Tough opponents Tyson never faced

[OCPancho]

Tyrell Biggs was an Olympic Gold medalist and defeated Lewis in the amateurs. Big HW at 6'5". Tyson made short work of him and I don't believe Biggs was ever the same fighter again. He was certainly as good as Bowe at that juncture of his career. By the time he fought Bowe he had three KO losses and was only behind by one point on the cards when the fight was stopped in the eight.

Biggs fought tomato cans and has beens .
And was a coke head.
The Duvas knew they needed to make money off him quick b/c he was going nowhere anyway.
Why would you match a 15-0 Biggs against Tyson ?
They needed some of their investment money back.

[DreamFighter]

his 2nd stint he wasnt interested, so you can hardly call someone ducking when they didnt really want to be there.

his 1st stint, just Witherspoon, who had the tools to match him in the ring, I think, though H2H I'd still give the edge to Tyson. Maybe DonKing knew that, too much risk, or maybe he was genuinely not seeing eye to eye with Tim. Tim was the best challenger Tyson could have had along with Tucker.

[OctoberRed]

Biggs fought tomato cans and has beens .
And was a coke head.
The Duvas knew they needed to make money off him quick b/c he was going nowhere anyway.
Why would you match a 15-0 Biggs against Tyson ?
They needed some of their investment money back.

Exactly. Main Events made some bucks and then some off of Biggs.

[QueensburyRules]

--- Tyson cleaned up the dereliction the division fell into with retirements of the big 4.

After that point, he fell into the grips of mental illness, King, Givens, et al, and was basically a part time 4rd club fighter albeit still oozing in natural talent. Even under those handicaps he was compelling to watch sorta like watching a train wreck in slo mo with nothing we could do to alter the ending.

[Ben Bolt]

Tim was the best challenger Tyson could have had

Yes, but shape would he be in?
Like Max Baer, Witherspoon found out too late that taking boxing seriously would have benefited him.

[OctoberRed]

--- Tyson cleaned up the dereliction the division fell into with retirements of the big 4.

After that point, he fell into the grips of mental illness, King, Givens, et al, and was basically a part time 4rd club fighter albeit still oozing in natural talent. Even under those handicaps he was compelling to watch sorta like watching a train wreck in slo mo with nothing we could do to alter the ending.

do you agree that Givens was the beginning of the end?

[BKM-]

--- Tyson cleaned up the dereliction the division fell into with retirements of the big 4.

After that point, he fell into the grips of mental illness, King, Givens, et al, and was basically a part time 4rd club fighter albeit still oozing in natural talent. Even under those handicaps he was compelling to watch sorta like watching a train wreck in slo mo with nothing we could do to alter the ending.

Aww poor Mikey. He's such a sad victim I think I'm gonna weep like a broad.

[QueensburyRules]

--- King and Givens did a tag team on mike.

After the death of his HOF mentors Cus and Jacobs, King got into him with whores and racist allegations against HOFer Cayton to make cross over to the dark side where his mental illness got a chance to grow and thrive.

The loss of love from those deaths left him open as easy prey for drugs, hanger ons, and gold diggers like Givens and her mom and so, the dismantling of the finest beginnings of any fighter in history.

[just the facts]

Looking back now there were some very tough matchups for Tyson that we never got to see. I don't think he ducked them per se except maybe one of them(lumberjack George).

Oliver McCall
Ray Mercer
David Tua
Ike Ibeabuchi
George Foreman

These were all possible at one point. All iron chinned punchers with heart(maybe not headcase Oliver) who could take it to him.. I think I forget some too. Mike would hate to fight any of them.

How do you see these fights going? Keep the years in mind for the 25 Tyson versions.

At his best, Tyson easily beats all of them.

[JAB5239]

Aww poor Mikey. He's such a sad victim I think I'm gonna weep like a broad.

Wait, so you disagree a toxic environment can change the path of a fighters development both physically and mentally?