How come Mike Tyson got so famous, but theres plenty of others who no one cares about?

Because of his voice and craziness.

 

He was much more famous because of zeitgeist and being a heavyweight from the US who was deemed unbeatable and a savage.
When Tyson was at his peak, people expected him to destroy the likes of Holyfield who was still growing into the division. He conpletely obliterated Spinks who was seen as a blatant ducker who lost the Holmes rematch, and Lennox came along later and wasn't even remotely american.
The Hawk was a middleweight so that doesn't count in the grand scheme of things either.

 

You really have to ask?
Have any of the other guys ever said they wanted to eat their opponents children, own pet tigers or beat of prostitutes? Not that I condone any of this and it was a long time ago and Mike is a different person now but still, he did quite a bit of things outside of boxing to get him exposure, whether it was good or bad...

 

I'm guessing you weren't born then. You had to grow up in that era to know that Mike Tyson was the most exciting boxer to watch. Mike was also well advertised in the world of sports. It's unusual for a 20 year old to be the kingpin of all men and thats how he was seen.

 

He did all of that after prison where he became crazy after serving several years behind bars. Before prison Tyson was a good, soft spoken kid, yet was still the most famous man on the planet.

 

It's simple, he was a heavyweight who had a very entertaining style and knocked most guys out early.

None of this slow jabbing his way to victory. He was a come forward aggressive fighter.

Holyfield didn't have the knockout power, Bowe had a short peak and again was not that powerful, Lewis was not American and had a comparatively cautious style.

 

He had a well televised upcoming with 12 fights a year.

This is the most important. Imagine bing able to only watch your favourite football team, golfer, tennis player once a year. How can you get invested in that person? They get you excited and you forget about them for a year.

That’s fine once you’re established and made fans of people, but before they can become a fan, you need to draw them in, specially early in career.

For more established fighters, at least new potential fans can binge on your past fights on YouTube and get invested in you.

 

His KO's, his fighting style, his promoter, his lifestyle. No one had done what Tyson had done before a real young heavy destroying good fighters.
Then add in the hedonistic life style playing with tigers etc he became an icon on the sport

 

terrific management going back to his amateur days. He was a big commodity back then

 

Mike was famous purely because of his ability in the ring and mainly his style. He was a unique fighter. His aggression, knockouts, combination punching and evasiveness while being so aggressive made him a spectacle.

The out of the ring antics made him infamous but Mike was already a household name by that time. This is what I read and see in videos, as he was fighting pro before I was even born.

 

Simple. Because Cus was kind enough to take him under his wing and guide him while pulling some strings

 

Well, if you've had to ask the question.

 

By the time he was 21, Mike Tyson had beaten seven heavyweight champions, unified all the heavyweight titles (first time in 10 years), knocked out the lineal champ inside a round, married a television star, was a multi-millionaire, had corporate sponsorships like Pepsi (when that was rare), had his own video game (when those were new), was a guest at nearly every Hollywood and Music industry party, lived in the media capital of the world at the time (New York) and made local and national headlines weekly.

What were you doing when you were 21?

 

This. Mike was aextremely marketable and had a ton of natural charisma and was a natural at hyping fights. Even in the Lennox Lewis buildup even Lewis looked sold on Tyson’s hype talk. Tyson’s hype also never looked forced like Floyd’s.

Michael Spinks was an excellent fighter as was Lennox, but both were lacking when it came to charisma and seem awkward when they talk on the microphone.