Tyson's retirement - Start the decline in Boxing???

Will this guy ever be replaced?? Or has politics come too far for there ever to be anybody like him....

Can't speak for anybody else but Tyson transcended like no one else in Boxing had since Ali!!!!....Schwarzenegger type status!!

Your Mother..your teachers..everybody knew who the guy was...It was Tyson this..Tyson that!!!

Unfortunately a lot has happened since he quit!!! all of it negative.....Titles galore....super this...diamond this!!! ..people rightly are past caring..

Certainly titles were more important back in the day and Tyson only had three to unite!!!

Also he was built up on cable...before the move to ppv....rarely happens these days..certainly on this side of the pond..

Sad thing is I don't think If Tyson came a long now he'd transcend...I just think Boxing has killed itself to the extent that people are past caring...

When people become apathetic about something like they did post-Tyson ...slime-lick like the alphabet boys take advantage of the situation...

As there aren't as much people interested....

The Ring..Ko all died on their backside post Tyson.....

For me when Tyson went so did Boxing as we knew it!!! and it's sad..

Absolutely.

but for me it started when Douglas untangled the myth by knocking Tyson out in Tokyo. Before that Tyson was a real celebrity. Everyone in the media wanted a piece of him. This gave boxing a huge profile. When he lost Douglas became champ but he was not box office.

Its a very good point, although for me the boxings decline began when Lewis retired. Lewis was probably the greatest heavyweight in history apart from Ali, who will never be equalled. Once Lewis retired there were no great heavyweights left in the division so I have always viewed Lewis as the last of the Mohicans so to speak. I dont think any of the heavyweights around nowadays would last more than a coupe of rounds with the likes of Lewis or Tyson so is it any wonder interest has all but disappeared?

Think Boxing was on the rocks before Lewis.......Although what helped Tyson was that their were a fair few "Characters" around with him....

Beautifully marketed was Iron Mike!! Lewis reign was greeted with apathy in much of the USA.........

de la hoya retiring, mayweathers inactivity, and pacquaios supposedly poor choices in opponents have all damaged boxing in recent years. dont think lewis retiring has hurt boxing, just moved its focus to other parts of europe. tyson was different, he was loved and more importantly hated worldwide, im sure boxing lost a lot of casual and even some more hardcore fans with his demise.

Tyson was certainly a huge star but i feel the end of the Golden age of Hagler, Hearns, Duran and Leonard had a bigger negative impact on the sport. After so many years of huge fights between 4 genuine superstars it all went a bit flat in their absence.

Anytime after Jeffries, depending on what source you lend credence to.

In many peoples eye's Tyson was the start of the decline in boxing Truss, you are right that he got people talking, but he repulsed a lot of people who were disgusted firstly by his r*** convict, and had their opinions reinforced when he bit off Holyfields ear. I was a massive Tyson fan as a teenager in the late eighties, but I can see why people did't like him when he did everything to live up to the stereo of a over paid, oversexed thug.

manos de piedra wrote:Anytime after Jeffries, depending on what source you lend credence to.

Personally I have it at the first time John L Sullivan agreed to wear gloves but each to their own.

... a decline arrested briefly by the coming of charley burley, before spiralling onwards and downwards

The last hungry and skilled american heavyweight.