Teddy Atlas: “Mike Tyson was NOT a great fighter”

Great post.

 

Atlas needs to put his philosophy books down, he's talking way to much gibberish.

Tyson may not have that prime ATG on his record but neither has Wlad, Vitaly, Marciano, you can argue Lewis even if you don't class Vitaly as an ATG.

Tyson's resume is very good, he completely cleaned out his division, was fully unified, he beat a past prime ATG in Holmes, he beat Spinks, he then has a list of top level heavyweights in Thomas, Tucker, Berbick, Ruddock, Golota, Bruno etc.

He's earned his legacy as a boxer and an ATG heavy. Maybes he underachieved, maybes he achieved what he was capable of, it doesn't really matter, he achieved what he achieved and that is good enough to stand amongst the fifteen best heavyweights of all time to this day.

 

Mike was great and my favorite fighter but he is overrated. **** Teddy though.

 

No, it's not as simple as that.

He didn't shine in a dreadful era.

 

A lot of pseudo-intellectual jibber jabber from Teddy as is to be expected.

I don't agree with his assertion that the only victories that count are the ones where a fighter goes life and death with the opponent.

If a fighter can tear through quality opposition without struggling they deserve more credit, not less.

Even still Tyson did have wins were he had to walk through fire, notably his 2 matches with Razor Ruddock.

It wasn't like he capitulated easily in his losses either. It took a prolonged, hellacious beatings to get him out of there.

 

A man has to take responsibility for his actions.

Losing to Buster hurts his legacy. Buster won fair and square and he deserves all of the credit in the world. But we can't just ignore the circumstances involved. We can't pretend that Buster fought the best version of Mike Tyson.

I've never had an issue with anyone who believes that Buster would have beaten any version of Mike. But Mike wasn't motivated, fighting to his full capabilities. We know the background story. Mike wasn't in love with boxing anymore, and Buster was just another guy to him. Mike hugely understimated him and he was underprepared. He was overweight and out of shape, he was sleeping around, and he was getting dropped by Greg Page in sparring. He didn't even do proper roadwork. Now that was all on him.

We have got to be careful when separating facts from excuses. To me, it's a fact that he was unmotivated and not in the best shape possible. So how can something as huge as that not have had a huge effect on the outcome of the fight? You can note his young age in his loss, but you can't say that he was at his best, when he clearly wasn't.

 

I'm going to assume that if he'd have rematched Douglas he'd definitely have beaten him. Because the loss embarrassed him. So I believe that he'd have gotten himself in great shape to have gone out and proved a point to the world.

I also think that the loss of Buster's mother gave him a will of iron that night, which was never replicated.

I guess we'll never know.

I would also have liked to have seen how Evander would have fared had he have fought the exact same version of Buster as what Mike did. Because I don't think he'd have folded like he did in their actual fight. That's just my opinion.

 

There's lots of sportsman who have burnt out at a young age.

Mike didn't shine for a long time, but he beat some good fighters with ease whilst he was on top.

AJ and Wilder certainly have the power to have knocked Mike out, but his speed and style would have caused both of them huge issues.

I'd say that he'd have had a huge chance of beating AJ, and he'd definitely have beaten Wilder. Wilder has struggled with B and C class guys, relying on his huge power to get himself out of trouble. But how would he have had the time and space to have landed that right hand on Mike, who'd have bobbed and weaved his way inside with speed? It would be extremely difficult for a guy like Wilder to have timed a guy like Mike coming in.

 

Not really. He didn't bulldoze or intimidate James Quick Tillis or Mitch Green or Tony Tucker or Razor Ruddock (either time) ... and he didn't lose any of those.

Mike Tyson was stopped in all his losses. So he clearly didn't "bulldoze" anyone when he lost.

But that doesn't mean he lost BECAUSE he didn't bulldoze them.

He could and did win fights by decision, too.

 

Only five men have ever been 23-year-old undisputed heavyweight champions ... Tyson, Patterson, Ali, Foreman and Louis.

They all had excuses to explain their losses.

 

The most overrated fighter ever was clearly Marciano. Guys like Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney would also be on the list. Tyson is clearly overrated by his fans but still was a solid fighter.

 

i think his comments about been 0-5 are pretty disrespectful to the likes of bonecrusher, ruddock etc who came to fight and weren't scared of Tyson and he had to overcome plenty in those fights,,

Tyson had to overcome plenty in his life,, much more out of the ring which are a lot tougher then taking a off beating Evander Holyfield,

 

Buster was smoking at the presser for the Holy fight, that tells you everything. He had already won the lottery in his mind I think !

 

Teddy has hated Tyson for years. It’s just sad this guy can’t put his bias to the side. Tyson is a great fighter, he is overrated by his fan boys but there is very few HWs which had the combination of speed and power Mike showed. Not to mention Tyson had an excellent chin, he could absorb a lot of punishment.

 

Every time Tyson fought someone who wasn't afraid of him, he not only lost, he got his ass kicked.