If Mike Tyson was around today, would he be a bigger star than Floyd?

That's not the question. The question is if Tyson knocked out the equivalent of a Berbick TODAY, would he become more popular than Floyd in 2-3 years?

Say if 18 year old Tyson knocked out Wilder today. Would anyone care? No. It would be a non-event. Then Tyson would fight a mandatory against Povetkin is Moscow, Russia. Again, would anyone care? No. Then if he won against Povetkin (who's better than ANYONE on Tyson's 80s resume) he'd get a unification fight against Wlad in Germany, and gets brutally knocked out. Again, does anyone take notice? No, absolutely not. Too small, too weak. Wlad vs. Tyson woudln't generate much interest.

So 3 years into his title campaign Tyson would get ZERO mainstream media attention today -- unlike the 1980s. See where this is going? Tyson was a product of fighting tomato cans in the 80s, where media was thirsty for a bad boy athlete who can make headlines and sell copies and get TV ratings.

If the Tyson blueprint was working still today then Wilder would ALREADY be a huge star. Guess what: Wilder is a nobody. He makes a lousy $1.2 million per fight as a HW champion. Tyson's cutman was getting that per fight.

 

You prove yourself clueless. Again.

Never mind Wilder. Wlad with all his defences isn't 1/4 of the star Tyson was.
And forget about the 80's too.

Tyson's fight with McNeely in the 90's was bigger than Wlads entire career. So were the Holyfield fights.
They are just two Tyson fights that out do Wlads whole career.
Then move in to the 00's. His fight against Lewis was greater than anything Wlad has ever done.

Tyson was the biggest figure in sport for 3 generations - not just in boxing. You clearly weren't following the sport pre Klitschko.

 

Why isn't Wilder as big as Tyson was after knocking out Berbick?

Why did Berbick vs. Tyson have a total purse of $2.5m -- which in today's money would be like $7.5m -- and why do Wilder's fights have purses of $1.5m?

By your clownish definition Wilder today should be EXACTLY as big as Tyson was after Berbick. But hes not. And you can't explain that away. So you bring up McNeely and Holyfield and look like a total moron :yep

 

Hahahaha!!! Wow, you must be religious. Only those people have that level of certainty about anything lol. Tyson was around at his space in time and was special in that point of time. You change anything about that time period and who knows...well apparently you do hahahaha!!! But in reality no one knows how every factor affects another. Think the whole butterfly affect. Does the fact that he fought in the crack era effect his popularity....maybe, or could it be the Reagan and Bush Sr. years? Every factor of the time period has to be examined, cuz you never know what was important and what wasn't. There are too many variables, that's why one shouldn't be absolutely certain about anything. Only religious people have not learned this lesson.

 

Mike would have earnt ridiculous amounts of money today. You never knew what you were going to get from him. It was fascinating viewing.

 

Tyson's s****om was still growing around the time of Berbick. It was nowhere near what it would become.

Even then Tyson had far better wins than Wilder against Ferguson, Tillis , Frazier , Green. He looked like a sensation as a 19 year old two year pro.

Wilder was a 30 year old 7 year pro when he beat an old fat Stiverne for a vacant belt.
Most saw him as a fraud who needed a fix to beat Malik Scott. Wilder is a non factor. Why are you bringing him up?
Why not compare Wlad who is the real champion against the star quality of Tyson?
Delete your account.

 

Yep. Being an American Heavyweight who knocks everyone out and also has uncontrollable personality would bring in the masses.

 

:deal

 

Tyson would be a FAR bigger star than Floyd imo. His personality would lend great to things like 24/7 and his KO's would draw casuals from all over. And as far as these people comparing him to Wilder. That's ridiculous, Tyson fought the best opponents available, every single time. This changed once he lost to Douglas though.

 

This can't be serious. Tyson would be a way bigger star. No comparison.

 

As long as he was the champion he would be. If he lost to say one of the Klitschko brothers and never gained a title than no. But if he had the same level of success he had when he fought, he'd be far, far bigger than Floyd. I think a guy like Duran would also be huge if he were around. Interesting enough, Tyson's idol was Duran and he immolated him quite a bit.

 

Unless you're at least 35 years old or older you really don't remember how big Tyson was. Sure Floyd makes an insane amount of money but that's because of the economic structure of the sport. Tyson was the biggest STAR in all of sport. The last boxer to be so. From 86-89 he was it. Before his life began to cause him trouble and sponsers began to flee his image. He was bigger than Jordan. It was only after Tokyo that Jordan became the face of American sports.

 

/Thread!