Tysons best win ?

To be fair I wouldn't define his "entire" career as fraudulent. He did win the Olympic gold legitimately. He thoroughly conquered a shark infested light heavyweight division that was filled with hall of fame men. He then moved up to face one of the greatest heavyweights of all time ( albeit past his prime) and won the title. The rematch was questionable though. And lastly we have no proof that he had his mind set on throwing the Tyson fight. But I think most reasonable people can agree that his heart wasn't in it either. I certainly think Michael Spinks was a MUCH better fighter than what he showed us on June 27th 1988.

 

Goo - He was scared sh*tless. It's not overly often one great fighter is scared of another but it sure happened here.

 

Probably Tucker imo.

 

Yeah, I think Michael Spinks was a fighter who had planned to retire sooner but the Tyson money was too much to turn down.
His foray into the HW division was supposed to be a carefully trod calculated mission, Holmes then maybe Cooney and avoid anyone else dangerous, but then Tyson came out of nowhere and it became a big fight.
I don't think Spinks was particularly keen on the boxing business at all.

 

Well he certainly wasn't thrilled to be going into that ring. You even saw it in his eyes during that dreadfully long walk down the isle. But be that as it may, Michael Spinks is a man who's heart I don't question. Man fought Dwight Qawi when ? Wasn't it the same week his wife died ?

 

I respect him for having an absolutely brilliant career and knowing when to call it quits. Spinks boxing tenure can be defined as " short and sweet."

 

Yeah, I think he retired at the right time. Him and Marvin Hagler knew when to walked away. Both went out on a loss but a big payday each too.

 

Agreed.

 

I personally believe that tyson s best fights all come pre 1988. Up to the spinks fights I believe he was the best he was ever going to be. The combination punching , the defensive head movement, it was more or less all there. Yes he had a crap fight against Smith but more due to smiths hugging than anything but majority of his performance back then were chilling. After spinks and rooney and Co leaving it was never the same

 

I dunno, beating a 37 year old man should never be your best win, not even close.

 

Seeing as a few rate spinks and Holmes as best wins for tyson, I wonder how tyson would have gone on if the division he came into was full of young talented guys, such as Lewis, bowe, holy field, moorer, tua, rahman? The division tyson came in to in 86 was made up of a lot of faded ex champs and contenders so he was cutting through those like a knife through butter. How would he have progressed with the above mentioned standing in his way?

 

I personally think he beats all of them at his best.

He punched too hard. A lot of them guys in the list could probably out box him for a bit...but his power was the greatest asset in a pretty good list of attributes. Cant remember anyone knocking guys out like tyson did the way he did consistantly. His power was short circuiting guys nervous system.

The main difference was...when guys like lewis/holyfield/bowe were training for a couple of hours per night after school etc. Tyson was training like a professional from a very young age. Not just any professional trainer either but for me cus was a genius...a flawed genius...but a genius all the same. At 14 who were guys like lewis/holyfield/bowe training with and for how long etc. Tyson was training with a guy that already had had a heavyweight champion...to boot he was undersized and a bit lightweight for the division in patterson. Dont think many understand how difficult that is to achieve. He pretty much done it twice. You dont do that as a normal run of the mill trainer. I m not even sure guys like steward could have done that. Cus was off the wall but he was a genius just looking back at his methods.

To add to that mike had nothing else to live for. No real family to speak of. You ve got this intense guy in cus with free reign over basically a child with low self esteem thats only hope to live a productive life was boxing. When you get circumstances like that...it opens the door from greatness.

Tyson was a child prodigy...well if you count 20 as a child anyway. Same with guys like roy jones junior...think it was his old man that said something like...if you want ordinary results do ordinary things...if you want extraordinary results do extraordinary things. Its why guys like tyson and roy jones were a step ahead of everybody at least for a time anyway.

A lot of it was down to the intense training methods/circumstances. It allowed him to be better than them.

The 80,s heavyweights were actually pretty good...they get a bit of a raw deal for me probably because tyson destroyed most of them and it wasnt the glory years of the heavyweight division with ali etc. But just looking at them from a skill perspective...most of them could do it all. Could move. Could punch. Could punch in combinations. Had very good punch selection and variety. Delivered punches at speed etc. Could jab. Its like comparing night and day with todays heavyweights if we just look at skill level.

 

Frankly I don't think anyone would have survived that kind of environment without picking up a loss somewhere down the line.