What if Mike Tyson & Roy Jones Jr. Fought In Their Primes?

Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr have agreed to fight each other in an exhibition match at the age of 54 and 51 respectively both are absolute Legends and both seem near undefeatable in their primes there's a lot of what ifs in the upcoming bout from ring rust to age to exactly how seriously each man will take the fight itself so today we're going to take a look at how each boxer might have fought the other in their primes in order to help flesh out their upcoming bout should the two get serious we'll first look at each competitor's style as a whole and then delve into how their Styles might have played out against each other Iron Mike Tyson was one of the most calculating intelligent Fighters heavyweight has ever seen Tyson was able to use all aspects of legendary trainer Cato's peekaboo style of boxing taking cusses every note on footwork and head movement to create a Symphony of Destruction in the ring Tyson was an Essence an aggressive counter puncher capitalizing on the punch his opponent through while backpedaling as Tyson drove them towards the ropes Tyson was able to close the distance so rapidly by incorporating head movement before during and after nearly every single punch he threw and sometimes every step he took a great deal of Tyson's knockdowns were landed by a simple slip or jab slip followed immediately by a well-timed lead hook Tyson Square forward- facing stance perfectly complemented his head movement as it allowed him to easily step in either direction setting up dominant positions while Tyson slipped or weaved underneath punches this meant that Tyson could use either an orthodox or Southpaw stance to cut off the ring Chase his oppon us down or angle out to the left or the right this multi-angled framework carried over to mid-range and close range as well once he had closed enough distance Tyson preferred to place his back foot against an opponent's Lead Foot this was a ridiculously dangerous position for both Tyson and his opponent but not only did it effectively closed his opponent's Escape Routes it also allowed Tyson to adjust to almost any angle he chose in a fraction of a second for instance Tyson could slide to his left placing his lead hand in a prime position to uppercut up the middle or he could slide outside to throw a lead hook around his opponent's guard or line up his rear hand down the middle if his opponent tried to Pivot away Tyson can simply turn rather than pivot back to Orthodox putting him into more of a southpaw stance with this deep angle Tyson's lead hand ended up further away from his opponent than his rear hand adding on a great deal of power and altering his lead hook Dynamics to be something more like a cross or rear hook since Tyson's left foot was further away from his opponent at the beginning of his hook it was almost as if he were shifting forward from Southpaw to Orthodox as he landed Tyson would also sometimes move so far past his opponent that he ended up switching himself and his competitor into a South boss dance kind of like going too far to the right on an old video game occasionally Tyson's opponents were skilled enough or Reckless enough to come directly at and angled footwork played a big part there as well in this clip Tyson's opponent charges at him but Tyson keeps a cool head he Ducks low then shuffles outside to avoid his opponent's attack Landing a thunderous lead hook while his opponent is still trying to figure out exactly how Tyson teleported behind him but more often than not opponents were left shelling up against the ropes Tyson pounding on their guard with well-crafted combinations here Tyson's hook and upper cut reinforce each other perfectly his hook moved his opponent's guard to the side to make way for his uppercut and the uppercut brought his opponent's guarden tighter to make way for his hook Tyson would force a difficult choice on his opponent protect your head or your body I say difficult because this was essentially a choice between a concussion or broken ribs Tyson tended to throw these combinations off the same hand angling out to the right to double up on his right and his left to double up on his left if an opponent tried to fight Tyson at close range or smother his power punches Tyson had two clever techniques to create the space he needed for a ko. first Tyson would shift back into Southpaw to turn a close-range rear uppercut into a far more powerful lead uppercut this worked well against opponents trying to clinch and once again paired well with the hook next Tyson could jump and turn on offline to angle punches through his opponent's guard here we see coach Kevin Rooney demonstrate the technique which was highly useful for escaping the ropes Tyson used this method to land multiple knockdowns as well all of these components and more went into making Tyson's unique terrifying and intelligent boxing Roy Jones Jr was also highly intelligent and like Tyson there are few in history who could have had both the natural physical talent and pure creativity to pull off his style but Jon style was built more on speed and volume with deceptive well-laid traps mixed in to set up the occasional huge fight Ting shots without warning Jones could switch between patient subtle footwork and Technical Jabs to aggressive flurry and risky one- punch knockouts the first thing to understand about Jones is that he used both his front hand and rear hand like a jab and both methods were incredibly effective Jones's actual jab rarely did much damage but it didn't have to Jones employed a nuanced very jab thrown from his hip or his shoulder and his main purpose was to elicit a reaction Jones could take a mental picture of his opponent's reaction noting which way they would slip or how they moved their guard the next time he would try to take advantage of the opening that that reaction created but Jones also consistently LED with his rear hand using it in many regards the same way most Fighters use their jab but a jab that had the potential to knock an opponent out cold Jones's leading cross was one of the primary ways he kept distance wore down opponents and set up combinations to pull this off he used a pretty unique piece of footwork something almost the reverse of an l-step whereas in an L step a fighter shuffles his lead foot to his back foot and then steps offline to his open side Jones instead stepped his rear foot up even with his lead and then shuffled off to his close side from there he could pivot away or switch to a southpaw stce but this was only Jon's most common tactic and once he had his feet level he could actually step out in multiple directions in this clip Jones lands with his right