A nervous James Woolnough gets to meet his hero close up in Manchester. (Picture by Mike Frisbee, 0264735)

JAMES WOOLNOUGH fulfilled a lifelong dream when he met his idol Mike Tyson.

Popular arguments that intend to discredit Mike Tyson and question his status as a living legend and all time great fighters have nearly always included the fact that he never beat a great fighter. However, it must be stated that during the time that Tyson reigned, he fought the best competition available to him. He brutally battered Trevor Berbick in two lightning rounds and then imposed crushing defeat on the man who twice beat Larry Holmes, Michael Spinks, in a fight where you could only watch in awe of the future great fighter that Tyson was to become.

Mike Tyson beat, bashed, banged and pummelled the best fighters of his era into submission from 1985-1990. There is no more that a fighter can do in order to cement his legacy. Tyson’s training programme at his peak was unrivalled. Reliable sources have stated that he would get up as early as 5am to do a daily five miles jog, after which he would go back to sleep before getting up again and having breakfast. After this he would do up to twelve rounds of sparing and then have dinner, which was almost always either pasta or steak. He would then do more work in the gym before sparing and eating again. After his final meal he would do roughly an hour on the exercise bike before watching TV and going to sleep.

THE Mike Tyson roadshow hits the UK next month at £210 a ticket. Bargain.

I reckon punters will be queuing around the block in London, Birmingham and Manchester just to catch a glimpse of the fighter once crowned youngest heavyweight champion of the world.

Amid the hysteria that surrounds every move that Tyson makes, it is easy to lose sight of how good he was when he dropped Trevor Berbick on the seat of his pants to win the world title at just 20 years old.

Danny Williams would not have made it through the first round had he encountered Tyson in the days when his ferocity was at its height.

Kevin McBride would have been dispatched all too briefly as well. No disrespect to either.

Indeed I would contend that had he met any of his conquerors in his prime, Tyson would have had too much for them.

That is one of the questions I would put to him were I lucky enough to be seated at a table in his company next month: "Mike, would you have beaten Lennox Lewis in your heyday? Or Holyfield?"

In my view the answer is yes.

You just have to watch the video of his early reign to see how destructive Tyson was.

When he worked with Kevin Rooney he had brilliant lateral movement. He could slip punches superbly, make opponents miss then hit them with half a dozen punches.

Most heavyweights land with one or two. Tyson unloaded with fearsome combinations. Technically that was the secret of his greatness.

Another question for you, Mike? "Which of the Hall of Fame heavies would you have liked to have fought?" I would have loved to have seen Tyson in with Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali and Riddick Bowe at his best.

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Source: saddoboxing
By Shaun Rico LaWhorn

Tyson came up in the hard environment of Brooklyn, New York, a place where he could have easily ended up in the penal system way before boxing saved his life. He always had the urge and timing of a street fighter, he was fortunate enough to end up being trained by Cus D’Amato and from there, D’Amato discovered something inside of this street tough kid. Trainers have two elements of appreciation for a fighter; one is his belief that anybody can do it if they apply their heart and determination to it. The second one would be what Cus witnessed in Mike Tyson, the natural ability to do it.

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