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Good read. no way to guess how dominant champs of one era would do against others from other eras. It's all up to speculation. But Tyson beat pretty much everybody there was to beat while he was on top, and did so decisively. The guys he lost to later in his career no doubt he woulda beaten at his peak imo. The end result matters most, and yea Mike got KTFO by Douglas. But on that 1 nite as noted in the article, Buster wasn't a journeyman chump, he was a beast. He more or less coincidentally had his best nite at the same time Tyson had his worst nite. Buster was never that good before or again, which is the definition of a fluke, although he should still get mass cred for it given the circumstances. Tyson lacked the longevity to be GOAT as some ridiculously still claim him to be, but his prime run was wicked enuf to keep people convinced he still was or could still be the man long after he fell apart. And he had enuf left after his downfall and a 3 yr layoff to grab a couple more belts. Cuz of what he did in his prime the guy will never be forgotten, and a prime Tyson is the kinda HW champ we'd kill for nowadays, cuz there's been nobody like him since then. He brought a lotta criticism on himself but the man is still a boxing legend imo.
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13 in boxrec best heavyweights ever , where would he be in your list ?
http://www.boxrec.com/ratings.php?co...us=E&SUBMIT=GoComment
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Tyson is a living legend!Comment
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People worry too much about these boring ****ing ATG lists. Was Tyson one of, if not the most exciting heavyweight champion of all time? Yes. Did Tyson carry boxing on his back for 10 years? Yes. Regardless of how good he was, Tyson kept boxing alive for a lot longer than it would have lasted without him, and for that, we should all be grateful.Comment
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I think Tyson is underrated by some people as well. To the common public and many of his diehard fans, yea, hes very overrated. but by historians and by people who are well informed about the other great heavyweight champs, I think people brush him aside too easily because theyre so used to others overhyping him.
His combination of speed and power has to be at least 2nd or 3 best all time in the history of heavyweights. and he had pretty solid fundamentals in his prime, although obviously he wasnt perfect and had his weaknesses.
The heavyweight division he dominated and unified in less than a year is no worse than todays division and is arguably much better. imo, Tony Tucker, Pinklon Thomas, Ruddock and Bruno would all have pretty good success in today's division. hey, Bruno was actually doing very well against a green Lewis before he got exhausted. Holmes was clearly past his best, but he did end up beating Mercer later and gave Holyfield a fairly difficult fight years later. and Tyson did domaintely knock him out, which is pretty notable even if he was 40 or whatever.
even after his best days Tyson's record wasnt half bad. at least he got wins over Botha and Golota, and Golota actually ended up arguably beating Byrd and Ruiz after that fight, the fights were controversial at least.
I might not put him in the top ten all time...but he sure had a better record than someone like Jack Dempsey.Comment
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He is underrated by some and overrated by others. You listen to some ppl and you would believe that he KO'd 43 prime Joe Louis' whilst others would have you believe he only managed to put together a slightly above average record against a pack of ******ed school kids.Comment
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All depends on who's doing the rating. All fighters are both underrated and overrated by some people.
Perhaps no other fighter more so than Mike Tyson.Comment
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The reason I think the prime Tyson is under-rated by most people is that his skills are overlooked by most. I'm talking about before he split with Rooney and joined King - he started to decline rapidly from that moment.
People talk about his power, but in his prime he was extremely fast for a heavyweight, had great head movement, a very good jab, superb accuracy, and punched in blinding combinations. He out-jabbed the much taller Biggs. Holmes said that Tyson didn't punch nearly as hard as Shavers but that his punches were cleaner and therefore harder to recover from. He outboxed the boxer when he beat Spinks, making Spinks miss with his head movement and speed. He knocked out Pinklon Thomas with an eight punch combination in which every single punch landed flush. This aspect of him is rarely mentioned.
All those skills started to decline noticeably as soon as he split from Rooney et al. By the time he fought Holyfield he barely moved his head, rarely used his jab and had become a head hunter.
I would have the peak Tyson in the top 10 heavyweights of all time easily, probably in the top 5, although I appreciate that the fact his peak lasted such a short time means it's hard to rate him so highly. I blame King, who set out to prise him from Rooney and the rest of the Cus team, vilified them viciously, and screwed with the mind of a young, emotionally vulnerable, confused kid.Last edited by Dave Rado; 03-05-2009, 05:12 AM.Comment
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