Mike Tyson

Great picture.

Where would you rank him? Is he one of the greatest Heavyweight boxers of all time? I have always truly believed that, when Tyson was the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World in the eighties, no one could have come close to him. His raw pace and aggression in those days was just astounding and he obviously had the great Kevin Rooney training him. Then, in 1990, the Buster Douglas fight happened. The biggest boxing shock of all time. All because Mike hadn't trained and did not take the fight seriously, mainly because of outside influences. Then he went to prison for four years and was obviously never the same as he was when in his prime. However, he still won back two World titles in the late nineties after his prison stint, which I find amazing. How many boxers have ever done something like that? none. The Baddest of alllllll timeee!!! http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39098000/jpg/_39098419_brunotyson1996.jpg

I'd rank him arounds the 90's. That whole Lennox knew when to fight was is a bad excuse, Don King paid Lewis step aside money so that Tyson cud fight Seldon instead, Tyson was a protected fighter like it or not. However had Cus and Roony still been with him and if Tyson at least had a bird sized brain he;d roll through the competition To be fair, Tyson had just spent four years in jail!

I'd rank him arounds the 90's. That whole Lennox knew when to fight was is a bad excuse, Don King paid Lewis step aside money so that Tyson cud fight Seldon instead, Tyson was a protected fighter like it or not. However had Cus and Roony still been with him and if Tyson at least had a bird sized brain he;d roll through the competition wheres the proof that don king paid lewis step aside money? don't fabricate info. be very sure that what you are saying is real otherwise I could just say that lewis once said "Tyson was too strong in the 90's and I would never have fought him cuz he would've crushed me" and not even provide any proof just to support my argument.

A prime Mike Tyson is definately up there with the best. He gets there on raw speed and power though. I wouldnt rate him as the greatest by no means

I'd rank him arounds the 90's. That whole Lennox knew when to fight was is a bad excuse, Don King paid Lewis step aside money so that Tyson cud fight Seldon instead, Tyson was a protected fighter like it or not. However had Cus and Roony still been with him and if Tyson at least had a bird sized brain he;d roll through the competition

I think prime Tyson would have been a match for any great HW. I can Imagine Ali tryin to play the jab game and Mike rushin in with one of those blistering combos and takin his head off lol. He was something special.

He get's horribly overrated. Especially with the "in his prime he would have beaten anyone" He looked DAMN impressive in his prime, but his competition wasn't the best of all time which we really can't blame him for but it is what it is. it's very common to say he fought shit competition, and say he was overated. look at it like this. Pinklon Thomas, an underated fighter today, but was actually considered a dangerous heavyweight, with rock hard chin, and very good jab, coming into the fight with a single loss Tony Tucker: An excellent fighter, who at the time had a 35 and o record with like 30 or more ko to his record. tyson outjabbed a very talented jabber, shutting up those who said that tyson was nothing more than a puncher tyrell biggs, olympic champion with undefeated record larry holmes: old yes, but not finished, it was holmes who was still in his 40s was able to dominate ray mercer, a young and undefeted ray mercer at that. tony tubbs, a very talented fighter when he was in shape. for the tyson fight he was not in shape, hence the ko win for tyson michael spinks, we all know his credentials, and dont give me o he's too small bullshit frank bruno twice, the first tyson fight was not the end for bruno, as he came back to give hell to lennox lewis for 7 rounds, when lennox was seriously outjabbed and behind. and that was all his prime, after that he came back to beat a dangerous razor ruddock twice, and after prison again became the heavyweight champion again, after more than 3 years of inactivity. give the man his due, fuck all in all i think it was tyson's competition that was really underrated

prime mike tyson is the greatest heavyweight ever.

Spot on, Guz.

People will say what they wanna say. Thruth is "IRON" Mike Tyson was hard to beat. "VERY HARD" to beat. Evander HolyField, Lennox Lewis..they knew the right time to fight Tyson....when he wasn't under "Jacobs" influence and when he self distructed. Prime "IRON" Mike Tyson was VERY HARD TO BEAT. Even a head-butting Holyfield wouldn't have had the succes he had against the Tyson who dismantled, James "Bone-Crusher" Smith, Tyrell Biggs, Michael Spinks, Carl Williams, Pinklon Thomas...if he fought Tyson 10 years earlier than when they fought in '96. Lewis didn't fight Tyson till 2002!!! They knew when to fight Tyson...when he wasn't "IRON" anymore.

He get's horribly overrated. Especially with the "in his prime he would have beaten anyone" He looked DAMN impressive in his prime, but his competition wasn't the best of all time which we really can't blame him for but it is what it is.

If I can digress here somewhat, is it true that Kevin Rooney used to make Mike watch videos of the great Rocky Marciano, purely because the only unbeaten Heavyweight Champion of the World in history was also a short man for a Heavyweight? i dont know if it was specifically only rocky marciano. tyson had access to a huge library of old boxing fights owned by Jim Jacobs. he was a big student of the fight game. teddy atlas said that when he was training tyson they used to watch videos of henry armstrong, who was cus' favourite fighter. cus used to say that if you could get a heavyweight to fight in armstrong's style, you had an exciting crowd pleasing fighter. lennox lewis who sparred with mike as a youngster, also remembered watching fight films with him, and said tyson always used to look for dirty tricks, so he could use them.

If I can digress here somewhat, is it true that Kevin Rooney used to make Mike watch videos of the great Rocky Marciano, purely because the only unbeaten Heavyweight Champion of the World in history was also a short man for a Heavyweight?

I totally agree. I love the man myself. Not in a gay way, though!

Where would you rank him? Is he one of the greatest Heavyweight boxers of all time? When he was the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World I truly believed that no one throughout history could come close to him due to his raw pace and aggressiveness, and then he did not bother to train against Buster Douglas and lost and he seemed to lose that air of invicibility. Then he went to prison for four years and was obviously not the same. However, he still won back two World titles in the late nineties after his prison stint, which I find amazing. in the eyes of many his out of the ring reputation has diminished his accomplishments. and there're lot of hypocrites running around downplaying all the hype they helped create in the beginning when it was all going dandy, and this guy was suppoused to be the model for a perfect fighter. as soon as the shit hit the fan they started playing a different tune. i rank him as one of the greatest fighters ever. on his best day, a truly focused, ready to fight mike tyson could take on all of them.

in his prime (when he became undisputed and twatted spinks) he would have crushed anybody. dare i see even Ali.