believe that. no man who has been knocked out twice by fighters with nowhere near tysons power. can not have it in the back of their minds. "what if he catches me". i don't believe it. my opion, his best route to winning is to run and hold all night and hope for a decision.

i believe the fight will be an exciting and brutal fight. i believe tyson knocks lewis out in 8 rounds or less. i also have heard from a cousin of mine in the memphis area that tyson is working a lot on head movement . weaving and bobbing. if this is true. it will make it harder for lewis to find him. and also easier for tyson to get inside. tyson by ko in 8 or less.

 

[badjab]

Tyson has probably the best technique of any heavyweight and mastered the peek-a-boo style (used by Patterson and taught by Cus D'Amato) better than anyone. He is not as strong as Lewis but can probably throw an equally effective punch because he manages to get such good leverage on his punches. Mike used to enter the ring with an aura of invincibility that caused many opponents to give up before the fight started. That said, he is not the same fighter he once was. Tyson's quickness and movement used to make him very difficult to hit. In his last fight with a decent heavyweight, Holyfield was able to pummel him at will. Frans Botha, the slower than a mule, water-buffalo even gave him fits before getting caught with a vicious shot in the fifth round. He does have the element of crazy on his side and that could make him unpredictable.

In any contest where Lewis felt his opposition was formidable (Ruddock, Grant, Golata, Tua, Holyfield) he has come to fight. His lapses have been against fighters (McCall, Rahman) that he didnt' consider potential threats and didn't even bother to train for. Lewis will be motivated to make Tyson look bad and I don't think that will involve jabbing, clinching, and running away. I think Lewis will take the fight to Mike and look to drop him -- besides, it seems the best way to fight Tyson is straight ahead. I think Lennox gets his knockout within 5 rounds or Tyson has a breakdown and quits.

 

[TheShrimp]

To me, its just a question of what Mike looks like when he shows up.

I would love to see the young fighter who could slip anything and couldn't be touched get inside those jabs and start throwing from those strange angles at lewis' chin. Love it. I just don't know how much time has slowed him, whether he has the head to stay with a game plan when he gets behind, etc. etc.

I like to hear that he's working on his head movement. He sets up his power shots off slips and blocks instead of off jabs (which always made him interesting).

I think I'm just going to put some beer money on Tyson. I have a friend willing to take it at +190/-190. I still think a Tyson DQ is a likely outcome but I'm hoping he has his will determined to be a champion again. Most of all, just hoping for a good fight.

My breakdown :

Lewis by KO : 35%
Tyson by KO : 25%
Lewis by Dec: 20%
Tyson by Dec: 5%
Tyson DQ'ed : 15%

For lines, I've seen :
+170/-210 at WWTS
+150/-190 at WSEX
+190/-220 at Carib <- nice price on Tyson
+145/-185 at SIA <- nice price on Lewis

So shop around.

TheShrimp

 

[SMOKE JENSEN]

i agree with you badjab on the DQ possibility. if tyson feels like lewis has fouled him. he might do something to get DQ. but also i think we have to be fair on one thing concerning tyson. in the douglas fight & the first holyfield fight. both of which i think were excellant high contact fights. things were not going tysons way in both of them fights. and yet he did no fouling. he punched and got punched. and did that all the way until he at last got stopped. tyson felt like in the 2nd holyfield fight that he was headbutted in purpose. feeling that mills lane did not do enough. he resorted to street fighting. where there are no rules. the man will do this if he feels like he is being fouled. tyson has a bad temper. but before the 2nd holyfield fight. he never resorted to fouling before. i don't believe lewis will do any fouling. that's not in his nature. so maybe that chance of a DQ is remote.

 

[SMOKE JENSEN]

i didn't know it until today. but i read that lewis & tyson have it in their contracts that if one of them commits a foul that causes the fight to be stopped. that fighter has to pay the other 3 million. hopefully that leaves a chance of a DQ a long shot. i still think this fight comes down to who is the better catcher. not the better pitcher. i still think that is tyson. tyson in 8 or less. its 8:30. and i'm pumped for this to start.

 

[SMOKE JENSEN]

i said this fight would come down to who was the better catcher. not the better pitcher. well lewis did all the pitching. congrats to all the lewis backers. i was wrong. congrats to tyson on how he responded after the fight. not a great fight. after round 1. all lewis. well, waiting on the two mexicans.

 

[gardenweasel]

morales-barrera 2

morales-barrera 2

this will rival gatti-ward(maybe even outdo it)as these two hombres are on a different skill level than gatti or ward....for me,this is the most highly anticipated fight of the year.