Mike Tyson vs Jesse Ferguson

Mike Tyson faces his best opponent to date in “The Boogieman“ Jesse Ferguson. Tyson was pushed passed the 4th round for the first time in his last fight against Mike Jameson and Ferguson was going to push him even further again in this fight. More info below... Jesse Ferguson was a late comer to the professional boxing scene turning pro in 1983 at 25 years of age. He won his first 10 fights with ease which included a 3rd round TKO of Reggie Gross 1984. In 1985 Ferguson was picked to compete in the ESPN Eastern Heavyweight tournament dispatching Richard Scott in 4 rounds and then 2 months later earned a majority decision against James “Buster“ Douglas. In the finals of the tournament Ferguson knocked out former USA Michigan State Heavyweight champion, Tony Anthony, which also earned him a world ranking for the first time in his career. Unfortunately Ferguson lost his next fight against Carl “The Truth“ Williams when he was TKO’d in the 10th round after putting Williams on the canvas twice. Ferguson bounced back with an easy decision win against unknown Oscar Holman in his next fight for a record of 14-1 with 10 KO’s. Mike Tyson was 17-0 with all his wins by way of KO. Tyson had not fought any truly talented opposition however so Ferguson was without a doubt his toughest opponent to date. Tyson was now the hottest prospect in boxing at the time the fans loved his all action style. Tyson was all over Ferguson in the first round and had him pinned up against the ropes for most it. Although Ferguson landed a few good shots from out of his block it didn’t really phase Tyson who never backed off. Tyson kept up the body attack in round 2 and was doing the same in round 3 when he was caught by a good flurry from Ferguson, arguable the biggest shots Tyson had taken at this point in his career. In round 4 Ferguson started to lead with his head when going into clinches and was warned by the ref but Ferguson also claimed Tyson was hitting him low. Both Tyson and Ferguson threw big shots after the bell to end the round and the ref had to get in between them to avoid a brawl. In round 5 Ferguson went for broke and came out snapping his jab which was keeping Tyson at bay but eventually Tyson was able to push Ferguson back into the ropes and kept him there throwing some of the biggest shots of the fight so far including some solid body combos. Tyson started landing uppercuts through Ferguson’s block late in the round, one of which broke Ferguson’s nose and another which knocked him down. Ferguson was up at 8 and Tyson went to town on him almost forcing a TKO stoppage but somehow Ferguson survived. In the 6th round (which is not featured sorry) Ferguson started holding Tyson for extended periods of time and was refusing to let go so the ref had no choice but to disqualify Ferguson (although the result was latter changed to a TKO at the request of Tyson’s management). Unfortunately the loss to Tyson was just the start of a steady declined for Ferguson. Over the next 7 years he lost to James Smith, Anders Eklund, Orlin Norris, Oliver McCall, Bruce Seldon, Michael Dokes and Tony Tubbs. In 1993 however Ferguson was picked to face Ray Mercer, who was being lined up to face WBA Champion, Riddick Bowe. Mercer was expected to knock Ferguson out however much to every-bodies surprise Ferguson out-boxed Mercer over the whole 10 rounds to win by unanimous decision. As a result, Ferguson with his 19-9 record, was given a shot at the WBA World Heavyweight title and although he came prepared and was in the best condition of his boxing career, Ferguson was stopped in 2 rounds by Riddick Bowe. What followed was another series of losses and although Ferguson had a brief run of success agian in 1996 and 1997 which earned him a shot at USBA and IBF Inter-Continental Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, he ended up losing a very one sided 12 round decision. Ferguson’s last win was an upset split decision against Obed Sullivan in December of 1998 but then lost to Andrew Golota in January 1999 prompting Ferguson to finally retire with a 26-18 record. Tyson had been pushed in his last 2 fights and went beyond the 4th round for the first times in his career. As Tyson took a step up in competition it appeared some flaws were slowly starting to show through in Tyson’s style although nobody had yet come close to beating him.