Realistically Mike Tyson belongs no where near the top 5

[LordOfTheTalentedAndLazy]

You'll never see a heavyweight move with such grace and speed ever again. Nor will you see anyone with a custom made boxing style that exemplifies his talents so perfectly whilst using shortcomings to an advantage and having that much sheer power, control, precision and ring IQ.



People simply couldn't hit him as he'd evade, keep the pressure on then counter punch and it would be lights out.

In terms of sheer skill people really underrate Tyson as he's literally leagues ahead of so many of his peers for reasons said.

Buster Douglas hit him. A lot . Razor Ruddock too. And of course Holyfield and Lewis and others after his jail stint.


Mike Tyson was an amazing talent but dude was the definition of frontrunner. If he couldn't hurt you and get you out of there early he was very beatable. No top 5 all time heavyweight great is losing to a dude like Buster Douglas. Period

 

[DaHNIC82]

nikkah cleaned up his whole heavyweight division and became the biggest draw in Boxing after Ali left at the age of 20... Gotta salute that

 

[Umoja]

Buster Douglas hit him. A lot . Razor Ruddock too. And of course Holyfield and Lewis and others after his jail stint.


Mike Tyson was an amazing talent but dude was the definition of frontrunner. If he couldn't hurt you and get you out of there early he was very beatable. No top 5 all time heavyweight great is losing to a dude like Buster Douglas. Period

People need to put respect on Buster's name still. Look at his performance on the night.

He boxed well and the string of punches that put Mike down was perfection.

From what I know, he was motivated by the death of his mum that night. Showed up to the fight in shape and with a purpose in mind.

Why Mayweather deserves a lot of props. Regardless of motivation, off nights, and/or opponent having the fight of their career, he found a way to emerge victorious.



One of my favourites.

 

[LordOfTheTalentedAndLazy]

People need to put respect on Buster's name still. Look at his performance on the night.

He boxed well and the string of punches that put Mike down was perfection.

From what I know, he was motivated by the death of his mum that night. Showed up to the fight in shape and with a purpose in mind.

Why Mayweather deserves a lot of props. Regardless of motivation, off nights, and/or opponent having the fight of their career, he found a way to emerge victorious.



One of my favourites.

Buster was definitely the perfect spoiler because he came from a fighting family, had a lot of experience, and had more to give than what he showed up in the ring with most times. And that motivation of his mom dying was definitely big too.

That said, if you think Buster on his best day had anything for Ali, Holmes in his prime, Foreman etc., you're buggin. Mike lost to a dude that no all time great heavyweight champ had any business losing to . That's all there is to it.

 

[Umoja]

Buster was definitely the perfect spoiler because he came from a fighting family, had a lot of experience, and had more to give than what he showed up in the ring with most times. And that motivation of his mom dying was definitely big too.

That said, if you think Buster on his best day had anything for Ali, Holmes in his prime, Foreman etc., you're buggin. Mike lost to a dude that no all time great heavyweight champ had any business losing to . That's all there is to it.

Nah, I agree with you fam. For me, what defines the best is their ability to handle all manner of challenges.

It doesn't matter if someone is a rising star, or if a fighter with potential performs to the best of their ability, they put an end to it.

Mike, in my honest opinion, is a flat track bully. He's a good fighter but pretty much failed the tests put in front of him.

 

[iBrowse]

I'm just here to see y'all boxing knowledge on full display. This gone be good.

Yup. I wonder if @krackdagawd is in here .

 

[Erratic415]

Tyson is probably my favorite fighter ever. Very exciting mix of speed and power, beautiful punching technique, and his highlight reel of KOs is the best along with Joe Louis and Julian Jackson.

Tyson had a short prime. He and Kevin Rooney were a good mix. Tyson fell into bad habits without him, looking too much for one shot, not moving his head to avoid shots, not setting up bigger shots with his jab. He was prone to frustration and impatience, and be a front runner. Emanuel Steward said that due to Tyson’s style, he expected Tyson to have a short reign at the top anyway. He didn’t expect Tyson to have much success after his mid 20s.

One thing about the heavyweight division is that despite its popularity, it really isn’t like other divisions (especially welterweight) when it comes to talent. Most HW eras are considered weak or mediocre or whatever. The exceptions are the early to mid 70s and early to mid 90s. Jack Dempsey’s opposition wasn’t the best, he was fairly inactive, and never fought the leading black HWs around. His promoter wouldn’t let him. Joe Louis had a “bum of the month” club.

