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On March 6th,1985, Mike Tyson made his professional debut. He knocked out tomato can Hector Mercedes at 1:47 of the first round. Later that month, on March 15th, 1985, Larry Holmes improved his record to 47-0 by stopping 14-0 David Bey at 2:58 of the 10th round. With the win, he also made the 18th consecutive defense of his heavyweight championship.
Forget those two fights ever happened. Match them up in that month, of that year. March, 1985. 0-0 Tyson Vs. 46-0 Larry Holmes.
Do you want to know what happens? Tyson gets beaten. Badly. Do you want to know why? Because a boxer needs to be developed correctly. A boxer needs to have his confidence built, he needs to learn ring generalship, and he needs to learn on the job about what to do when certain things happen. Cuts, point deductions, gassing out, an opponent fighting dirty, an opponent who can take his punch, how to rest, how to cater to the judges. Among many, many other things. Now, that's usually no big deal, because those things can be learned against lesser fighters in the ring, and serve as experience for when the fighter gets his moment in the sun with that big fight.
Tyson was 27-0 when he won the championship. In Tyson's case, that meant 74 professional rounds before he stepped into the sun for his moment. He went the distance in ten round bouts twice during that 27-0 stretch. He fought decent fighters like Marvis Frazier, James Tillis, and Jesse Ferguson during that stretch. He learned a lot, and he needed to. He knew he needed to, Cus knew he needed to, his whole damn team knew he needed to.
Not a single rational person on this planet will argue that 0-0 Conor is a better boxer than 0-0 Tyson. You would also be hard pressed to find someone who thinks the 35 year old, 46-0 Larry Holmes that we're talking about here, is a better boxer than the 40 year old, 49-0 Floyd Mayweather.
Yet, here we are. Five days out from MayMac, and some of you fools think Conor is going to stroll into Las Vegas, and lay out the greatest defensive fighter of this generation out with a straight left hand.
Why?
Forget those two fights ever happened. Match them up in that month, of that year. March, 1985. 0-0 Tyson Vs. 46-0 Larry Holmes.
Do you want to know what happens? Tyson gets beaten. Badly. Do you want to know why? Because a boxer needs to be developed correctly. A boxer needs to have his confidence built, he needs to learn ring generalship, and he needs to learn on the job about what to do when certain things happen. Cuts, point deductions, gassing out, an opponent fighting dirty, an opponent who can take his punch, how to rest, how to cater to the judges. Among many, many other things. Now, that's usually no big deal, because those things can be learned against lesser fighters in the ring, and serve as experience for when the fighter gets his moment in the sun with that big fight.
Tyson was 27-0 when he won the championship. In Tyson's case, that meant 74 professional rounds before he stepped into the sun for his moment. He went the distance in ten round bouts twice during that 27-0 stretch. He fought decent fighters like Marvis Frazier, James Tillis, and Jesse Ferguson during that stretch. He learned a lot, and he needed to. He knew he needed to, Cus knew he needed to, his whole damn team knew he needed to.
Not a single rational person on this planet will argue that 0-0 Conor is a better boxer than 0-0 Tyson. You would also be hard pressed to find someone who thinks the 35 year old, 46-0 Larry Holmes that we're talking about here, is a better boxer than the 40 year old, 49-0 Floyd Mayweather.
Yet, here we are. Five days out from MayMac, and some of you fools think Conor is going to stroll into Las Vegas, and lay out the greatest defensive fighter of this generation out with a straight left hand.
Why?
