1. Foreman and Holmes were in their 40's, on the comeback trail, and took Holy the distance in two fights that were not viewed as very good performances. While the two men's comeback efforts were admirable, they were not elite fighters at this stage of the their careers. 2. Both Tyson and Holyfield were past their best when they faced each other, and I'm not sure who would have won had they fought years earlier. 3. Michael Moorer and James Douglas both held the lineal title, but I wouldn't call them elite fighters. Those guys were on a very similar plane to men like Tony Tucker and Pinklon Thomas 4. Riddick Bowe may be the only fighter that you listed who was both elite and prime in one package, but let's not forgot Holyfield lost two out of three.. Hence, my original comment, which was:
Tyson's resume is arguably a bit better than Larry Holmes'. At the very least, they are on par with each other. And yet most people usually have Holmes in the their top five. Tyson's accomplishments are without a doubt top ten worthy. Tyson hovers around 6 or 7 for me. H2H even higher.
looking at persepective of a prime vs prime id have it as 1) Tyson 2) Louis 3) Frazier 4) Marciano 5) Foreman 6) Holmes 7) Ali 8 ) Liston 9) Lennox 10) Dempsey
I'd place Tyson between 8 - 10 in my list. Along with Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis,but I can never make up my mind in the order where I place these three.
I have him at #5. Undisputed Champion, defending his tittle nine times. With six of those being The undisputed Champion.
I have him around 10-11ish. It's a list that's partly based on H2H and partly on accomplishments, and partly on longivity at the top. (Note: longivity and accomplishments are pretty closely related in the sense that the longer you're on top, the more you accomplish) But if I just had a H2H list, Tyson would likely be 5th +/- one spot in either direction. I'am about the same age as Tyson is and I still remember how much he shook up the boxing world when he was coming up. If he had stopped fighting for whatever reason prior to the Douglas fight, I'm sure we'd be talking about him in the same category as Louis and Ali, and we'd most likely pick him over both of them H2H. He truly was a shooting star in his prime.