Originally posted by snoochyboochies
Well of course BIG LENNOX beat an old washed up MIKE TYSON but PRIME ?! No Way!!
Well did you know about this?
Higher stakes
Lewis recalls sparring session with Tyson as amateurs
Posted: Wednesday June 05, 2002 7:03 PM
Updated: Wednesday June 05, 2002 7:27 PM
Lennox Lewis: "If he's choosing to come in and bite and scratch and kick ... I'm going to be a better man and not do those things back." AP
TUNICA, Miss. (AP) -- The year was 1984 and Lennox Lewis was an 18-year-old spoiling for a fight. He found it in the Catskills against a young terror named Mike Tyson whose reputation was already known in the amateur ranks.
Lewis needed someone to spar with and for the better part of a week he and Tyson went at each other in a makeshift gym.
Tyson wasted no time in giving Lewis a fat lip. Later, Lewis would bloody Tyson's nose.
Cus D'Amato, Tyson's mentor, watched the talented pair in the ring and thought ahead. Someday, he told the two, you will meet in a big fight.
"I didn't think it would come true," Lewis said.
It will Saturday night, and they don't come much bigger. When Lewis defends his heavyweight titles against Tyson in Memphis, Tenn., each fighter will make some $20 million in a bout that could be the richest ever.
And, if the two go after each other like they did as amateurs, it might be a fight that actually lives up to its hype.
"Just like back then it was pretty explosive," Lewis said. "I predict Saturday will be explosive."
Lewis recalled the sparring session Wednesday at a news conference at a Mississippi River casino, where soft jazz played and then Lewis played chess with a 13-year-old chess club member.
Down the river a bit, Tyson entertained a group of children bused in by the Tunica Recreation Department and who got a chance to do what reporters have not been allowed -- ask the former champion some questions.
Third grader Jamal Cornes, who may have a future as a journalist, piped up:
"Why did you bite off Evander Holfyfield's ear?"
"That was a long time ago," Tyson said, laughing.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/boxing/2002/lewis_tyson/news/2002/06/05/lewis_tyson_ap/
I've seen a clip and Lewis had the better of him -
Oh and Lennox won the Olympics - Mikes Olympic record 🙂 not to good 🙂
More on what happened as youths
Boxing
Tyson, Lewis share a past
Heavyweight foes trained together during amateur days
By Dan Rafael / USA TODAY
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SCOTRUN, Pa. Over the course of one week in April 1984, two future heavyweight champions went at each other in a series of amateur sparring sessions in Catskill, N.Y., that were tempered by a friendly relationship outside the ring.
Eighteen years later that fleeting friendship is gone, replaced by sound bites of Mike Tyson threatening to kill Lennox Lewis, vivid images of their Jan. 22 news conference brawl -- and doubts their heavyweight title bout in Memphis will really take place Saturday.
Lewis was 18 and Tyson 17 when they first met half a life ago, but Lewis remembers.
"He gave me a fat lip, and I gave him a bloody mouth," Lewis says of their sparring as he sits on the ring apron at his Pocono Mountains training camp, only an hour or so drive from where those sessions played out. "One time he smiled at me and there was pure blood in his mouth."
Lewis had won the 1983 junior world championships a few months earlier in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and would go on to further amateur glory.
Representing Canada, after moving from England at 11, Lewis boxed in two Olympics and won a gold medal in 1988 before launching a pro career and winning the heavyweight crown three times.
Tyson, also a promising amateur, was training in 1984 under the guidance of mentor Cus D'Amato in the Catskill Mountains. A little more than two years later Tyson would be crowned the youngest heavyweight champion in history after demolishing Trevor Berbick in two rounds.
Tyson was supposed to represent the United States in Santo Domingo in 1983. But with the country in the midst of occupying nearby Grenada, combined with D'Amato's fear of flying, Tyson stayed home.
Still, D'Amato wondered how Tyson would have fared against Lewis and invited him and Arnie Boehm, his amateur coach, to the Catskills so the young fighters could spar.
Lewis and Boehm flew from Ontario to Albany, N.Y., where D'Amato, then-assistant trainer Kevin Rooney and Tyson picked them up for the drive back to Catskill.
The story goes that the 5-11 Tyson took the back seat, but only because the 6-4 Lewis was taller and needed the legroom.
The ride was quiet, but by the time they arrived "they were laughing and joking and carrying on like old buddies," Boehm told The Record, the newspaper in Kitchener, Ontario, where Lewis lived as a teen.
Although they got along well, Lewis got a glimpse of Tyson's rage in the opening moments of their first sparring session, when Tyson gave him a bloody nose.
"The bell rang and all of a sudden, Tyson just turned into an animal," Boehm told the paper.
"Mike came charging across the ring like a raging tiger, like a man possessed."
When that first session was over, Lewis and Tyson were back hanging out together.
But as they boxed more rounds, Lewis began to assert himself.
And, as Boehm recalled, "By the end of the fourth or fifth session, Lennox was taunting Mike. Lennox was laughing at him, playing with him.
"Mike said, 'Come on, come on, hit me you (SOB).' And Cus said, 'That's enough, Mike,' and it stopped right there."
Rooney, who still lives in Catskill, has a more hazy recollection of that week but he does remember the sessions at the Catskill Boxing Club, above the local police station.
"Mike more than held his own with Lennox," Rooney says.
"Mike did good with him, and Lewis didn't dominate. We brought him up because we were having a hard time getting sparring for Mike and we'd heard about Lewis."
