Tyso Before you were born Tyson was the No1 Pound for Pound fighter in the world, repeat PFP as a heavyweight......cleaning out a ENTIRE division while taking on all comers....did not duck ANYBODY, white or black..........blasted SKILLED FULL SIZE Heavyweights with ease......now go back to your youtube world.
How do you define a super heavyweight? And just because someone is bigger and heavier doesn't mean they have a better chin. Chuvalo is considered one of the most durable fighters, and he hovered around 216 in his prime, not much different from Firpo at 216. But if you wanna argue weight, Willard was 245, a solid 58 lbs over the 187 lbs Dempsey, heavier than Ruddock, Smith, Bruno from the first fight, and Tucker. (Prime Tyson didn't stop Smith). Willard also had a granite chin, stopping him isn't an easy task. In fact, he hadn't been stopped until then. Dempsey stopped Homer Smith (225), who was trained by Sam Langford and was being hyped up as a great fighter, in one round. Dempsey was a relentless infighter, but he did have several quick ko's, and a few with single hits like Morris (220). Gibbons was durable, that was part of his reputation. Dempsey was described as looking off, but he still hurt Gibbons and got close to stopping him. Again, chin =/= size, and Gibbons was a durable ATG who beat up on hws.
Well I have to say, I pick Tyson to KO Dempsey inside of 3 rounds. I honestly think that Michael Spinks would've gave Dempsey a tough time.
In my opinion Tyson destroys Dempsey in a one round blow out. To be honest I have never really understood why a guy who drew the colour line, won the title off a big stiff like Willard, defended his title six times in seven years against a very ordinary line up compared to later heavyweights is rated so highly. I do realise Dempsey was a very exciting fighter and that he was incredibly popular, drawing huge crowds and being involved in the first million dollar gate but he was very flawed as a fighter and committed the cardinal sin of ducking. He was too small to compete in the post Liston era and unlike Marciano and Louis he ducked certain dangerous opponents. A legend, yep. A great heavyweight champion, nope. Cheers All.
Same here. Rented boxing books from the local library from 1982 on. Dempsey, Louis and Ali were heavily influential with Marciano right behind them. Of course Hulk Hogan and John Carpenter had the greater impact in the 80's for me. And then Mike Tyson came around...
Honestly, HW threads get the most responses. I have made threads of other weights, but they don't get enough interest like HW threads do.