how great would mike tyson have been

His decline would not have be as rapid, but he was, in a significant way, done after the Douglas fight. He says as much. Too many other demons, too much fame and not enough true support.

 

Tyson was very fragile mentally. He made a huge mistake firing his original crew. He needed to be around people who loved him and actually cared about him. That was his real downfall, not jail.

 

100-0 with 92 ko's, 72 title defenses, youngest heavyweight champ, oldest heavyweight champ, oldest EVER boxing champ and 24 years as undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion of the Orion Nebula.

 

He would have continued doing drugs, partying hard, committing violent felonies, and generally spiraling out of control until he got himself locked up on another charge or seriously hurt. Would have happened sooner or later (probably sooner). Might have ended up even worse for him.

 

So great that he would be the subject of countless "if" threads.

 

As it was he should already make anybody's top 10. With the right people in his corner and less nonsense outside the ring he probably doesn't lose to douglas. Take away the jail sentence and he likely does enough work up until about 1994 to make top 3... Beyond that he starts to fade as his style and body type wasn't made for old age

 

If he gets a "not guilty" verdict in '92 I think Holyfield beats him up in a few months later and he declines rapidly thereafter. If he carries on beyond that he'd be finished by 1995 with 3 or 4 KO losses on his record and his former reputation and dramatic implosion would be even more of a curiosity than they are in real life time.

 

He was past his best by then. He still may have beaten Holyfield. Take out Bert Cooper and insert Tyson on the night Holyfield brawled with Cooper and I can easily envision Mike taking Evander out.

I wouldn't say there is definitive proof Tyson didn't **** Washington.

 

Holyfield could fight down to his competition, I think he takes Tyson.

The problem remains that there isn't definitive proof that he did,and the standard is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.

The fact that adults can't use the word r a p e is asinine.

 

Tyson was already in decline when he was imprisoned.

His problem was Mike Tyson.
Adults have to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences that come from them.

 

I've said it before, career wise prison almost certainly saved him from defeats. The likes of Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis and Foreman would have been massive threats to Tyson. Let's not forget the limited Ruddock gave him all he could handle in their second bout.

 

And O.J.Simpson wasn't guilty of murdering his wife and her " alleged " boyfriend either I suppose?

 

That's it in a nutshell.

The up and comers from the 88 olympics and returning to the ring Foreman. Moving up in weight Commander Vander. Whole different skill level than the tired old guys Mike fought as champ.

His only contemporary, and who bought into him all that much anyway, was Biggs from the 84 crowd. Everyone else had started their careers a lot earlier.

There really aren't too many heavies that can handle the fresh up and comers that arrise. That test of time is a tough one. Every 4 years is a new grouping & 1988 was a pretty good year. Most lose fights when it's changing of the guard time and Tyson was no different. He was not a Louis or Ali in that department.

Even if you buy into the rationale he wins some of those tough matchups, going those kinds of rounds leads to deterioration of reflexes. So he deteriorates faster and doesn't make it anywhere near as fresh to the Williams and McBride timeframe.

 

he'd have faded in his mid30s, having set his own records, but also having been in too many wars too young to have great longevity.

the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, as some wise geez once said.


though some other meltdown might well have prevetned this.