By Brent Matteo Alderson

The last few years boxing historians have devalued Mike Tyson’s accomplishments as heavyweight champion of the world and have underscored his place in history.  They point to his losses to Buster Douglas, Lennox Lewis, and Evander Holyfield to validate this belief and they also downgrade the length of his reign as well as the quality of his opposition. 

Let’s get a couple of things straight.  First the Mike Tyson that fought Lewis and Holyfield was a shell of his former self.  Tyson after his incarceration wasn’t remotely close to being a prime Tyson and counting those wins against Iron Mike would be like counting Sugar Ray Leonard’s loss to Terry Norris or Wilfred Benitez’s loss to Matthew Hilton.  Ray was only thirty-four at the time of the Norris fight and Benitez was still in his twenties. 

Chris Arreola’s trainer, Henry Ramirez, also believes the post-prison Tyson was a completely different fighter, “He wasn’t the same fighter after the Douglas fight and three years of incarceration and four years of inactivity didn’t help.  The Lewis fight was a money fight. That was an easy fight for Lewis, at the time Lennox was in a different league and Mike lacked the fire and didn’t want to fight anymore, he was just tying to clear up his debts.  I think deep down he knew he wasn’t going to win that fight.”    

There’s no denying that a near prime Tyson lost to Buster Douglas by knockout in indisputably the biggest upset in boxing history.  At the time Buster was a mediocre 29-4-1 and had been stopped by such ordinary fighters as Mike the Giant White and David Bey. 

Without a doubt the loss does irreparable damage to Tyson’s place among the heavyweight greats, especially those in the first tier.  Ali or Louis never lost to a journeyman when they were young champions and they never would have, but you also have to put that loss into perspective. 

We all know that Mike, like most fighters came from a rough background.  He grew up on the streets of Brooklyn and was arrested on thirty-eight different occasions by the time he was thirteen.  As a result Tyson had trouble coping with his celestial rise to super stardom and lacked the focus and discipline necessary to deal with his championship obligations. 

Predictably lackadaisical training habits eventually led to his deterioration as a fighter which was first evident in the first Bruno fight and later became apparent in the fight with Douglas. 

Trainer and former world champion John David Jackson commented that towards the end of his reign that “Mike didn’t respect his training as much; he wasn’t as dedicated to the craft.  It wasn’t only the bad habits in the gym, but the bad habits outside of the gym.  In the beginning he had structure, but later on he associated himself and surrounded himself with people that weren’t boxing people and they had a detrimental affect on his career.  Before he had Cus D’mato, Jim Jacobs, and Kevin Rooney, people that he trusted and loved.”    

Another facet of his loss to Douglas that many boxing aficionados fail to recognize is that on the night that James Douglas fought Tyson, he was one of the greatest heavyweights in history.  I’ve seen the tape countless times, take a look at it.  Douglas was a 6’4 230-pound man bouncing on his toes, doubling up on the jab, and throwing perfectly timed combinations with the precision of a marksman from the United States Marine Corps.  Look at the way Douglas threw that last right hand as Iron Mike was already on his way down as if to say “stay down”.  I truly believe that with the exception of Ali or a couple of other heavyweight greats on their best nights that on that night in Tokyo, a Buster Douglas who was inspired by the death of his mother would have beaten almost any heavyweight in history. 

Another qualm that historians have against Mike is his level of competition.  Yes, Tyson’s reign does not compare to Muhammad Ali’s in that regard.  He didn’t beat Liston, Foreman, and Frazier but what Heavyweight champ besides the Greatest has that many-quality wins? 

As great as Louis was, the most impressive thing about his reign was it’s longevity unless you think that a come from behind win against the 174-pound Billy Conn or his first round knockout over a past his prime Max Schmeling are quality. 

And really Mike had some good wins.  He’s the only man ever to knock out Larry Holmes who four years later went twelve fairly competitive rounds with Holyfield and he almost decapitated a slew of other top contenders that held their own with guys that were part of the heavyweight landscape for years to come. 

He took out Tubbs in two rounds and three years later a lot of observers thought that Tony deserved the decision in his fight with Riddick Bowe.  Even though historians devalue Tyson’s win over Michael Spinks, nobody else ever beat Spinks who was 6’2 and had been fighting as a heavyweight for almost three years when the two finally met in June of 1988. 

Historians are also critical of Tyson’s longevity as a champion.  Nigel Collins, the editor and chief of Ring Magazine commented, “The true test of greatness for any fighter is excellence over a long period of time and Mike was only real good for four or five years so I think in the minds of many people Tyson is overrated.”

