Why is the Pinklon Thomas performance not rated higher for Tyson?

Thomas nullified Tyson for a few rounds but I wouldn't say Tyson had to overcome "adversity" to beat Thomas. Tyson was never hurt in the fight nor in any real danger of losing to Thomas.

I would say Tyson beating Ruddock the 2nd time showcases Tyson adversity, as he had to take alot big punches in a slugfest against a huge puncher in his prime.

 

Beginning with Berbick he lost 6 of his next 10 fights and beat no one of any consequence

You' may be right, that doesn't even rise to the level of a shell does it?

 

Thomas only lost one of his 31 fights going into the Tyson fight. (See how that works both ways?)

He was 29-1-1. He'd just turned 29. He'd lost one decision by ONE ROUND in his entire career going in to that fight. He was the #1 contender. No worse than top three by Ring.

You even said he looked great against Berbick in the early rounds until he got tired. (He clearly wasn't up for that fight.) But he was for Tyson.

Because he'd only lost ONE of his previous 31 fights.

I don't care how many fights he lost after Mike Tyson. He was rated #1 because he was one of the top heavyweights in the world. He hadn't lost to those people yet, and he hadn't been stopped by Mike Tyson yet.

We're talking about the Mike Tyson-Pinklon Thomas fight in which they both were in great shape and fought great.

Pinklon Thomas wasn't a "shell of Pinklon Thomas" against Mike Tyson. That's utter nonsense. He looked like the same Pinklon Thomas in his fights after Berbick and before Tyson as he did leading up to the Berbick fight.

Thomas was healthy, in shape, active, highly rated and fought on even terms until Tyson lowered the boom.

You can get damaged in a fight and not bounce back. I would say Thomas got damaged by that Tyson KO and never bounced back from it.

Why is this so difficult to grasp? If he got injured in any fight that led him to becoming a shell of himself, IT HAPPENED IN the Mike Tyson fight. Not before.

 

You can always get a sense of who was around when fights took place ... and who wasn't ... when people don't acknowledge the lead-up to fights, and they base everything on what happened later.

You see it a lot with fights like Thomas Hearns vs Pipino Cuevas. Lots of fans who came along after are pretty dismissive of Cuevas and bring up fights he lost after that and presume that he was never really that good. They don't acknowledge what a force he was going in to that fight with Hearns.

People around then knew what an excellent performance that was by Mike Tyson against Pinklon Thomas.

The people who came later and don't acknowledge what a standout performance it was ARE WRONG.

They're just wrong.

Excellent, brutal, highlight-reel win by Tyson against a top-level fighter.

Not Tyson beating up a "shell" ... for ****'s sake.

 

I read in a book that Thomas said he was not on heroin, but started up immediately after losing.

If anything, he bitches about some sort of injury he had in training.

 

Because Tyson's entire reign is absurdly underrated .. if you know the fighters and the time and the way h dominated them it's obvious .

 

Because he got freakin steam rolled in 6 rounds. He won maybe 2 rounds and thats being generous at best.
JOSE RIBALTA is the one who gets 0 credit and he took Tyson into the 10th round and gave Tyson a much harder bout then say a Thomas.

 

Ribalta didn't fight peak Tyson. Ribalta also was more of a survivor than a winner.

 

I think Thomas is judged accurately tho that's my opinion. He did well against Tyson but he never would've beaten a champion level version of Tyson. I try not to judge someone exclusively by one fight or we would b overrating a lot of fighters that caused upsets n underrating those very good/great fighters that came up short.

 

Agreed.

 

I can make Fury dance to my music

 

I was just thinking about this fight. Thomas is an underrated fighter. He was controlling Tyson with his jab for a few rounds

 

He gave a good account of himself even when knocked down was asked if he wanted to continue he answered HELL YES.
Pretty sure Tyson didnt enter his prime months latter all of the sudden.