Tyson is the greatest of all time

Tyson is one of my favorite heavyweights. Having lived through his entire career, it was an awesome spectacle to witness. No Heavyweight since then has decimated the competition in such spectacular fashion as Tyson did. At his peak he had the potential to be one of the greatest of all time. But, he is clearly not the greatest of all time. (And, the same goes for Lennox Lewis). Tyson's all action style in the ring, and reckless habits outside of the ring were bound to bring him down before his unique talents failed him.

 

Legacy wise he isn't but there could of been a few years where he was

 

He wasn't but he could have been. Speed power, reflexes, badly underrated ring IQ and understanding of the Sport(given his height and style he didn't really have a chance to show it) and an underrated chin as well that would keep him in the fight several rounds after he gassed out.

 

H2H he beats a few all timers but not all of them imo so I wouldn't personally say he was the best ever. What I would say is that he was the most exciting heavyweight of all time.

 

The only way that you could even theoretically make the case, would be based on media impact.

 

I hate casual boxing fans who glorify Tyson, and I don't like Tyson as a person, but considering his physical ability and skills, I have no problem if someone with good boxing knowledge have him no1 h2h.
He should be top 5 h2h hw in everyone's list.

 

He was different to much of what had gone before.
He was younger, smaller, faster. All made him unique.
He was one of the most dominant champions ever . I think you had to have lived through his time to know how it ' felt'. He seemed indestructible, a force from out of this world.

 

So is it your opinion that Tyson is hypothetically the 5th greatest fighter ever against hypothetical opponents in imaginary fights?

 

Prime Tike Myson with Gus Tomato in his corner is da greatest heavyweight eva.

Mysterious Billy Pickles and Boston Tom McMustache wouldn't last one round with him in his prime.

If Don King & Robin Givens never got hold of him, he would have went 100-0.

- Average Joe Rogan Listener.

 

To be intellectually honest I think you need to use a shrink ray in addition to a time machine when making your determinations.

 

I don`t have a favourite fighter but I have two favourite decades which featured a number of fighters who I could claim to be my favourite of all time. The 80`s JCC Sr, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns. I`d say Mike Tyson was my favourite fighter of the 80`s. In the 90`s Roy Jones, Lennox Lewis, though I feel towards the end of the 90`s Calzaghe was better than both of those guys P4P, he certainly went on to eclipse both men as he was voted fighter of the decade for the noughties by a collection of highly respected American boxing writers. Having said all this I was devastated when Calzaghe outboxed Jones in 2008. Out of all these names I would say I preferred Mike Tyson to all the others.

 

Of course, Tyson is the greatest in pure 100% fair(without dirty things) boxing.
(Bruno I.- II.,James Smith and Lennox Lewis fights are great examples because his opponents' strategies are based on the unfair holding. With this trick they proved they can't stop Mike Tyson's attacks without cheat.
Maybe Frank Bruno is the record holder who could throw 89 punches while holding in the first Tyson fight( 1989)
through nearly 5 full round .)

 

He was a spectacular fighter. His performances were awesome when he was on top. But there was another side to it.