If Tyson had come back like Ali would he have been the undisputed GOAT?

[OctoberRed]

Tyson was out of the game for four years. No chance any fighter returns after four years of not competing and is still as good as/as dominant as he was.

Vitali Klitschko?

[QueensburyRules]

--- And Vitali straight in without a tuneup.

And a very disciplined talent who co invented with Wlad the new dominant big man style of boxing.

Poor Mike sick, abandoned, drugged, and abused, but thanks to Cus, he became legendary.

[JAB5239]

Vitali Klitschko?

Weakest era in boxing history. On top of that, he never beat the best guy. Sam Peter is a footnote in boxing history. Vits was a tough guy, but his resume and "choice" of opponents leaves little room to compare him to the greats outside of his physical attributes. Sure, he may have beaten most of the guys he missed in his career. But the bottom line is he didn't. He never challenged himself against the best. He left that up to his little brother.

[QueensburyRules]

--- Best guy of his era was Wlad, and how quickly you forget.

Be easy for them to orchestrate a back and forth trilogy and clear a quarter billion, but they were never so financially bankrupt as modern Americans.

C'est la vie, what will be will be...

[embryo]

to OP - Yes, I believe so.

[Dr.Cool]

That is impossible to say. The fact is he wasn't good enough to win back the heavyweight title. Tyson took over the heavyweight division from Holmes. Holmes is remembered for being the best in an incredibly weak hw division. Thus how good he really was is often debated. Tyson took over from that. He beat Spinks and a few others that were then the best of the division. When he came back, there was Holyfield and Lewis among others.

Thus, we know Tyson was the best- by far- of an incredibly weak hw division, and when he got out, he wasn't the best, or even second best in a much better hw division.

[Blond Beast]

The day after the Spinks fight my Old Man said a guy named Evander Holyfield will beat Mike Tyson. So I’m just coming from a different place than most of you. I had all his merch btw but I mean c’mon Mike was favoured in the rematch?

[Blond Beast]

I’m assuming everyone has seen all his fights? They’re online. Tyson had no problem taking a clinch, always looked to the ref to break them up. Had a great right to the body, right uppercut combo. But that’s what he was a series of one twos. Was a super clean fighter for the most part early.

[HOUDINI563]

Tyson was a dirty fighter when faced with a losing fight. Biting ears, trying to break arms in clinches all a product of a confused fighter without a will to win looking for an exit via disqualification.

[Dempsey-Louis]

Tyson was a dirty fighter when faced with a losing fight. Biting ears, trying to break arms in clinches all a product of a confused fighter without a will to win looking for an exit via disqualification.

All true, and all sad, Tyson just wanted out. Sometimes a fighter just doesn't know how to quit.

Many thought the great Harry Wills deliberately got himself DQed against Sharkey; Sharkey was beating on him for 12 rounds and in the 13th Wills fouls and gets warned, and immediately fouls again, gets warned again and continues fouling until the referee has no choice but to DQ him. It must be mentally tough for a once great fighter, at the end, to find himself being badly beaten; the frustration to anger can make for some very ugly behavior.

P.S. Wills was always a dirty fighter, (like Tyson,) but the dynamics of what he did in the 13th made it obvious he wanted out, (like Tyson.)