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

Mike's prime run was pretty incredible. The only true threats he missed were Holy and Spoon imo and he can't be faulted for that.

 

Wow, an old man who lacks power and a glass jawed alcoholic.

 

Spinks was actually the first guy to beat Cooney's ass like that. It was more that he ran out of steam against Holmes.

 

Himself.

 

When was that? Tyson had won all 4 rounds before the stoppage and was leading by 6,6, and 5 points after 4 rounds (40-34 twice and 40-35). I would think that if Tyson was in "bad trouble" Bruno would have won a round? Bruno also didn't win any rounds in the second fight.

 

Nah, Holmes dropped Cooney in the 2nd round stamina had nothing to do with it. He just wasn't very durable. His drug and alcohol issues were only worse by the time Spinx fought him.

The only guys worth mentioning on Cooney's resume that had decent power didn't last long enough to actually test his chin, that was the problem. Norton and Lyle were old as hell and got blasted out before they could land anything.

 

It wasn’t just who he beat but how beat them.
Blew out a Berbick that just defeated Thomas
Shut out a Smith that just KOed Witherspoon
Beat up a Thomas that just lost the title
Pummeled a huge, undefeated Tucker
Destroyed undefeated Briggs
Blew out Holmes
Crushed a still very good Tubbs
Massacred undefeated Spinks

these were all huge, dominant wins.

 

The Spinks mentions in this thread tells me all I need to know about his other wins.

 

I won’t say it’s “ the best “ win he had, but the Trevor Berbick win was big. Mike was only 20 years old and Berbick was a very tough and battle tested heavyweight who had just taken the WBC title away from Pinklon Thomas. Tyson made it a short night

 

Mostly accurate, my friend...except Tucker rocked him very hard with the uppercut.

 

wrong.
Smith and Tucker both rocked Tyson just as much as Bruno did. Tyson though wasnt really hurt by any of them as there was no danger of him actually going down from the single shots that he took from the 3 of them. They stopped his momentum for a few seconds and that was it. Douglas was the first to ever seriously hurt him

 

I think in hindsight Tysons best wins were Berbick, Biggs, Tucker, Williams, Ruddock and Bruno. That’s if you look at his opponents who were really on their A-game when he beat them. Coming off good wins, guys who continued to stay relevant beyond that fight.

Bonecrusher was a bad fight. He got the win. That’s it. Smith was riding high at the time but the spectacle itself was not good.

legacy wise everyone will rightly assume Holmes, Spinks, Thomas and Tubbs were major wins…but (again using hindsight) these guys were not meeting relevant contenders for years. They were all moth balled for Tyson and served to Tyson at a huge disadvantage.

reggie Gross and Marvis Frazier were underrated wins. Tyson made a statement with these wins. These guys came to fight and were beating good opponents.

I also think Golota and Saverese were very decent statements that are quite overlooked.