Is Mike Tyson A ATG?

[Cassius Liston]

The people that believe he is not an atg are idiots...people will know of tysons name thousands of years from now.....idiots

[Rikeņa]

I believe he is when ever he fought I would run to watch his fights I only wished that he would have fought longer.

[Toney616]

The people that believe he is not an atg are idiots...people will know of tysons name thousands of years from now.....idiots

From the guy who hasnt even given a reason why he should be classed as one.

Accomplishments:
WBC 9 defences, WBA 8 defences, IBF 6 defences
Linear champion 1988-06-1990-02
Best wins:
Spinks, Ruddock*2, Holmes (past prime), Tucker i.e overall B level competiton
He never beat a hofer/ATG/Elite fighter who was in their prime
Noticable Losses:
Holyfield*2, Lewis, Douglas i.e he basically lost to the best fighters he faced
Missed competiton:
Foreman, who he wanted nothing to do with
Reaction to adversity: often came up short in his toughest fights
Consistency: Had 4 good years and 10 very bad years i.e very inconsistent
Verdict: With so many great fighters who have been in boxing for the last 100 years, how is this enough to class him as a ATG?

[Shazam!]

'Ten very bad years' is an overstatement. After coming out of prison he bulldozed his way back to the top. Doesn't matter that the competition was relatively weak. He dominated decent fighters like Bruno and Golota (mock all you like but he was beating Bowe, TWICE)........and his fights with Holyfield may have gone differently if the referees had correctly clamped down on Holyfield's horrific headbutting.

[musiol]

'Ten very bad years' is an overstatement. After coming out of prison he bulldozed his way back to the top. Doesn't matter that the competition was relatively weak. He dominated decent fighters like Bruno and Golota (mock all you like but he was beating Bowe, TWICE)........and his fights with Holyfield may have gone differently if the referees had correctly clamped down on Holyfield's horrific headbutting.

crap the fights would holyfield would not of went diffrent that is garbage,mibi prime v prime tyson would have a better chance still loses imo

[Toney616]

'Ten very bad years' is an overstatement. After coming out of prison he bulldozed his way back to the top. Doesn't matter that the competition was relatively weak. He dominated decent fighters like Bruno and Golota (mock all you like but he was beating Bowe,

He was bumped up to a title shot because he was a King fighter. How does a guy come out of prison and deserve a title shot within 3 fights? He beat Sheldon to become the WBA champ, and beat Bruno to become the WBC Champ. Both of these guys were pretty dreadful fighters, C+ class at best. He was stripped by the WBC for not fighting Lewis his mandatory and lost to Holyfield who was considered a near shot fighter at the time.

Golota is way to inconsistent (B Class at best), as shown in his fights with Tyson, Bowe and Lewis, while Bruno is C+ class at best. Post Prison he never beat anyone considered great/Elite and his career basically became a sideshow after Holyfield I.

and his fights with Holyfield may have gone differently if the referees had correctly clamped down on Holyfield's horrific headbutting.

Tysons Fouls in fights
Headbutting:
Thomas, Ruddock I
Forearms:
Biggs, Bruno II
Low blows:
Ruddock I
He only got what he himself had done to other fighters

EDIT: you are right, Ten bad years is a bit of an overstatement

[Toney616]

crap the fights would holyfield would not of went diffrent that is garbage,mibi prime v prime tyson would have a better chance still loses imo

Holyfield beats any version of post Rooney Tyson imo

[haverespect]

He fought everybody there was to fight. You can't blame the era, as you have to consider who would have been great had Tyson never been born.

There were many promising heavyweights that may have had excellent careers had it not been for Mike Tyson.

Tyrell Biggs
Razor Ruddock
James Tillis
Marvis Frazier
Tony Tucker
Tony Tubbs
Frank Bruno
Alex Smith
Buster Mathis

In hindsight, we see these guys and remember them only for their destruction at the hands of Tyson. They would have been contenders in many era's but after fighting Tyson lost a lot of. Not just physically, but mentally. Imagine being a fighter and having 30 pro fights, never losing, or losing just a few in good matchups, then getting physically punished, hurt, emasculated, etc in front of the entire world. You begin to doubt yourself and while you may recover physically, I don't see how you could fully recover mentally after getting beat up by Tyson.

People try to discredit the fight with Spinks because, again, Tyson was so much better and dismantled him so quick that they use hindsight and say that Spinks never belonged in the ring, but at the time Spinks had many supporters and the fight was talked about constantly, sort of like Mayweather/Pacquiao, without all the bull**** drug testing drama. It was almost talked about as if Tyson was ducking Spinks! He was being called out post fight by Larry Merchant and other ring interviewers, magazine covers etc. Then he fights him, destroys him in 90 seconds, and people will discredit it to ****, even though Spink's had beaten Larry Holmes twice and would have at least lasted against most any heavyweight at the time (aside from the Great Tyson).

Pinklon Thomas and Larry Holmes were still good fighters and could compete with any fighters at the time. These were fights that everybody wanted to see, and again, many people supported these men and thought they could win.

It wasn't until AFTER he decimated those men that people looked back and picked a million reasons why they never should have stepped in the ring with Tyson, and that's a pretty ****ty way to evaluate.

Pacquiao huggers do the same thing to Shane Mosley. It was a great fight, lots of hype, Mosley had the best chance in the world - until the day after the fight - Now the grandpa Mosley jokes start rolling, and it's a bull**** win, using hindsight. It's important to notice that Larry Holmes, after his 5 round destruction at the hands of Tyson, went on to win his next 6 fights, including a defeat of the undefeated Ray Mercer, and also taking Evander Holyfield 12 rounds, although losing the decision. The point is, Larry was still a top contender and capable of beating any heavyweight of the time, aside from Tyson - because that's how good he was. Yeah he lost the previous 2 fights, but that was against another ATG, and more slick, undefeated Michael Spinks, and he STILL was never KO'd up to that point, nor was he KO'd after Tyson.

Sorry that it doesn't work that way guys. That's like me saying "Building this car must be tough, I'll give you 100k if you do it!" Then you build it in under an hour and I discredit it and tell you the job isn't worth jack - even though nobody else could do it the way you did. It's bull****.

Some people will try to discredit his victories and that will never change, but the fact is that he faced everybody, at anytime, and never waited until a fighter was a known washup to face them.

He cleaned up the division and dominated everybody, and there were some damn good fighters, with Razor being the best matchup for Tyson - those are my favorite fights, as I always had the feeling he was one guy that could beat Tyson had he just made a few less mistakes and capitalized more on Mikes.

excellent post very well written

tyson altho one of my all time faves....incrediblly entertaining.....but i do feel he was a big waste of talent an underachiever and maybe a little overrated ....so it pains me to say it but atg.....im not sure

[CiganoBoxer]

I think to make ATG he has a few things going against him... he never avenged any of his loses ..his resume is lacking of stellar Competition ! .....that being said hes deffo a HOF

[Calilloyd]

Nope. Flash in the pan who benefited from a lack of great heavyweights in his day. If you ever had any doubts about this, watch Tyson/Douglas and see Buster Douglas make Tyson his girlfriend for 10 straight rounds.

If Tony Tucker hadn't broken his hand in the 4th round of his fight with Tyson, Mike would never have become undisputed champion. Tucker was taking him to school up to that point.

False information.