When they were building him he fought all tomato cans. If he fought Tim Witherspoon in 1985 or 86 we would have seen the Tyson hype train derailed already. He's like Marciano, just got in at the right time and didn't have a long reign as champ. Douglas showed that Tyson was an overrated scrub. Douglas showed the blueprint on how to destroy Tyson and Wlad is better than him at everything so he would kill Tyson. Wlad 11th round TKO.
Barring Douglas and Tim Witherspoon Mike Tyson beat everyone in the division at the time. Witherspoon would probably have been a good fight but after the shambolic loss to Smith and subsequent lack of activity he did not deserve a shot. I don`t get where Tony Tucker,Mitchell Green,Nino Ribalta,Trevor Berbick,Mike Spinks,Tyrell Biggs can be called tomato can fighters. Tyson was beating guys who would have done very well in todays division both before and after winning the WBC title. Douglas lost to Tucker whom Tyson beat. I don`t get how losing the Douglas fight suddenly turns Tyson into a nobody. He lost a fight so has every other champion of the division bar 1 guy.
The same Tim Witherspoon who got stopped by Smith in a round. Don`t get me wrong here a motivated Witherspoon was a dangerous fighter for anyone but he rarely was. Tim was generally out of shape and losing to the likes of Thomas,do you really think a Tyson fight was a winnable one for him in the late 80`s?
Wlad would not of beaten Tony Tucker. Tucker in in prime was better than Sanders and Willaimson. Wlad was lost against Williamson and found a way to quit out of the fight. Klitschko fans will say Wlad would knock him out but Lewis in his prime could not knock out a washed, passed it version of Tucker. That old Tucker did better than prime Vitali against an old Lewis.
Showed the skill,timing etc that he apparently had non of in the Thomas fight as well. Pinklon was winning the fight!
I agree with the overrated tag for Tyson though I'm not implying he wasn't a great fighter in his prime, it's just that in his prime he really didn't beat a genuine great fighter himself. Now this wasn't his fault as you can only box what is put in front of you at the time, but the level of opposition he faced was no better than any of Klitschko's really. I see only a Klitschko win by a unanimous decision, frustrating Tyson throughout the fight by smothering Tyson's attacks.
Of course I'm talking about an in shape Witherspoon who wasn't battling in the courtroom against Don King more then in the ring. Witherspoon would have beaten Tyson. Tyson could beat a great big fighter that fights big. You can't use Tucker as an example, Wlad was much better than him. Outside of a lucky shot I just don't see Tyson beating Wlad. He's too small and Wlad use every conceivable advantage of his weight,height and reach.
In 93 Tucker almost got Lennox,big uppercut in close late on. Almost got Mike in round 1. A strange bloke Tony Tucker,just vanished after the Tyson loss then returned just a bit too old. Agree, Prime Tucker would beat Wlad in my opinion.
Tucker's movement was key. Wlad wouldn't pin him down in order to plant his feet to land big shots. Tucker takes out a jaded Wlad late on.
Tyson beat guys of a similar size to Wlad both coming up and as champion. He proved he could win via points if needed. You have to use guys like Tucker and Ribalta as examples of this,who else are you going to compare? There was no point in Tyson`s reign at the top that Tim Witherspoon was anything other than an out of shape side show. It might have been a good fight but the fact it did not happen rests on Tim Witherspoon`s shoulders not Mike Tyson`s. Tim was stopped in a round by Smith,Tyson beat Smith he could not really do anymore than that.