‘I Just Wanted The Rematch'

Thirty-one years later, the Mike Tyson loss still bugs Tony Tucker

- James Slater

FORMER IBF heavyweight champion Tony Tucker achieved plenty, yet the tall, athletic and naturally gifted boxer should have achieved a lot more. Tucker was denied the opportunity of winning an Olympic medal when the 1980 Games were boycotted by the US, and later, in his biggest fight, against a peak Mike Tyson,

“T.N.T” broke his right hand in the early going – this not long after staggering Tyson with a left uppercut. What followed that August night in 1987 failed to top anything that came before. He retired in 1998 with a record of 57-7 (47).

All these years later, does it still hurt that you couldn’t box at the 1980 Olympics, due to the boycott?

Oh, of course. I know I would have won a gold medal. A lot of the guys I beat, in the Pan-Ams and in other tournaments, I would have fought them again and I would have beaten them again. I’d have won a gold, for sure. And the Olympics, everyone watched, so I would have been so much more well-known all around the world. But I carried on and I went pro.

You were 34-0 and the IBF champion before you fought Tyson. Looking back, did you fight enough top guys to equip you for that fight?