What if mike tyson stayed with his trainer Kevin Rooney, would he have been the best ever?

Question

Mike tyson was with out a doubt the best young up and coming fighter i have ever see in my life. I mean 19 straight KO's, he knocked out micheal spinks for the title in 90 seconds and KO'd granted a old but still good boxer larry holmes in 4. He was a punching highlight reel. He would KO ppl if he even touched them, he was the biggest puncher in his prime. With him and kevin rooney he was the best heavyweight today, then he went to other trainers by don king, and his career went down in flames. Don king ruined mike tyson, but if Kevin Rooney was to train mike tyson for all those years, do you see lenox lewis KO'ing him, Holyfield? I dont i see him beeing a force, rooney kept tyson away from drugs and all the c**p and kept his fighter focused. If he wouldve kept him do you think he couldve been the best heavyweight or at least one of the best ever?

Answer 1

Again, I gotta say no.

Its really easy to paint Don King as the bad guy,  but truthfully King has had alot of fighters. I grant you, they all didnt have great endings, but alot of them didnt.

Truthfully, boxing attracts the most violent natured people...but Tyson was ruined way before Cus ever got a hold of him. This is the same Tyson that tried to rape Teddy Atlas' daughter, and Atlas had to d**n near shoot him.

Tyson would have found a way to self destruct. Think about it, have you heard a happy ending about anything regarding Tyson after becoming champion? Don King hasnt been in his life for fifteen years. Tyson has found religion, married a doctor...and some how, some way, he finds a way to self destruct.

Again, as you have said...if you are asking about his physical ability, he had all that.

But if you are asking about the man, no he would have found a way to ruin himself. If Cus didnt have a loving heart, he would have thrown Tyson to the curve after the Atlas incident....Rooney did what he could to hold him together...but if it hadnt been King, it would have been someone else.

Answer 2

Don't know if he could have been one of the best with Rooney, but he wouldn't have flamed out by 26. He would definitely have had a longer legacy. I always thought that he would have been susceptible to a good tall boxer with a good jab, can anyone say Buster Douglas?

Answer 3

Michael Moorer started his career with 28 straight KO's, and seriously Frank, Moorer was better than Tyson, being the first, and so far "only" southpaw heavyweight titlist is at least as significant as being the youngest and Moorer had a better more impressive KO record than Tyson.  Moorer BEAT Holyfied, Tyson humiliated himself against Evander.  

Mike Tyson was the best managed young fighter of all time, and the youngest heavyweight titlist, but but at best a mediocre champion.  Nobody ruined Mike Tyson except Mike Tyson, not King, Robin Givens or anyone else, just Mike.  He made the decisions he made so stop making excuses for him.  There was never a time  in Mikes career that he could have handled Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield, he lacked the championship character to beat such men.  MIKE FIRED KEVIN, you don't seriously think Kevin Rooney could have kept Mike away from anything Mike wanted do you.

Mike could never have been one of the heavyweight greats, and Don King sinking the fangs in Mike didn't help matters, but Mike signed the contract, no one else.  Clayton was as much a rape victim as Desiree Washington, and Don took what he wanted no matter how loud or often Clayton screamed "no", such is business in America, somebody always gets screwed, but it was Bill Clayton not Mike who lost out on the deal Mike and Don signed.

No, sorry man, but Mike Tyson could never have been one of the best ever, he simply lacked the character needed for greatness.

Answer 4

No.  Having Rooney in his corner will certainly have prolonged Mike's career to a point.  However, something people dont know is that Rooney was just as unstable as Mike.  Neither of them handled fame very well.  Mike just made the papers more often because he was the fighter.  

I was there when a drunken Rooney offered to fight Wallace Mathews of the New York Post.  Kevin was in the elevator, drunk.  Wallace was about to enter when he saw Kevin already in the elevator.  Kevin began swearing at Mathews and asked me to leave the elevator.  He went on to tell Mathews what he was gonna do to his wife.  

Kevin was also a heavy gambler.  I've watched him lose more money than I've ever had in my life.  He was just as self destructive as Mike was.  I dont think Mike could have avoided an early decline with Kevin.

Answer 5

Thumbs up Galactus & kieran27!

You guys have covered this question in it's entirety!

Answer 6

Mike Tyson is the best ever! Don't ever doubt that power and quickness again! Enough with that talk!

Answer 7

he may have been great  he destroyed his potentaial , along with his associates , if other athletes are being stripped of records etc, due to criminal offences , why not  mike

Answer 8

No doubt.  With Rooney, Tyson was a very disciplined fighter.  He trained very hard and kinda enjoyed it.  Rooney polished Mike's raw skills, teaching him the head movement, which was the staple of his defense, blindingly fast combinations and footwork.  All these skills, in addition to his frightening KO power, made Tyson a complete fighter from the mid to the late 80's.  When Rooney was gone, all those skills went outta the window and Mike simply relied on his power and reputation to scare his opponents into submission.  He just looked to unleash that ONE punch that would knock his opponent out.  Unfortunately, beginning with 40-1 underdog Buster Douglas, fighters realized that Mike was first and foremost a bully (strong going forward, weak going backwards) and could be beaten if they didn't back down and tried to hit him back.  Now, without the head movement and footwork, Mike got hit a lot, and since he shunned the jab and the combinations and was only looking for that one punch, he got frustrated and would just snap up.  And you know what happened as a result.