What is your ranking of Mike Tyson?

This is a fairly reasonable list.

 

Lefthook31, Jaws and mr. magoo have in my eyes put forth the most potent arguments in this topic. I don't feel like rewording and repeating all that those 3 guys said, so please read their responses too. He was fast, explosive, elusive and powerful, the youngest champion, separately unifying the belts and ruled in a ruthlessly dominant fashion. Granted certain individuals will always downplay his competition, pretend his skills and style didn't change for the worse after Rooney and focus on career years rather than number of fights for longevity. In ATG Heavyweight terms I rank him as number 7, but to me it's a great tragedy how badly things turned out as he could have shown so much more greatness, considering the sheer H2H lethality he showed in his first 35 ferocious victories.

 

Im not talking up Tubbs, he was a heavyweight his entire career and former heavyweight champion. Thats not in anywhere near the realm of a fighter who couldnt punch to begin with, moving up to face Barrera at featherweight. Tubbs was young and went on to give some respectable fighters fits.

 

He was doing it better.

 

Yeah I think Im going to duck out now. You want some good recommended Tyson fights to watch? Not necessarily to prove anything just a good showcase of Tysons overall ability, jab, movement, combo punching etc.
Ribalta (went 10 I believe), Tubbs, Thomas, Biggs (even though Biggs had an old cut open up), I posted the Gross fight a couple weeks ago that was a good short one. Some good old Tyson stuff.

 

You have to admit even if you would not favour him in a certain fight, its not hard to imagine him, on a physiological level, knocking any human being the **** out. And this applies to him much more than any other boxer ever. And this must count for something, in a sport where one punch consistently blows "on paper" out of the water

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_nfLatI5Qc[/ame]

 

For heavyweights I have him around 9-11. In his prime he was better, but his prime was short and he kinda lost his focus, training, and skills after Rooney left. Even the Bruno fight you can see he's not as sharp, fast, elusive or as much of a combination puncher, and by the Douglas fight he was almost slow and flat-footed.

Prime Tyson is a bit like Liston - coulda, woulda, shoulda. But you have to take into account what someone did as well as what they could have done, and the guys who actually went out and did it better, for longer, are superior IMO. So if Frazier is 7-9 than Tyson has to be lower.

P4P since I have him around 10 in the heavyweights, I can't really include him in the top 100 I don't think. Maybe if I bias it slightly towards the heavyweight division (which is fair enough as it is the ultimate division).

 

"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long"

On the other hand, the sheer difficulty of compiling a long-lasting championship record is not to be underestimated. In some ways its more impressive than blitzing people out for a few years. You have to win not just when you are at your young, athletic best, but also once you are fading out. You have to win when a new bunch of contenders come along 3-4, or 6-7 years later. You have to win when every challenger has watched all your fight-tapes and tried to figure out the way to beat you. You can't get lazy, complacent, or undertrain even for one fight or you are in serious danger of losing vs a guy who is training the hardest he ever will to take the belt.

 

Im not going thru all the different criteria, I have my own criteria & its a big mix of everything.

I rank Tyson as the 4th best HW in history, behind Holmes (3rd, he & Mike could swap), Louis (2nd) & Ali (1st)

 

Those are probably the 3 hardest hypothetical matchups for him, i'd favour him against anyone else, apart from Lennox Lewis. But then of course if you look at him in a positive light(the one usually reserved for Duran and non-footage fighters), he was past his prime losing to Lewis, Holmes was shot but he anniahlated him nonetheless and Ali said himself that Tyson would have beaten him. So depends which way you look at things or who your favourites are, but he's top 10 no doubt. I rate him 8th btw.

And as for top 100 P4P, i'd say the people not including him in it are people who have never been punched in the face before.

 

I have him at 10 currently in my Heavyweight list, Pd 4 Pd I don't have a list but of the top of my head I say any where between 40 - 70

 

He's better than Barrerra. Up ye fanboy