Did you know that Mike Tyson actually knocked out Lennox Lewis cold when they sparred in the 1980s?

Technique and stats and the like aren't everything Mark. I know you've been lured into the Tyson beats anybody with Rooney in his corner at his greatest but let me tell you he wouldn't. He might beat a few more than the average punter thinks, but then again he might beat less.

Tyson was perhaps the best we've seen when it comes to demolishing good to very good fighters. This was the level of heavyweight he fought during his absolute peak period. Against fellow greats however there are plenty of doubts that creep in. He would beat some, absolutely. Some would beat him too rest assured. They'd take him into deep water and look to drown him. Against less than great fighters he was mostly overwhelming but not many greats would be rolling over for him. Pop up to the level of an Ali, a Lewis, a Holyfield, a Foreman and big questions are going to be asked of you. Questions that were never asked by a Trevor Berbick, for example. It's the same for most of them. A guy like Ali stands out in that he answered so many questions and proved himself to be a practitioner of such an incredibly proven quality.

 

He was sparked out by Rahman just 2 fights previous so that might explain why he was so cautious.
I thought he could have finished Tyson off in 4 or 5 that night, Steward seemed to think the same too.

 

This is a good post JT. I don't disagree.

Ali, Foreman, Holyfield, Liston etc. would have to be favoured over him.

Still, Tyson's physical gifts would overwhelm others IMO including Lewis, Johnson, Marciano, Frazier etc.

I agree he wasn't unbeatable by any means. The lesson from the Douglas fight wasn't that he was underprepared (he was) but rather that there were some question marks when Tyson was dragged into deeper waters. I don't think i can deny that even as a fan.

I think Monte Cox's old article summed it up well

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/tyson.html

 

Lewis was an amateur then Mark. He was about 7 years from top form. He was living on natural ability and had a poor team and training set up. I agree he went ahead in leaps and bounds when ES got him.

 

I thought Lewis looked pretty good in the 1988 Olympics.
But it wasn't until 1991 against Gary Mason where he really impressed me in the professional ranks.
People say Steward made him a lot better but I can't fault him against Mason or Ruddock, two of his very best performances to this day.
Was Harold Knight his trainer ?

 

Cheers dmt. I don't favor many at all over him but at the end of the day we are all guessing of course. I wouldn't favor Holyfield and nor would i favor Tyson. Foreman and Liston would be so so. The odds would be close for all those fights. I'd certainly favor Ali but anyone else would be tight.

I agree Tyson was terribly prepped for Douglas.

That's a good article, absolutely. If you couldn't give Tyson pause he was lethal. At his extreme best i can't see any non greats beating him.

 

He was about 220 pounds then.

 

Remind me to tell you about the time I knocked out Lennox Lewis in a bar fight back in 1995 in a rough section of London. I had to invite him to step outside to show him how to box.

All witnesses have since died and all footage of it was destroyed in a fire.

 

Young Lewis footwork and "spacing" was pretty bad, so it wouldn´t surprise me.

But @mark ant where´s the problem to paste a source? Joe Egan talks alot btw....

On the other hand LL talks serious BS himself.

Wasn´t there a serious bizarre false testimony of LL sitting @ Joe Rogan? We had it here at BF24 about that, maybe with @JohnThomas1 discussing it too.

 

Berbick asked lots of questions

 

Prime Tyson runs Lewis over.
Lets not forget Mike was faster then Lewis.

 

His user name should be "Did you know"....Marks probably the best thread starter on the forum right now and a nice guy well liked and quite rightly so....but jesus hes gone from being the forrest gump of boxing forums years ago to a cross between some kind of pub quiz know it all and spock in star trek

!!!!!! Very good show! I laughed I cried!!