When his visit to the Catskills was over, Lewis says that D'Amato told him that he and Tyson were "destined" to fight each other as pros.
"At that time, Cus D'Amato actually said we would meet one day -- and it's coming true," Lewis says of the trainer who died in 1985 at 77.
"It's unbelievable that he could have that kind of foresight."
Says Rooney: "I can see Cus saying that in a serious manner. Cus could visualize things like that."
Just talk
Lewis says he doesn't take the threats too seriously.
"Mike Tyson has always been saying things," he says with a shrug. "He's always carrying on.
"Through life there's evolution, and he's shown that he hasn't graduated. After a while we need to self-teach, and he's obviously not teaching himself. He sounds like a cartoon character when he says those things. To me, it's coming from an ignorant person.
"I think he's talking for his own benefit. He's done it in the past. He said things about Evander Holyfield and what he wanted to do. But did he do it? No."
Lewis says he's not treating the fight as a battle of good (Lewis) vs. evil (Tyson) as some are portraying it.
Instead Lewis simply wants to win -- and win "honorably."
"Even if he bites or kicks or scratches, I will be a better man not to do those things back. It's not an example to set," Lewis says.
"I know he's going to come straight after me, and he's under the delusion that I'm going to run away.
"The only thing he knows to do is come running straight ahead. It's the same thing he did when we were kids.
"I'm glad this fight has finally come about. I've been waiting for this fight for a long time."
Good stuff mate. Yes I do remember all this now but it still doesn't change my opinion. Olympics is amateur boxing and very different to the PROS(someone who is very defensive and stays away could win in amateurs by scoring with taps that wouldn't even be counted in the pros). I love Lennox and cheered for him to beat Tyson but I still believe a prime Tyson would do 'im.
Originally posted by snoochyboochies
Good stuff mate. Yes I do remember all this now but it still doesn't change my opinion. Olympics is amateur boxing and very different to the PROS(someone who is very defensive and stays away could win in amateurs by scoring with taps that wouldn't even be counted in the pros). I love Lennox and cheered for him to beat Tyson but I still believe a prime Tyson would do 'im.
I lovEd Tyson in his prime also, but I believe he beat most of his opponents before they got in the ring. As soon as people were not scared he lost.
Originally posted by jerlark386
Pyshics is'nt limited to weight vs. weight. There is also pounds of pressure, location, distance,leverage, timing. There are also other factors to include as well. Is the fighter under emotional stress? Did he just break up with a girlfriend? Hell, you could even include what the fighter ate for breakfast. There is even a probable situation where I could beat bruce lee.Consider a handgun. It weighs much less than Bruce Lee or Ali. Which deals more damage?
Real fights are'nt about fairness.
So tell me, what do you know about physics?
I am completly aware that physics isn't limited to weight vs. weight....pressure location, distance, velocity, speed, impact, arm length.... i could go on but i'm sure you get my point... ....and about the handgun comment....no...your'e missing the point...Person to Person....
Weight, Power, Speed, Emotional Stress, Mental Training, Will Power, Endurance, experience and these are only a few of the factors that affect the fight...sooo eeeya....This is what i was talking about....You're done...
Originally posted by DenKi
You fools, look at the Body Size difference.... Ali would be big and all muscle and Lee would be skinny with some muscle, Lee could kick/push Ali and he wouldnt feel much seeing as hes a BOXER..Use your brains please.....Its COMMEN SENSE
that is bullshit, bruce lee defeated kareem abdul jabbar with a single kick{kareem abdul jabbar or whatever his name was was one of the tallest men in the world, he is that african guy in game of death} bruce lee's muscles were nuthing short of perfection, people who got hit by his kicks even while wearing chest plates would think that they might have died and would stop breathing for some time. ur crazy if u think ali is not gonna feal anything cause hes a BOXER
Originally posted by leonheartmm
that is bullshit, bruce lee defeated kareem abdul jabbar with a single kick{kareem abdul jabbar or whatever his name was was one of the tallest men in the world, he is that african guy in game of death} bruce lee's muscles were nuthing short of perfection, people who got hit by his kicks even while wearing chest plates would think that they might have died and would stop breathing for some time. ur crazy if u think ali is not gonna feal anything cause hes a BOXER
Hs actual strength and training was examined pages back - he is a very weak small man.
just an actor
Originally posted by leonheartmm
that is bullshit, bruce lee defeated kareem abdul jabbar with a single kick{kareem abdul jabbar or whatever his name was was one of the tallest men in the world, he is that african guy in game of death} bruce lee's muscles were nuthing short of perfection, people who got hit by his kicks even while wearing chest plates would think that they might have died and would stop breathing for some time. ur crazy if u think ali is not gonna feal anything cause hes a BOXER
Thats a movie
Originally posted by leonheartmm
that is bullshit, bruce lee defeated kareem abdul jabbar with a single kick{kareem abdul jabbar or whatever his name was was one of the tallest men in the world, he is that african guy in game of death} bruce lee's muscles were nuthing short of perfection, people who got hit by his kicks even while wearing chest plates would think that they might have died and would stop breathing for some time. ur crazy if u think ali is not gonna feal anything cause hes a BOXER
it seems as if you have no common sense.... Kareem abdul jabbar ...it's a movie ok...and if they really fought it's cause kareem is a basketball player and brucey is a martial artist....how would you feel if you were taking martial arts and you fought your master...it wouldn't feel right and you'd lose...if you can come up with the evidence to back up what you say then i'll believe it ... until then Ali wins...