Excluding Holmes and Ruddock, who was the best boxer that Mike Tyson defeated?

As far as P4P level that would be Michael Spinks.

 

Spinks. He’s underrated bc of how badly he lost.

 

Tony Tucker, Spinks, Pinklon Thomas were all excellent boxers. Even Tyrell Biggs was a pretty good boxer.

 

You realize these are 2 completely different questions right?

 

I wouldn't say Holmes or Ruddock were Tysons best wins, he probably has about 7 wins of this caliber. He doesn't really have a signature win, just a lot of devastating wins over very good fighters.

 

Spinks.

 

Spinks (at the time I thought the Spinz Jinx ws going to win), Tony Tubbs, Pinklon, Ruddock.
And Bonecrusher bringing up the rear.

No love for Frank Bruno in this thread so far.

 

Are we defining best win by caliber of the fighter he beat? Holmes is included in just about anyone's top 10 HW list, and in most people's top 5. An easy blowout win against Holmes, who was past his prime but far from shot, is a huge pelt. By far, the best win on Tyson's record.

Ruddock, despite being real dangerous at his best, is on any fair list ranked far below Holmes.

If we are counting caliber of the fighter together with how he won, then the Spinks win is his best. Spinks was the lineal champ, and Tyson swatted him like a bug in 91 seconds.

 

Holmes was still a very good win, probably an underrated win but he was inactive, old and coming off a loss. I'm not sure that version of Holmes defeats the better boxers Mike beat, although he would definitely beat the more crude guys like Smith and Ruddock.

 

If I had to single out just one name then it’s Tony Tucker.

 

Can i just ask something ? this is mainly for the people who were around during that time. But how highly rated was Tucker at that time ? because his only notable win at that time, was against Buster Douglas. And Douglas to my knowledge wasn't that highly rated at the time. And the manner of the win was hardly impressive, as Tucker was behind on points. And Douglas was perceived to of quit the fight.

 

I don't know exactly what you asked me.
I'll try to answer. Tucker (34-0-0) was, in my opinion, a bigger challenge than Trevor Berbick. And it was a fight to unify the title.

 

I know he was undefeated, but how was he viewed at the time ? His only notable win was over Buster Douglas, who wasn't highly rated himself at the time.

Basically what I'm asking, is at the time was Tony Tucker that highly thought of ?

 

Spinks, gold medalist, former light heavy champion who beat the long reigning heavy champ (first time in a looooong time), undefeated, never been dropped before, 31 years old.

Berbick, Thomas, Tucker all solid wins as well, but Spinks is better than all of them, he gets discredited quite a bit because of how his last fight ended, but Tyson-Spinks was an event and Spinks was a great boxer