Let’s be honest - Mike Tyson was overrated as fu.ck

[Blackclouds]

Mike Tyson was undisputed, cannot ever take that away from him.

[hugh grant]

Resume is all that matters though, the rest is just perception.

True. But Tyson beat opponents better than even the best did. Lennox Lewis couldn't beat the people Tyson beat the way and manner Tyson did. And those common opponents will say Tyson was the best they fought. Tony Tucker acknowledged Tyson was a phenomena, Tyrell Biggs said he was the best he fought. I'm sure Bruno might say same.
It's just Tyson failed at the very highest level against top tier fighters which effects legacy.

[The D3vil]

Fat cheese eating yank with dead brain cells, Tyson, Bowe, Lennox and Holyfield are all the same era. They were all also the same era in the amateurs. Lennox has alluded to it several times in interviews. Tyson just turned pro before all of them.

Those are the 4 best in his era, which of them did he beat, dumb yank?

Dummy, Tyson turned pro earlier, because he was a better heavyweight earlier.

All of those guys were at their best after he went to prison. By the time he got out, he was past his best.

Bowe, Lennox, and Evander were not ready in '88 to fight Mike Tyson, and you'd know that if you actually watched the sport,

And since you're such a ho3 ass English muffin, I'm gonna torture you by showing you that Tyson was wayyy more dominant than your fradulent champion Anthony Joshua

Tyson beat 10 of the 11 ELITE fighters in the HW division the year he became champion.



Joshua has only beaten 3, even though he's been champion almost just as long as Tyson was during his run from 1986-1990

[GelfSara]

Yeah right. Mike Tyson was just mentally weak and a lot of people around him alluded to it. And he was a hypejob.

You don’t lose your skills in boxing even if you step away for a couple of years. Yes, you can get ring rust but once you start boxing again it will come back naturally. That’s called muscle memory. Tyson just never had it.

As to your first comment, one of the reasons why Tyson is difficult for some to properly assess is because he was not consistent WRT his mental strength/focus/dedication. While some boxers may be consistently mentally strong (Ex: Marciano or Hagler) or mentally weak (Ex: Victor Ortiz or Kermit Cintrón), Tyson was both--depending on the phase of his career and the circumstances. The reason for this is that Tyson was never in love with boxing per se; rather, boxing was a means by which Tyson could win the approval and love of those near and dear to him--first and foremost his mentor and adoptive father Cus D'Amato, but also his very close friend Jimmy Jacobs, his wife Robin Givens, and Kevin Rooney and Steve Lott. Tyson WAS supremely motivated to please these people, and would go to great lengths to do so. However, fate dealt Tyson a rather difficult set of cards, with the death of D'Amato in 1985, the death of Jacobs in 1988, the loss of Givens also in 1988, etc.

Once Cus and Jimmy had died and Robin had left him, Don King persuaded Tyson to fire both Rooney and Lott. When all of these five were out of the picture, boxing no longer offered Tyson an avenue by which to win the strokes he so desperately needed. To compound the problem, Don King's primary tactic for exerting control over Tyson was to convince Mike that he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, that his **** didn't stink, that he could do no wrong, etc. In other words, where Tyson's sincere allies used both "carrots" and "sticks" to motivate him, and demanded very high standards in training, dedication, etc. in order to "win" praise, King used the "love bomb" approach of cults to seduce Tyson and never insisted that DO anything to remain in his good graces--as, of course, King was a narcissist who didn't give a flying f&$k about Tyson's long-term success.

As to your second comment, while Tyson had some tremendous physical attributes as a boxer--a unique combination of speed and power, a fantastic chin and excellent reflexes, he was never gifted with the kind of innate hand-eye coordination or kinesthetic skills that characterize athletes such as Roger Federer, Floyd Mayweather, Larry Bird, etc. As a consequence, for Tyson to be capable of using the D'Amato technique of consistently moving his head, slipping punches and landing bunches of fast, pinpoint punches in return over the course of a long fight he needed to constantly drill the techniques D'Amato and Rooney taught him; he was incapable of achieving greatness while "half-assing it". One sees this immediately with his bout vs. Frank Bruno in 1989, where Tyson was probably hit with more clean punches in 5 rounds than he had been in his entire career up to that point.

[QueensburyRules]

This is for people who act like these old school boxers were just out there knocking out killers.

Mike Tyson didn’t really beat anyone.

- -U no got rating?

U overdummm!

[Boxing_1013]

This 'dude' is obviously a kid lol...you can tell from all his posts really

[LoadedWraps]

Rye

Marciano was the Wilder of this generation, he’s irrelevant.

Tyson didn’t beat any of the elite boxers of his generation.

Marciano and Wilder have nothing in common except power, which in a sport as deep as this, is meaningless more than not.

I knew you were a troll but now I know to never take your posts seriously.

[Curtis Harper]

Tysons persona is what confuses people.

They quickly (conveniently) forget how awful he was when matched with a real opponent. Had Tyson fought real threats sooner, he would be a better version of Jimmy Thunder.

It happens when promoters keep their cash cow safe in bubbles.

[*Makaveli*]

Yeah right. Mike Tyson was just mentally weak and a lot of people around him alluded to it. And he was a hypejob.

You don’t lose your skills in boxing even if you step away for a couple of years. Yes, you can get ring rust but once you start boxing again it will come back naturally. That’s called muscle memory. Tyson just never had it.

Tyson even now in his 50s, stoned out his mind would batter AJ senseless.

[QueensburyRules]

Tysons persona is what confuses people.

They quickly (conveniently) forget how awful he was when matched with a real opponent. Had Tyson fought real threats sooner, he would be a better version of Jimmy Thunder.

It happens when promoters keep their cash cow safe in bubbles.

- -Bubbles, is it really you?