Rocky Marciano’s best opponents were older and better at light heavyweight. Cus D’Amato protected Floyd Patterson for as long as he could, like Mickey trying to protect Rocky from guys like Clubber Lang. Larry Holmes’s opposition wasn’t good. The heavyweight era of the 80s is often called “The Lost” generation because so many of them squandered their talent on drugs or were just known for being lazy. The Klitschkos opposition is not much to write home about. Vitali is usually seen as the better one in H2H matchups because of his chin, but Wlad beat many more of the top guys around at the time than his brother did.

Tyson’s reign wasn’t an exception, but he more or less cleaned out the division. Take a look at the Ring’s top 10 at the end of 86’, right after he beat Trevor Berbick for one of the belts. The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: Heavyweight--1980s - BoxRec

Of the other ten HWs, he beat 8 of them. None of them were close fights. The other two, he lost to Douglas, and the other was Witherspoon. Witherspoon lost to Smith, who lost to Tyson.

So that’s pretty impressive. I rarely ever do lists so I don’t have a top 5 or 10 or whatever. There’s a lot to take in and different criteria. Usually when I would read the top 10 HW lists of boxing historians, at least among those whose opinion I respect, Tyson was ranked in the bottom end of the top 10 or just outside of it. That sounds alright to me.

 

[Dave24]

Bringing it back, what people miss when it comes to Tyson is the fact that Cus neurologically, psychologically and physically broke him down back into his components and then put it all together again with one intent:

To become the youngest heavyweight champion ever.

In the process of doing that he poured his entire lifetime of boxing experience into Tysons genetically gifted form and gave him purpose which he took and ran with (whilst Cus was alive and for a short while after at least) because its Mikes dedication, training and drills that paid off in the ring. No other boxer/trainer has ever gone this far into the realms of the mind/spirit before and likely never will.

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Thats is whats so special about Tyson because it was literally a once in multiple lifetimes alignment of the old lion putting the young cub with big paws up on game and it was truly something else to witness.

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This is why I'd rate him far ahead of his peers because he, moreso than any of them, comprehended the psychological aspects with far greater depth due to his training and dedication. Cus has an old black and white interview from ages ago where he describes the ideal fighter and says:

"A smaller fighter with character and no fear will decimate the entire field"

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And later he found Tyson who was just that. Another thing, the wise philosopher sage that you're seeing Tyson mature into now:

Thats all Cus.

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He literally cleared the space, the same space thats full of crap in 99.9% of people walking the planet which is why they talk about doing something but never actually do it, so what was already present could flow and we saw Mike early on in his zone, get sidetracked and now he's coming up on a whole nother level of mastery and that is what, in my eyes at least, makes him so special because Mike isn't just the product of one life but two and that places him in a league far beyond the label of mere pugilist.

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Its this side. Everything else but the fight, the time in the ring, the knockouts, success. This is what defines character, this is what gives inspiration and this is what creates a legend.

Give the man his flowers while he can still smell em because he earned them.

Great post!

 

[Northern Son]

I agree with Brotha Zay. He only has a handful of wins against top, prime opponents (Spinks), 0-2 against Holyfield and he was brutally knocked out by his biggest rival who is older than him (Lewis).

That said, losing Rooney as a trainer and becoming a headhunter (major stylistic changes) made him a lot less viable. He was also on drugs.

 

[Payroll]

Lennox > Tyson

 

[Juggalo Fred]

I'll take Ali because he once won a fight in Maine at the same venue i saw Tech N9ne preform at

 

[Vandelay]

Off pure talent, he's probably the GOAT, but sometimes the tangibles don't add up like they should to make a GOAT career.

I don't count the Douglas loss as a loss, that was a bad count. He was set to fight Holyfield after that fight and I think he would've smashed Holyfield and pretty much any fighter activey boxing around that time. Post prison he was a different boxer. We can play woulda, coulda, shoulda all day...but he doesn't have the resume to be the GOAT. Top 10 easily, it's a stretch to put him in the Top 5 tho.

With that said, he's still my favorite boxer of all time.

 

[Kliq_Souf]

The jail stint fukked up what could have been a more solidified legacy...
The division was on fire when he had to sit, he would have had to face some heavy hitters

 

[Vegeta]

Tyson isn't a top 5 heavyweight let alone a fukking top 5 P4P boxer.

Ali, Lewis, Holyfield, Holmes, Bowe, and Foreman > Tyson.

 

[Laidbackman]

The only way you could beat a prime Mike Tyson was to know how and when to tie him up (hit and hold). Ali was good at this. This was how Douglas beat him. Hollyfield copied that strategy when he fought him. Can't any ole boxer tie you up like Ali use to. No matter how hard they could punch, midway through the fight, their arms would be too tired to punch with any serious damage. That technique may look easy, but it takes skill that don't come overnight. But when you have Mike in front of you, you're gonna also need a chin, and to be good at slipping punches (roll with the punch).