hand as he steps into a more neutral stance and then shuffles out to the inside to change the angle avoiding a counter but here we see Jones throw his cross and then step back into Southpaw to avoid a left hook shifting back to shoulder roll and here Jones shifts outside into a southpaw stance using these techniques Jones Blended his attacks and exits into one seamless motion eventually Jones could lead with rear Hooks and overhands as well as straights in time he had opponent's overreacting to the smallest twitch from his right hand allowing Jones to faint with his right to set up a hard hook or uppercut with his left a opponents would inevitably end up adjusting their guard to protect the wrong side ironically opening themselves up to the real shot as they did so of course Jones could always still lead with his right hand as well setting up two fight ending threats for opponents to deal with off of the same motion and these two setups allowed Jones the ability to do this once he got his opponents wary of both setups Jones would instead throw both of his arms out at the same time here Jones spreads both arms wide his opponent guesses that a right hand is coming and covers up his left side instead Jones knocks him out cold with a lightning fast left hook to the Head Jones was essentially forcing his opponent to guess which hand would throw the actual punch and astonishingly it usually worked I say astonishingly because there may be no riskier punch in the history of boxing than the one you see Jones throwing here Arms Wide Open chin forward charging toward his opponent this technique only works worked because Jones had built up to it by successfully implementing the previously discussed sequences basically overloading his opponents with multiple threats until they were forced into a state of sheer paralysis shell up bite down and hope for the best but just in case his opponents weren't confused or terrified enough Jones added one more layer of complexity Jones often began his punches by his waist and then looped them around to come in from entirely different directions an opponent would block what appeared to be a head shot but take aot shot to the body instead or go to block a hook and take an uppercut these directional faints are similar to many of the punches Canelo uses today add on another hand to this equation and it's easy to see why opponents had such a hard time reacting to multiple potential knockout punches in less time than it takes to Blink by the end of the fight Jones could literally score knockdown with both of his hands behind his back now let's look at how the incredibly Unique Style that both men might have played out against each other in the ring mid-ring Jones would have had to avoid nearly all of Tyson's punches if he planned to remain conscious but on his best night he very well might have so what you would have was two fighters who both had amazing multi Stan footwork with Tyson using his footwork to cut Jones off and Jones using his footwork to adjust angles to exit or land shots Jones also being a multi- stamped fighter may have given him safe exit paths that other Fighters did not enjoy Joy what would have made this even more exciting was the fact that Tyson possessed some of the best head movement ever seen in the ring and Jones possessed some of the best head tracking ever seen in the ring so while Tyson would have most likely been able to get in close enough to land by slipping and weaving under Jones Jabs and leading crosses he would have had to be very wary of Jones follow-up counters in particular Tyson may have been prone to duck right into one of Jones looping uppercuts since Jon's uppercut started off like hooks but on the other hand Jones looping punches would have left very tempting openings for Tyson who was one of the best body punchers in history a safer tactic for Jones would have been to exploit Tyson's Crouch by stepping offline and targeting his sides so that he could outpoint him and outpace him to take a decision but this was all mid-ring the deciding factor of the fight most likely would have been what happened once Tyson got Jones on the ropes Jones usually got off the ropes by shelling up in high guard until he could collar tie or cross frame to turn his opponent or by using a cross guard or Philly shell to smother and pivot away before he escaped he would often flurry to rack up points relying on sheer speed and volume to back his opponents up it's difficult to see this tactic working on a prime Mike Tyson Jones would often take glancing shots with these Maneuvers but a glancing shot from Tyson was something else entirely Jones flurries would have left him far more vulnerable as he threw them add on the fact that Tyson was incredibly precise and it's hard to see how Jones gets off the Rope safely that's not to say that Jones couldn't have changed tactics but Fighters do tend to revert back to their programmed reflexes when Under Pressure long story short Jones would have needed to stay off the ropes at all costs using his multi-amp footwork to exit exchanges and remain in the center of the Ring he would have needed near Perfect Defense as he wore Tyson down with volume and the occasional well-placed power shot on the other hand Tyson would have only had to follow through with his regular style and game plan in order to achieve Victory but he would have still needed to be careful about moving his head into Power shots or letting Jones wear him down over multiple rounds will any of this factor into the upcoming exhibition match only time will tell there's a lot more at play than styles from age to Chin to intent to Tyson's power or Jon speed or the fact that Tyson is much more of a natural heavyweight to the wisdom of taking a fight at such an advanced fighting age but at the very least it ought to be highly entertaining and while I'll always encourage fighters to stay retired I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be watching on the edge of my seat as soon as the first Bell Rings thanks for watching I encourage everyone to check out my new podcast with Roy Foreman the punch you did not see linked below from the modern martial artist this has been David Christian Wishing you happy training

Channel: The Modern Martial Artist

Views: 1,911,232

Keywords: Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., breakdown, analysis, roy jones jr, tyson vs jones, iron mike tyson, boxing, boxing analysis, boxing breakdown, boxing film study, boxing tactics, boxing technique, explained, fight analysis, fight breakdown, modern martial artist, style, technique, technique breakdown, the modern martial artist

Id: 4vofDz8xN6c

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 16 2020