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

I was living in Soviet Union/Russia at the time and even there, the hype around Tyson was huge, he was someone that transcended the sport of boxing. He would be the biggest star in boxing by far

 

If Tyson and Mayweather, today, walked down on opposite sides of a road in Russia.

You know who everyone would rush to meet out of the two.

FFS Tyson was given parades in St Petersburg and that was 30 years ago!

 

While Tyson was in prison, I wore a "Free Mike Tyson" tee shirt in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil and people literally were trying to buy the shirt of my back. Tyson was extremely popular down there.

 

Tysons more popular than Floyd is TODAY.

Forget about if he was fighting.

 

he woudnt. because he woudnt be as succesful.
the klishkos would beat him

 

So thanks to madpuppy and cslb we have first-hand accounts of Tyson's worldwide fame.
The guy was a megastar then folks, just as he would be now. Deal with it.

 

But would he? He rose to prominence in a weak era with no dominant force or real contenders, unless you think Pinklon Thomas and James Smith would be top 10 today. I would not rate them top 30 today. Berbick would be alongside Stiverne in today's scene. There was nobody in his way until Holyfield, and even then he fashioned to be KO'd by a guy who was a 40/1 shot.

 

Berbick comparable to Stiverne atsch

 

Correct.

And think about this. Tyson beat a string of 20 nobody tomato cans, then fought Berbick and was a HUGE hyped star. The Berbick fight had a purse of $7.5 million in today's Dollars and Tyson was the 4-1 favorite going into it.

Wilder has a record of beating 30 tomato cans. Was a slight favorite over Stiverne. And yet he's no star at all. Nobody cares about Wilder.

If Tyson was around today and beat Stiverne after beating 20 cans, why would he be the same star he was in 1986? He wouldn't. He'd be an insignificant belt holder just like Wilder is.

 

Agree but for the point everybody knows who the dominant champ is and it sure as hell wasn't/isnt Stiverne. So Wilder just added another can to his shelf, that is hardly going to make him a star, plus he managed a UD, big deal. Tyson beat a guy he was 1/4 to stop because the scene was so bad.

 

How would the likes of Pinklon Thomas not be in today's top 30??

Wow!

I think you need to go and look at today's top 30.

Guys like Arreola are in the top 20.

 

Look, you're going completely off track here.

You are having a completely different debate to the TS.

The TS isn't asking for direct comparisons using the same timeline.

You simply cannot do direct comparisons between 1985 and 2015. In the last 30 years the whole world has changed drastically, as well as the boxing landscape.

Personally, I'm in complete agreement with you, in that if Mike made his pro debut today, then the likelihood is, that in three years time, he wouldn't be the huge star that he was in 1988. I think that's pretty obvious. But the TS has simply asked the question, if Tyson was around today with social media etc, would he be a bigger star than Floyd? So my answer is yes, if he remained active and he was as exciting and as dominant as he was in the 80's, yes, without a doubt. Although it would take him a lot longer than the three years that it took him in the 80's. But eventually, there's no reason why not.

 

Ok then I am in agreement with you and basically then I misunderstood the idea of the thread.

If the 80s "Tyson phenomenon" would take place today with social media and a more globalized economy (without the media cencoring of the Soviet block), Tyson would have a huge chance to become a bigger global star than Floyd. Floys is actually not very marketable on a global scale, and not very well known outside of the US.

I misunderstood this as "How likely is the Tyson phenomenon to be replicable today exactly as it happened in the 80s". Different question. My bad, apologies if I insulted anyone. And thanks for clearing that up.

 

Tyson would be knocked out and exposed much earlier now than in the 80's.

 

No problem mate.

You've made some really great points, it's just that there's now two different debates happening in the thread, and it's confusing. But I'm glad we've cleared it up.

Although me and you very rarely agree on these types of threads, it's always great fun, and I always enjoy debating with you.

Do you know what I've been wondering whilst I've been reading your posts? What would have happened if Floyd had've been active in Mike's era? Now that would be fun to speculate.

Nice debating with you.


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