Tyson vs. McBride

[TNRighty]

Kevin McBride will never amount to anything as a heavyweight boxer.

To answer your questions, what I meant (and thought I clearly conveyed) is that McBride did not beat the same Tyson who 18 years ago was undoubtedly the "baddest man on the planet". Lets take the name "Tyson" out of the equation for a minute. If the person McBride had fought Saturday had the same deplorable skills we saw from Iron Mike but had the last name "Johnson", this fight would have been on an undercard in DeMoines. Again, Tyson is a name now, not a fighter.

If Tyson, a washed up has-been, is the "biggest obstacle" for any young fighter to overcome, then that doesn't say a whole lot about the state of heavyweight boxing. If that's the case, there are about 50 boxers who can easily whup the "biggest obstacle", which in my mind is more of a speedbump at this point in the game. If everybody who can beat Tyson is annointed as "the next champion", then we've got about 50 "next champions". Tyson is no longer the measuring stick, and McBride better not make more of this victory than what it is...a win over a mediocre boxer.

[Patriot]

TNR:

If you had read my last post, I said that Tyson was the biggest obstacle for Kevin "from a publicity standpoint". Now that he's ended the career of Tyson (who had, in fact, planned on winning the match), Kevin has jumped up from being ranked 153 in the world to the top 50. In addition to being major publicity victory, it was also a psychological victory-- Kevin now knows he has faced down an ex world heavyweight champion. It doesn't matter whether Tyson was in his prime or not. The fact that Kevin's now in the top 50 says something about the word "progress". I'd say, that much alone already makes him "amount to something" as a heavyweight boxer.

Mike Tyson was never the "baddest man on the planet". That's a cliche he chose for himself after managing to terrorize a few mediocre heavyweights in the late 80s. He himself never faced anyone of a superb caliber. He climbed the ladder to the top based on a flurry of offensive jabs and no level of defensive skill.

Like I said, we'll have to wait and see what happens next. But this is the 8th victory for Kevin in his past 8 fights. He's on a pure winning streak right now, and this victory over Tyson is going to boost Kevin's confidence even further. Will he have a lot of challenges ahead of him? Absolutely! Much more difficult opponents than Tyson.

But Kevin's being trained by some of the best in the business. As long as he remains above all the personal putdowns, and focuses like a laser beam on his own power, guts and stamina, I have a hunch he's going to make it a lot further than you think.

Incidentally, you seem to be out of sorts, TNR. Feeling ill or something?