By Ryan Ernst
Enquirer staff writer

In 1988, Mike Tyson was widely considered the hardest hitting man on the planet. That same year, Tony Tubbs accepted a fight with him on only three weeks' notice.

Tubbs fell in two rounds.

"A Tubbs don't turn nothing down," Tony says now.

For seven years, Nate Tubbs drew a paycheck as a sparring partner for Iron Mike, spending entire training sessions on the receiving end of left and right hooks thrown with the worst of intentions.

So if any set of siblings knows about Tyson's punching power, it's Cincinnati's Tubbs brothers.

As Tyson (50-4-0, 44 knockouts) prepared for tonight's return to the ring against Danny Williams (31-3-0, 26 KOs), Nate and Tony prepared for the opening of their new gym in West End. But they also took time to reminisce about Tyson, who was - and who they think again could be again - one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

Nate first met Tyson at a 1984 amateur tournament. They hit it off but didn't become close until 1989, when Nate went to camp with the champ.

"It was a job," Nate said. "Earlier it was hard. But once you'd been sparring with him so long, you got his number. I knew what I could do and what I couldn't do. My brother taught me a lot of defense. I know to keep my hands up.

"But I remember the first time he ever saw me box with (Tyson). He said, 'Boy, he's gonna kill you; you got too much heart.' "

Back then, the brothers say, Tyson's strength was the pressure he applied to opponents, something neither saw in his loss to Lennox Lewis - Tyson's last big fight.

Still, both are predicting a second- or third-round knockout tonight.

"(Tyson's) a puncher. And you can never give up on a puncher," Tony said. "That's how Rocky Marciano was. He'd get beat up for four or five rounds, but he was a puncher. Tyson's an outright slugger. You've got to get the Tyson of old to show up."