Mike Tyson had a better career than Larry Holmes.

1. Joe Louis
2. Lennox Lewis
3. Muhammad Ali
4. Rocky Marciano
5. George Foreman
6. Evander Holyfield
7. Larry Holmes
8. Jack Johnson
9. Sonny Liston
10. Jack Dempsey
11. Joe Frazier
12. Harry Wills
13. Ezzard Charles
14. Vladimir Klitscko
15. James Jeffries
16. Sam Langford
17. Mike Tyson
18. Max Schmelling
19. Jersey Joe Walcott
20. Sam Langford

 

Start out in General first before posting in Classic. Work your way up, learn the ropes then come back when you can make a decent post or 2.

 

No thanks. I will continue to post here. If Tyson fanboys (such as yourself) find my comments upsetting, that is their problem, not mine.

 

I understand that Tyson is controversial but putting him outside the top 10 makes no sense. In fact, you might as well write that Ali is outside the top 20 and if Ali's fan boys have a problem with it, that's their problem, not yours. There is no argument in this

 

It makes a lot of sense. Let's see: Ali, Louis, Holmes, Lewis, Holyfield, Marciano, Foreman, Frazier. All have a very strong case to be above Tyson. You already have 8. Then you have the likes of Wlad, Sonny Liston, Jack Johnson, Tommy Burns, Jim Jeffries and John L Sullivan who you can argue can be rated above Mike. That's 14. Putting Mike outside the Top 15 would be crazy tho.

 

That's a lousy comparison. Vast majority of boxing fans place Ali in their top 3 and rightfully so. There is way less consensus when it comes to Tyson. There is nothing unusual about placing him outside top 10 or top 15.

 

not really, how many boxers became #1 HW at the age of 21? how many defeated 5 current world champions and 6 former world champions? How many fighters have knocked out Larry Holmes in his 30-year career or even sent him down? How many boxers outclassed 2 Olympic champions and a linear champion? how many of them were at one point 37 -0 with 10 title fights? name those 14 or 15 - good luck. Tyson's achievements are underestimated because we look at him at the end of his career and it was weak

 

Tyson certainly had the more exciting and fun to watch career, I'd rather watch Tyson training with Atlas or Rooney than the majority of Holmes' fights

 

Mike became number 1 at heavyweight at the age of 22 after beating Spinks. Floyd Patterson remains the youngest undisputed heavyweight champ. It really doesn't matter that much tho. You can also ask: how many boxers were past their prime at the age of 24.

Unfair historical comparison as Mike was fighting in the era where you could technically have 5 champions at once, with 3 alphabet belts, The Ring belt and the lineal claim. You can't compare it to the era when there was only 1 champion.

You can also ask how many fighters fought Larry Holmes who was almost 2 years out of the ring with 5 weeks to prepare. Also an unfair comparison, as not many heavyweights had a chance to fight Larry Holmes at all. You can't take it as a measuring stick.

I could find a few, but again, why is it a measuring stick?

Probably not many, but this is a pure numbers game. Michalczewski was 48-0 with 15 title fights and he's nowhere near Top 10 of LHW.

Not really. Putting him in Top 15 isn't underestimating him at all.

 

These are strong arguments and I respect them, but don't go so far in the other direction. Belts by belts, alphabet by alphabet, but who other than Tyson won 10 fights in a row against the best fighters of his era, without exception? Berbick, Tucker, Smith, Biggs, Holmes, Spinks, Tubbs, Thomas, Bruno, Williams... who are you missing? Holyfield beat Buster and in a moment there was Cooper, Foreman after Frazier had someone like Joe Roman, who did this Floyd Patterson fight with? Who was Ron Stander (Frazier) and what did he mean in this great era? who was Coopman or Wepner when he fought Ali? Who did Wlad Klitschko fight? What did Jesse Ferguson mean in 1992 when he fought Bowe? You won't find this with Tyson, there is no other fighter who beats the top 10 fights in a row. It's a paradox that today you've heard about cans of tomato juice when literally every one of its rivals at that time was the current top.

 

Holmes beat 19 of the best of his time in a row, including Norton (champ), Berbick (future champ), Witherspoon (future champ), Weaver (held the WBA title for years), Cooney (top contender), Bonecrusher (future champ, stopped him when Tyson couldn't), Spinks (former champ)...the not-so-great opponents were still ranked contenders at the time.

 

A lot of guys, especially in eras of one champion.

When it comes to Tyson, you're missing Douglas, Whiterspoon, Dokes and Holyfield. It was a great run tho. But we're not rating careers only based on 3.5 years.

The thing is, most of these guys have bigger wins on their resumes than Tyson has. Holyfield got Bowe and Tyson himself, Frazier got Ali, Ali has Liston, Frazier and Foreman (plus 10 more title defences and almost the exact great run in the 60's and 70's) etc.