Comments Thread For: Teddy Atlas on Mike Tyson: I Don't Know If He Was Ever Great

[KillaMane26]

I love Tyson


But I ain't never seen a fighter get so much "shuda wuda cuda" love.

[HeadShots]

Holyfield might’ve always had Mike’s number, but I’ve always maintained that pre-prison Tyson would’ve emerged victorious. A shame we’ll never know for sure. Tyson came up in an era where there were few challenges to his absolute peak. But, man, was he fun to watch. As a lifelong boxing fan, I was lucky enough to see it as Mike’s career unfolded. It’s just not the same on video. Dude was electrifying.

The myth of pre-prison Tyson was smashed by Buster Doughlas

[CubanGuyNYC]

The myth of pre-prison Tyson was smashed by Buster Doughlas

Not a good gauge. Everyone knows Tyson didn’t train properly for that fight — his new “team” was garbage. Mike was destroying everyone, and his homies did nothing to dispel the notion that he was invincible. 42-1 odds for that fight. You think Tyson considered Douglas a threat? Haha To Buster’s credit, he gave the fight of his life. The rest is history.

[HeadShots]

Not a good gauge. Everyone knows Tyson didn’t train properly for that fight — his new “team” was garbage. Mike was destroying everyone, and his homies did nothing to dispel the notion that he was invincible. 42-1 odds for that fight. You think Tyson considered Douglas a threat? Haha To Buster’s credit, he gave the fight of his life. The rest is history.

nobody is ever 100%

and lucky punches happen


but Tyson got outboxed, beat up and knocked out in his prime.



Golovkin was on anti-biotics against Rosado(similar opponent as Douglas). Anyone on anti-biotics know you are basically 40-50%.

he had some problems. But still stopped rosado.

[famicommander]

I hope Mike apologized to Teddy's niece and not just Teddy, I don't know the whole story, but it was kind of a ****y move by Cus not to stand behind the girl.

Tyson is a straight up serial rapist and serial abuser of women. He has more ****, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence accusers than you can count on two hands.

He has never been anything resembling a good person and everyone who has ever been around him knew that from the start. They just decided to ignore what he was doing while he was making everyone a ton of money. Cus was scum, Teddy is scum, Mike is scum.

[SweetPbfAli]

Holme's was past his best but still a credible heavyweight, evident by his victory over Ray Mercer. Furthermore, Spinks being a former light heavyweight means what? He was the first man to dethrone Larry Holmes and was a champion at heavyweight.

Finally, Tyson resume is more than just two names - victories over Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tucker, Razor Ruddock, Trevor Berbick, and Bonecrusher Smith. Tyson did clean out the heavyweight division in the mid-eighties. Something neither current heavyweight can claim whether it is Wilder, Joshua or Fury.

I think Mike is sometimes penalized for being a force in one of the weakest eras for HW. It's literally called "the lost generation" because it was a bunch of inconsistent, undisciplined, and unreliable fighters passing around the belts besides Holmes. Tyson came and restored some semblance of order, although for a very brief time. The irony is he took on a lot of the adjectives attached to the 80s heavyweight as he moved into the 90s.

[CubanGuyNYC]

nobody is ever 100%

and lucky punches happen


but Tyson got outboxed, beat up and knocked out in his prime.



Golovkin was on anti-biotics against Rosado(similar opponent as Douglas). Anyone on anti-biotics know you are basically 40-50%.

he had some problems. But still stopped rosado.

Nobody? Lol I’d say usually fighters are 100%. But the bold can’t be denied. However, there are excuses then there are reasons. The reason why Tyson got owned that night is what I gave before. It’s not an excuse. A “normal” Mike would’ve beaten Douglas, although Buster might’ve given him a run for his money. The infamous 42-1 Vegas odds were for good reason. Sure, champions sometimes walk into the ring less than 100%; but what happened with Tyson goes beyond that. The whole camp was a joke. Dude was ****in’ Japanese women left and right. He would’ve been better off coming into the event with a fever, a la Michael Jordan. Mike’s career was set to implode at that stage.

[BustedKnuckles]

People don't get the small percentages. They may be small but they make a huge difference. This is what leads to performance variance, one fight good and next fight bad.

People come up with all kind of crap to explain that - stuff like he fights down to his opponents level. No! That's a variance that plays into it. Namely, the variance is that that particular fighter lacks the ability to self motivate for lesser opponents.

Mike Tyson had so many issues that the variance swings in his career were huge. We can say that the best version of Tyson beats anyone, that the version that lost to Douglas and Holyfield wasn't the best version. But all the variances - physical; weight issues, injuries - mental; lack of motivation, lack of discipline, substance abuse etc emotional; depression; anger; and outside of ring; trainers dying, relatives messing up, promotional issues, car accidents, visa issues, - all of them lead to variance in performance.

Fans and the media refer to the best version of a fighter. Well there was a best version of Tyson but because of all the variance , much amplified in his case, we never saw the best version vs Holyfield but we can guess how that might have worked out.

Well said. And don't forget that gold digger Robin Givens.

[hugh grant]

Tyson was great, he was small so give him some leeway. At his best maybe only 5 beat him h2h, plus maybe 10 heavyweights in history have better resumes.
So top 15 all time

[ELPacman]

Whether he was "great" can be arguable, but you can never argue the influence the impact the man made on the sport worldwide. He's been in everything. Movies, music lyrics, games, toys... All he's missing was his own grill to counter Big George. Otherwise, everyone knows who he is.

I've watched plenty of his highlight videos because around the time he was on a tear, I had just been born. Watching the opponents he fought then, while a lot of them were taller than him, they looked like they were in the wrong business. Half of them probably looked like accountants, lol. Though yeah, the KOs were always pretty impressive and knockouts sold, so he was king at that for that time.