Why do so many put Tyson in their all time top 10 HW greats?

Firstly I will say that not all great fighters beat other great fighters.

If you are consistently beating fighters ranked in the top 10 over a long period then that is a better indicator of greatnes than a single win over a great fighter. For example Larry Holmes is much greater than Buster Douglas.

Tysons resume has a number of traits that measure up well against other all time greats.

Although he is often criticised for lack of longevity his number of wins over ranked contenders is high (compared to some ATGs) and spread out over a long period.

On his way up to the top he was as dominant as a young Joe Louis.

His better wins:

Berbick, nobody should have been able to do that to him. Look at Holmses efort for comparison.

Holmes, nobody should have been able to do that to him. This guy fought into his 40s against top fighters beating Mercer (who gave Lewis a close fight) and nobody even came close to doing that.

Spinks, never beaten or stopped, reigning heavyweight champion. The fight was meant to be a homage to Marciano Charles I.

 

LARRY HOLmes was still a good fighter who only ever got stopped by tyson. In the 1990's he beat the very dangerous ray mercer and also give holyfield a good fight. he came within a horse shoe of regaining a title in 1995

tyson never beat anybody exceptional but he beat good fighters like tucker, spinks, thomas and berbick in spectacular fashion

Muhammad Ali was considered one of the best HW's before the frazier and foreman fights. the opposition that he beat in 60's was arguably poorer than what tyson beat

Yes he beat liston but those fight were really mysterious to say the least. Ernie Terrel and cleveland williams were well past it when they fought Ali

You never heard of mike tyson getting flattened by the likes of Henry Copper and struggling to gain a victory over a middleweight in doug jones

 

who did roy jones jnr beat that was great and on top form? Hopkins was far from the fighter of the late 1990's, early 00's when he fought jones. toney was really weight drained when he fought jones

 

Just because Henry Cooper cut easily, he was by no means a Bum. He was a tough competitor.

 

i see where your comming from because i think even tyson cant deny that the world built him into this creation that he knew he wasent.

but imo tyson was great.

he won the heavyweight title at 20 years old and with wins over 10 former titlist and 2 heavyweight gold medalist.

i think of him as the ninth greatest heavyweight of all time... because i only have nine legitamate... i cant put dempsey, jeffries, tunney, johnson or fitzimmons in because i really dont know to much about them.

ali
louis
foreman
holmes
marciano-holyfeild
joe frazier
lewis
tyson

 

Tyson has been argued as the #1 of all time to the #10 of all time from the different lists that I've seen.

Mike Tyson was the ultimate combination of Floyd Patterson/Joe Frazier/Rocky Marciano/Jack Dempsey. The only quality he didn't possess was the Frazier/Marciano gas tank and the handspeed of Floyd Patterson which some say is not that far off.

Tyson could have been the greatest of all time if he had beaten Bowe, Holyfield, Lewis and/or Michael Moorer. He was beating everything put in front of him at one time, and his combination of power and speed for a shorter fighter was unheard of at the time of his prime.

 

Tyson had the potential to be an all time great. He had amazing physical attributes. The guy had Speed, power, a thick neck (which always serves as an advantage).. he could put together a great combo. He had speed that hadn't been witnessed since the days of Muhammad Ali and he had power to match a guy like George Foreman and Earnie Shavers. This guy had most things you could ask for. The only problem is he lacked the mental strength that makes a true champion what he is. He lacks the notable wins that many of those ranked higher then him have but that is just the story of his time. Before he could meet Holyfield he was KOd by Buster Douglas. After Douglas was beaten by Holyfield, Tyson suffered an injury and then all the preceeding events that led to him spending time in prison. After that it could be argued he was never the same fighter and after the beating at the hands of Holyfield and the subsequent suspension Tyson wasn't even a shell of the Tyson that had just left prison.

To put it simply, he has a record that may never be broken. He was exciting to watch and I think a lot of people rank him where they do based on what COULD have been rather then what did happen.

 

he was no bum but he was no world beater. cooper would only have been a cruiserweighy nowadays

 

well clay predicted it would end in the 5th and it did. he should've predicted the 4th and then the ko wouldn't have happened.

 

You don't have to consistently edge ATG's. You can be just as impressive absolutely demolishing B and B+ level fighters over a long peroid of time.

Isn't that what a good part of Joe Louis' career was?

 

To say Moore had anything left when he fought Ali is laughable, he'd fought 200 odd pro fights and was 47.

 

Yeah Moore only had one more fight after Clay. As for Tyson, you've gotta understand that when he was champ he beat everyone available. Some of the names may not stand out like Patterson or Moore, but his record was very good. Also as people have mentioned, a lot of the time it was his method of victory such as the Holmes, Spinks and Berbick fights.