Was Mike Tyson overrated or was he an all-time great Heavyweight?

[Johnny Rebel]

Both!

Tyson was/is WAY overrated but is still probably an All-Time great even though he dominated for such a short period of time against mostly weak opposition.

[Steak]

people say his division was awful, but honestly, it wasnt half as bad as some people make it out to be.

guys like Tucker, Ruddock, Bruno, Thomas, and Carl Williams would have all done pretty damn well in todays division, as long as they didnt fight the Klitschko brothers. hell, even the version of Holmes that Tyson beat went on to beat Mercer and give Holyfield a fairly tough time...and Holyfield at 46 is somehow still relevant in todays division after his win over Valuev, and Mercer actually marked up Wladimir pretty well before finally giving in to the punishment he was taking(at 41).

even his win over Golota isnt that bad, since Golota went on to get robbed in his fights against Byrd and Ruiz.

Im not sure if hes an ATG or not, but sometimes people are too critical of his opposition(although at the same time people completely overrate him)

[Boogie Nights]

people say his division was awful, but honestly, it wasnt half as bad as some people make it out to be.

guys like Tucker, Ruddock, Bruno, Thomas, and Carl Williams would have all done pretty damn well in todays division, as long as they didnt fight the Klitschko brothers. hell, even the version of Holmes that Tyson beat went on to beat Mercer and give Holyfield a fairly tough time...and Holyfield at 46 is somehow still relevant in todays division after his win over Valuev, and Mercer actually marked up Wladimir pretty well before finally giving in to the punishment he was taking(at 41).

even his win over Golota isnt that bad, since Golota went on to get robbed in his fights against Byrd and Ruiz.

Im not sure if hes an ATG or not, but sometimes people are too critical of his opposition(although at the same time people completely overrate him)

I would give you green k but i gotta speard it around. This was a good post man. Tyson beat Bruno with ease twice, and Frank would go on to give Lennox one of his toughest fights. Hell Carl Williams fighting Larry Holmes for 15 rounds and loosing a close decision is better than what most other fighters have on their resumes. Holmes, while past his best came prepared for Tyson. By his own admission he kept his weight down and sparred frequently during his retirement. Not to mention he continued fighting for years more. Tubbs and Thomas too were very talented fighters.

Most people just need to chill the **** up with this overated bs and actually learn some boxing, and get some info on those fighters they call bums.

[I AM...]

i don't think the bear's outta sync i think it's because he's not raisin his foot up like the others, more like his knee than anythin else.

[elfag]

Overrated by the general public who dont know any better.

Still overrated sometimes by some people and too much of this "young prime focused mike tyson" mythical matchups..

but the general agreement that he is not top 10 heavy but probably top 15, that is accurate. When ranking fighters you got to go by actual accomplishments and not potential what ifs.

I still call him an ATG, i mean he is top 15 heavy and his legend and popularity transcended the sport. He didnt achieve anywhere near his full potential, if he had cus around until he was 30 the guy probably would have been a top 5 atg heavy.

[elfag]

you cant solely be judged on your prime, great fighters win fights when the odds are against them, like when they are out of prime, holyfield, ali, duran, robinson etc all won meaningful fights when they were out of prime and the odds were stacked against them, tyson never did that

example:

Roberto Duran, age 38, nearly 100 fights behind him as a pro, stands at 5''7, turned pro at 119 lbs at 16 years of age, goes up against the WBC MW champ Iran Barkely

Barkley stands at 6''1 and is much heavier than roberto, hes also something like a decade younger. He's also coming off a win over tommy hearns, who brutally Ko'd roberto years earlier

What does roberto do? does he bite Irans ear off? does he take a beating? no, he puts on a hell of a performance, and fights tooth and nail with barkley, even putting him on his ass, sealing a close decision win.

in contrast mike tyson was knocked out at age 24 by buster douglas, and he never really regained top form

thats the difference between a great fighter like roberto, and a good fighter like tyson

This brings up a good point, people like to see them pull off the upset, the unthinkable. Or a dramatic comeback from behind in a fight to pull out the KO. Tyson never had those, which would have added to his legacy.

[- JCHING -]

I think in the late 1980's he was an ATG, but in the 1990's for obvious reasons he lost his focus and badly underachieved. The potential was there but he never quite fulfilled it. Personally I think it seemed to easy for him. No matter who he came up against in his early career he could KO them any time he wanted. There is no incentive there to train and fully dedicate himself to the sport after getting the amount of money he was for just walking into the ring and blasting guys out within a round.

[Mugwump]

When your making a case about a fighter being an All-time Great their are certain things that have too be. Longevity is probably the most important of them all. One thing about Mike Tyson that people forget as spectacular as his KO's were his prime lasted about 3 years. Now compare that too a fighter like Larry Holmes or Joe Louis who had 20 some-odd title defenses. Evander Holyfield is another example this guy fought Nikolay Valuev at almost 46 almost 50 years old in a fight I thought he won. Lennox Lewis cleaned the Heavyweight division dry from about 1993 to 2003 10 years 15 title defenses. Muhammad Ali stripped of his title undefeated champ comes back after his physical Prime is over and dominates the heavyweights after he spent X amount of years doing nothing when he wasn't allowed too fight. Ali fought and Beat everyone. Now compare that too Tyson's 3 year run Knocking out fighters like Mitch "Blood" Green its no comparison.

The 2nd most important thing is "WHO WHO WHO" Who did you Fight,Who was there too fight,and Who did you beat. Micheal Spinks and Larry Homles are great fighters. However Larry was years past his prime and previously retired. Spinks was on his way out of Boxing but I still think Tyson needs credit for that win. But that's it beating Mike Spinks isn't the only thing you need too be a an All-Time Great. The thing with Mike is that the Heavyweight division was probably as weak as its ever been during the late 1980's even weaker than now. When Mike was tested with the best of his era Evander and Lennox he was out-classed.

Another thing I like too point out is that after his loss too Buster he never became the "Real" Heavyweight Champion again. Of course Don King cherry picked his typical Tomato Can paper Champions for Scarp Belts but never the "Real" Championship. Mike never showed that ability too become the Top Dog again and that's why I think he was more great management than great fighter. Where the long title reign ? Where is the ability too become the top dog again ? Where is the ability too remain competitive years after your Prime ? I get the feeling people are letting 1 round KO's cloud their vision.

Excellent, well thought out argument. Tyson was overrated. In his prime he was a very dangerous fighter. But his prime leaked away early and the stiffs he was knocking over were just that - stiffs. When someone stood up to him he threatened to implode. The alarm bells were ringing when Bruno buzzed him. If Bruno had been anywhere near good he could have knocked Tyson into Disneyland. As it was Bruno - being Bruno - froze.

[Verstyle]

Hard to be over rated when your record still stands over 20 years for the youngest ever heavyweight, doing it in a year and a half. Also unifying all the belts at 21.You can hate the guy and can't deny that.

[Verstyle]

If tyson is an atg, I guess that makes Vitali an ATG for having the highest knock out percent in the heavy-weight division. Even though both Vitali and Tyson were in kind of mediocre division with fat out of shape bums.

Once Tyson got the belt I only remember him facing one big guy. Tony Tubbs, you wanna compare that to the Vitali era of guys?