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Friday, July 30, 2004
Mike Tyson was knocked out in the fourth round Friday night in a shocking end to the latest comeback of the fighter who once was the most feared heavyweight of his era.
Unheralded British heavyweight Danny Williams landed a flurry of punches that sent Tyson sprawling into the ropes, perhaps ending his career with the same kind of fury that Tyson once unleashed on other fighters.
Williams, a heavy underdog, improved to 32-3 with 27 knockouts. Tyson, who was hoping to fight often and improbably regain his former glories to get out of millions in debt, fell to 50-5 with 44 KOs. The loss was Tyson's first in 41 non-title fights.
Williams immediately proposed to his longtime fiancée, Zoe, the mother of his two daughters, who accepted, and not because the Englishman made a $350,000 purse tonight with a lot more to come.
Down for the count, Tyson could only watch the ref count him out.
"Williams was laying on him," said Tyson's trainer, Freddie Roach. "I think it wore him out. He had a great amount of firepower. Mike moved his head well, threw a lot of good combinations, but Williams has a lot of heart. He took a lot of hard punches."
The fighter once called the baddest man on the planet went down from a final right hand, then laid helplessly along the ropes, blood streaming down his face. Tyson tried to get up to beat the count, then fell down again and the fight was waved to a stunning close at 2:51 of the fourth round.
The fight was a free-for-all from the opening bell, with Tyson landing some huge left hooks early, only to take punishment himself when Williams got over his initial stage fright and began brawling himself.
Tyson was moving his head in the opening round, jabbing and calmly attacking the Brit, who initially, at least, did not appear intimidated. But then a couple of jabs, followed by a right to the body and a left hook to the head and Williams was in trouble.
"I was hurt," Williams admitted. "Tyson still has tremendous punching power. But I saw from the Holyfield fights, that if you keep throwing punches, he doesn¹t recover all that well."
There were a couple of more debilitating body shots and then almost the famous combination that made Tyson the youngest heavyweight champion in 1986 -- the right to the body, a right uppercut to the chin (which missed against Trevor Berbick, but the ensuing left hook gave Tyson his first title). He didn't throw the hook in that combination Friday night. But he landed many more in that opening round, including a double hook to the body and chin that had Williams desperately holding. He somehow made it through the round and suddenly, a real fight broke out.
Fighting in Muhammad Ali's hometown before a big crowd that cheered his every move, Tyson tried with every punch to score the kind of spectacular knockout that would make him a heavyweight contender once again at the age of 38.
But Williams wouldn't go down and then came back with shocking suddenness to win.
"He was a strong guy with a lot of heart," Roach said of Williams. "He showed us things that we didn't see in films. He seized the opportunity of a lifetime."
Tyson, who left without talking, won the first three rounds, but Williams was landing well to the head and when he began throwing punch after punch with Tyson near a neutral corner, Tyson couldn't answer back.
It was Tyson's first fight in 17 months, and only his second since taking a beating from former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis two years ago. But Lewis was a legitimate world champion, while the 31-year-old Williams' biggest claim to fame was winning the British heavyweight title.
He was desperately trying to resurrect a career that made him more than $300 million, but the loss to a 9-1 underdog perhaps signals the end of an era in the heavyweight division
P.S: Mike you were a great boxer 
Source: ESPN.com
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