Tysons best win ?

I agree. It's not that Tyson beat Holmes, it's the way he obliterated Holmes within 4 rounds.

 

Holmes, Spinks, Thomas, Tucker, Biggs, Tubbs, Berbick...you can argue with any one of these fights.

Ruddock can also be mentioned because of the amount of bombs Tyson's chin was able to absorb without going down.

Funny that Mike Tyson himself feels the Douglas fight was his best, probably because he was able to stay in the fight for 10 rounds and almost became the poster boy for something his detractors hold against him - overcoming adversity in the 8th round.

 

Yes but on this one occasion he was scared. He wasn't keen at all to leave the dressing room.

 

Spinks is his best showing.
Tucker is a greater in because of what it represents in terms of beating a SHW.

But Berbick came in the best condition to fight he believe.

Tyson has a great pre prison career aside from the one blip against Douglas.

Post prison he could improve his legacy as he was past his best, wins over Seldon, Bruno, Golota, Norris, Botha all added to his resume.

What Tyson did was great, a ferocious fire that burned hard and fast, but what a run he had in his prime.

 

I think Mike Tysons best win was Tyrell Biggs. And I shall tell you why..

If there had been no Mike Tyson, Biggs without the beating Tyson gave him, would have been a shoe in to become World Heavyweight champion. Who else was around who had not been found out at World level? Thomas? Tubbs? Truth Williams? Witherspoon? By 1986 Smith and Berbick were champions. Both had lost to Holmes. Biggs would have been seen as heir apparent with perhaps only Tucker to oppose him as the next big thing.

Don't forget the main reason people go on about Teofelo Stevenson is because he preceded Frazier and Foreman as Olympic champions, each made it to world champion in the pros as had Floyd Patterson, Both Spinks brothers and Ali. Olympic champions fighting in the HW ranks always became champion, it was like night following day. In fact, Apart from Sonny Liston and Holmes, every real heavyweight champion since 1956 had won Olympic medals of some description! It provided proof of pedigree for the paid ranks and drew the greater investment. Stevenson, being Cuban was the only one not allowed to turn pro, well Biggs had preceded Stevenson, and Tyrell even beat Lennox Lewis on his way to getting gold!

Biggs was unbeaten. His fight with Simms had made great copy and was doing the rounds as proof Biggs had passed the test of providing that coming from behind win that the best future champions often provide. I remember reading the Sims win being compared to Ali getting off the floor to beat Cooper! Biggs had won this fight using only his jab after his collarbone had snapped during a freak exchange earlier in the fight.

in the first round against Tyson, it is possible to conclude that Tyrell boxed like a real class act and was indeed looking, at that point, a great fighter. He had not froze, this was a man on top of his game, proven as a pro with plenty of mileage left on the clock. a likely future champion in any other circumstance. Nobody ever outboxed Tyson so easily as Biggs had in that first round. They discredit Biggs for "not keeping it up" but I think Tyson had a lot to do with that!

But Tyson turned this being out boxed lark totally around and methodically worked out and dismantled Biggs. With Feints He out jabbed Biggs who had a much longer reach. Biggs had out jabbed Lewis in the Olympics! Tyson worked him out. He was so nonchalant mike barely took a punch and appeared to hit Biggs only with single shots from long range. Just because he wanted to. He ruined Biggs.

It was a better win than the Tony Tucker fight because for all Tucker had a paper title when Tyson out pointed him Biggs had greater credentials and was knocked out.

 

Do Biggs's addictions count in his loss to Tyson?

 

I agree that a great fight out ranks a blow out on a resume. Coming through a two way traffic fight is greater than what Tyson had on his resume within his prime so we are left only with dominant performances to chose from. Trying to chose between formerly great opponents who either froze or who were inactive the next best examples is finding a guy who turned up and might have been something had it not been for Tyson.

Tyrell I think was broken by the Tyson fight. There is a great case for that. Mentally After that kind of annihilation I don't think a one time, groomed to be future superstar ever can fully commit to a career as he had before. I don't think there are examples of any overcoming it?

Potential wise, resume wise, at the time Tyson fought him, Biggs had as much going for him as any Olympian challenging for the title. If you study the resume of Frazier, Foreman, Patterson, Johansson, Ali and Leon Spinks then Biggs is right up there and as well prepared to take a title as any of them.

 

He might have been clean at the time but these past addictions would have undoubtedly caused lasting damage to his physical and mental health.

 

i acknowledge he was one of the best, but spinks beat him marginally so he should be a better win

it is underrated.

perhaps my mind is back when the fight occurred, rather than now in restrospect of Larrys continued career. At the time, facing the old champ was seen as an easy win.

 

That's the million dollar question though, we can never know can we?

We can't know if that beating permanently knocked Biggs down a peg, preventing a would be champion reaching his potential or that a Witherspoon or a Bruno would have poleaxed an unbeaten Gold medal winner the night Tyson broke him.

It's only a point of view, but perhaps that good first round showed Tyson beat a good fighter that night?

I understand hindsight shows us Biggs might have been destined to be one of the very, very few Olympic medal winners to campaign as a heavyweight never to win a belt. But nobody could have forecast it before the kind of beating Tyson ruined Tyrell with.

Remember, Mercer, Holyfield, Bowe the Klits, Lewis Joshua were all Olympic medal winners too.