Collins has a point, a significant number of the great ones from Duran to Sugar Ray Robinson to Harry Greb fought successfully at the elite level for an extended period of time, but there are still a number great fighters that had short yet prolific championship careers. Aaron Pryor’s was able to establish his greatness at junior welterweight even though cocaine addiction robbed him of his skills by the age of thirty and although Tyson’s greatness can’t compare to Henry Armstrong’s, Homicide Hank’s championship run was short, only lasting from 1937 until 1940. 

So even though Mike’s reign wasn’t very long, it too was special and he left an indelible mark on heavyweight history in a short amount of time.  At one point he was considered unbeatable and was categorized as the best pound for pound fighter in the world for almost a two-year period. When the last time a Heavyweight was universally recognized as the best pound for pound fighter in the world?  Henry Ramirez perfectly summed up Tyson’s brilliance in the late eighties, “I’m not going to say he was the best heavyweight of all time, but he definitely was the most exciting.”   

So when it comes down to it how can you belittle Mike’s place in history without scrutinizing the careers of other heavyweight greats?  Come on, my favorite heavyweight of all time, Jack Dempsey, drew the color line and only defended the title six times in seven years.  Marciano may have retired undefeated, but he beat Jersey Joe Walcott for the title who at the time was the oldest man to ever win the title.  And the Rock went life and death with Charles, who was already past his prime, and the great Archie Moore who was a Light-Heavyweight. 

Heck Evander Holyfield is one of the greatest fighters of all time, but his reign lacked longevity and his quality of opposition was so poor that one time Lou Duva, one of his trainers, was in Caesar’s Palace and pointed up to a picture of an almost one hundred year old George Burns and jokingly said, “Look Holyfield’s next opponent.”

I can go on and on criticizing the careers of every single champ in history, but I’m not going to. I just want the boxing fraternity to allocate the same type of treatment to Tyson that they have afforded to all the other champs and recognize that he cleaned out the division, captivated the public, restored prestige to the heavyweight title and took on all challengers during the course of a three-year period. And that my friends should earn him a place alongside the ten greatest heavyweights in history.  

Down below I’ve listed Ring Magazine’s Heavyweight rankings from the month when Tyson knocked out Berbick for the WBC title and look at what Tyson did!  He almost cleaned out the entire division.

The Ring’s Heavyweight Rankings/March 1987
(Tyson defeated all the men whose names are underlined)

Linear Champ: Michael Spinks (Beaten)
1. Mike Tyson
2. Tim Witherspoon
3. Pinklon Thomas (Beaten)
4. Tony Tubbs (Beaten)
5. Trevor Berbick (Beaten)
6. James Smith   (Beaten)
7. James Douglas
8. Tony Tucker (Beaten)
9. Frank Bruno   (Beaten
10. Tyrell Biggs    (Beaten)

Notes:

Favorite Quote: When Stanley Ketchel’s manager was informed of the Middleweight great’s death, he remarked, “Tell’em to start counting to ten over him and he’ll get up.” 
 
In my last article, I wrote that Foreman circa 1974 would have taken a prime Evander Holyfield out and John David Jackson concurs, “Pre-Ali Foreman was a monster.  Bert Cooper and Bowe hurt Holyfield.  I don’t know if he could have taken those body punches from George.  Holyfield was a good boxer, but I don’t know if he could be disciplined and avoid exchanging the first five rounds.  Evander is a warrior, he’s a true gladiator and the first time he got hit, his instincts would have taken over.  And an old George had him hurt.  I would go with Foreman.  George had a good chin.  I don’t think Evander had the fire power to keep him off him.”  

Begrudgingly I have to respect Bernard Hopkins’s greatness, but to me, the best word to describe his career in the 21 century is BORING with capital letters. If I were to show clips of him to a friend, it would be of his 1996 knock out of Joe Lipsey who came in with a 25-0 record.    
    
There’s no telling what Felix Trinidad has left.  He’s only had three fights in seven years and was dominated in two of them. If he has a chance against a top flight fighter it would be against Kelly Pavlik since Trinidad is more effective against guys that come forward.  Remember what he did to Joppy.  Nobody before or since has taken Joppy out that emphatically.
 
In this month’s issue of the Ring, David Haye said some degrading things about Chris Arreola so I asked his trainer Henry Ramirez to comment, “Let’s fight. We’d fight him tomorrow. He’s overrated, Chris would knock him out. F-ck David Haye.”

Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”  Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com