Povetkin of mid 10s is defo on par with post prison Mike and might have done better vs Holyfield. Would have done better against Lewis, no question of that.
Povetkin is a gold medallist as a small HW, he is a lot more skilled than most of the fighters Tyson faced. I'm not sure who wins, but I think if it goes past the midway point, Tyson would slow/gas enough for Povetkin to potentially take over with his skills, which are less reliant on explosive speed. And if Buster Douglas can turn the fight with a huge uppercut, I guess Povetkin can too. Povetkin has only been stopped once and taken bombs from a lot of big punchers, including Wlad, who hits harder than Mike Tyson. I'm not saying Tyson couldn't KO him, but it's not going to be so easy to finish Povetkin, and we know what can happen when you don't finish him.
None of the boxers Tyson faced were in the same league as Povetkin. Tyson faced fellas who got straight out of local boxing gyms. They weren't olympic gold medalists as Povetkin. No athleticism and no professional training like Pov. The first proper opponent was Holyfield, and he KO Tyson as expected. Tyson fought only bums and taxi drivers, like Deontay Wilder did. Povetkin, an olympic gold medalist and who has a perfect amateur career and great technical skills, would school Tyson. After chopping him down for 8 rounds, he would dismantle and KTFO Tyson in round 9.
You have no clue what you are talking about. When mastered, that style is amazing and highly effective. Despite how brilliant an 88 Tyson was, he still hadn't mastered it completely, he still had room to improve. Unfortunately he fired Rooney and stopped focusing on boxing 100%, so we never got to see that.
Yes it’s effective when mastered but it’s limited. You can’t fight fight on the outside or going backwards. Also the style isn’t affective against an opponent who puts on a lot of pressure. It also isn’t that effective against power punchers, one of the reasons why Frazier avoided them and got steamrolled by the only one he faced
Why would you ever need to fight on the outside ?! Only out-boxers do that and it's not fun to watch at all. You can avoid the pressure with defensive head movement, slips and rolls, then counter back. For example, watch how Tyson avoided countless punches by Reggie Gross then KOS his ass, it's poetry in motion. Frazier's defense was nowhere near as good as Tyson's. Plus Frazier only had a left hook.
Doesn’t matter how boring you think it is, it’s extremely necessary and Tyson was unable to do it Tyson’s head movement was good but he would get hit much more when he started fighting higher level boxers. A skilled pressure fighter would beat him, there just wasn’t any in his era. Frazier was still a peek a boo fighter, swarming in and getting on the inside against power punchers is a horrible idea, and that’s exactly what Tyson would have to do. You make it seem as if Tyson never got hit
Tyson relied heavily on intimidation and was a beast early but tired late and became desperate when he couldn't blast his opponents out early. I think povetkin could stop him late but wouldn't argue any opinion for a tyson victory. Genuinely think it's 50-50 if Tyson didn't stop him in the first 6 I think Povetkin would stop Tyson late
