Mike Tyson vs James Toney: whose higher on the ATG list?

[Calilloyd]

Toney would of beat that version of holyfield as well imo, buts thats a topic for another thread

I don't think so.

[Calilloyd]

Spinks was a better heavyweight than Ruddock and Tucker.He was hardly a natural heavyweight but still a more accomplished heavyweight than either.

No he wasnt. Other than beating a very past prime Holmes and getting a gift decision in the rematch, Spinks did very little at heavyweight. And Spinks gave up his belt to avoid fighting Tucker and chose a coming out of retirement Gerry Cooney. Spinks would have lost to Tucker or Ruddock.

[Calilloyd]

Holmes was far from a shell of him self, he went on to take the unbeaten record of gold medalist ray mercer and give oliver mccall all he could handle in a very close world title fight,

he also gave evander holyfield a very hard fight only loseing by about 3 rounds.

He was also far from his prime. Roberto Duran beat Iran Barkley and Davey Moore. But he was clealy past his prime when he did it. Spinks wasn't fighting the same Holmes that beat Ken Norton. The real issue is that Holmes didn't beat McCall. A fighter that was no where near the level of prime Larry Holmes. Holmes doing well in that fight only shows how good he was in his prime.

[General Zod]

I don't think so.

Why?
Toneys defence will always give Holyfield fits and his body punching would always pose a problem to Holyfield whose always been susceptible to body attacks. Toney can make adjustments in fights, which would give Holyfield trouble. Holyfield also had trouble using his head as a third glove as well, but like I said, its a topic for another thread

[General Zod]

I know a lot of people like to knock Tyson's legacy, but winning the heavyweight championship at 20 was an incredible accomplishment that won't be repeated for a long time if ever. He also unified the heavyweight championship (rare today) and didn't duck anybody. But based on longevity and overall achievements I have to give the nod to Toney. Beating the highly rated Nunn at 160, the brilliance at 168, and the cruiserweight win over the highly talented vasali Jirov are big accomplishments. The knock on Toney has been his inconsistency at times and of course overall conditioning. Unfortunately for him his win over heavyweight Ruiz is tarnished but it can't be completely overlooked.

Good post, you touched on a lot of good points