Hey Media! That Wasn't Mike Tyson, That Was Some Other Guy!

I guess this is sort of an open rant dedicated to all the media types out there and their "Biggest Upset" lists (for a recent example, see Kevin Iole's list on Yahoo!).  Anyhoo, am I the only boxing fan who cannot stand the fact that when the media discusses Tyson vs. Douglas, they discuss it as if that was the same Mike Tyson who fought Michael Spinks, Trevor Berbick, Tony Tucker, or Larry Holmes?

As a reminder, the Mike Tyson boxing machine who won the heavyweight title at 20 years old was a product of the Cus D'Amato (his adoptive father) and Kevin Rooney school of boxing.  Not to mention that he was being managed by Bill Cayton and Jimmy Jacobs, two men who, by all accounts, had Tyson's best interest at heart. 

Several years after the death of D'Amato, Tyson eventually parted ways with Rooney et al.  Shortly after his 91 second demolition of Michael Spinks, Tyson somehow emerged as a member of the Don King camp.  The problem was only the D'Amato team knew how to train Tyson and harness his many physical gifts.  

As a result, in his next couple of fights (Frank Bruno and Carl "The Truth" Williams), we began to witness the gradual deterioration of a man that was arguably the best heavyweight boxer of all time.  Gone was the man who was a master of the Cus D'Amato peek-a-boo defence and number system, the constant head movement, and lethal combination punching (often coming in bunches of 6 or 7).  

In his place was some other guy -- some guy who stood straight up, didn't move his head, and threw one (maybe two) punches at a time -- i.e., just another run-of-the-mill heavyweight contender.  Oh sure, after the Tokyo fiasco, Don King tried to bring in better trainers like Richie Giachetti, among others.  But it didn't matter.  This wasn't the Mike Tyson we all knew, this was some other guy.  This other guy was the one that lost to Buster Douglas on that fateful February night in 1990.  

If Mike Tyson were there that night, Douglas would have been sent back to Columbus, OH in the first round.