Who Ranks Higher As ATG Michael Spinks Or Mike Tyson?

Tyson. Definitely Tyson.

 

Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight are both divisions rich in history. It's not like comparing Heavyweight to Super Middleweight or Cruiserweight, which are young divisions.

Spinks alone already has an edge there. Spinks is generally in the top 5 all-time at LHW, while Tyson is in the lower-end of the top 10, or just outside of it, at HW. Spinks beat a stronger group of light-heavyweights than Tyson did at heavyweight. Then he goes up and beats Larry Holmes (the first decision was a fair one) for the linear HW title.

Tyson's my favorite fighter ever, but I'm being objective here. Spinks was the greater fighter who beat stronger opposition.

 

thread stealer would you rate spinks over holmes?

 

Tyson is a Hall Of Famer YES.

An ATG? SADLY NO...

Could he have been? NO QUESTION

But he didnt do enough to get ATG status

 

WTF? OFC he is,
1 atg.

 

His resume is lacking.

His only biggest win in his career is his knockout of Michael Spinks.

 

Spinks by about 20 places. I'd put Spinks around 30-40, and Tyson 50-60.

Spinks is a lock for top 5 greatest LHW.

 

But that's not the question, is it.

There's a difference between P4P and ATG. That's why they are called and discussed differently.
Sergio Martinez could hypothetically fight Pacquiao and win. And maybe people would say because of that, he's surpassed Pac on the P4P-list. He wouldn't surpass him on the ATG list though. Neither would Marquez is he wins the rubber match.

If Ali wasn't Ali but some quite, ugly dude who went to Vietnam and never said a clever thing, you'd be surprised how much further down on the ATG-list he would rank.
Holyfield usually ranks higher than he should too, because he's produced so many iconic battles. And with the decade of boredom following his (extended) prime, people view him a little more favorably than his record and accomplishments would warrant.

Greatness is more than boxing skills and records. They matter too, Arturo Gatti won't make anyones top ten lists either.


BTW, it's really immature when people try to discredit differing opinions by calling disagreeing posters names.

 

the 'duh' answer is Spinks for one...My answer was he defeated a number of champions in unifying the titles and going overkill making sure he took the lineal from spinks and holmes...Berbick and Smith were not good champions but they were champions none the less...Tucker was a very good champion...He dominated the division top to bottom like a freight train...I don't care to argue every opponents rating beyond that...Spinks was Tyson's peak...

ATG rating at HW I have never entertained the actual order, I don't truly know how good Joe Lewis, Marciano, or any before that actually were...I just have stats, some old clips and other peoples opinions...Look up Jack Johnson's record and tell me you have enough to rate him against todays HW's...Or any of the 185lb HW champs for that matter...The other issue is criteria, longevity vs. peak being the most critical to me...

That being said, I've always thought Tyson was on the latter half of my top ten, but, that is not based off of longevity...I think if you can say a guy would fare well head to head with any of the ATG's, it pretty much makes him an ATG...Tyson, IMO, would give most ATG's fits, I'm not sure who he wouldn't...

 

*Easy... Tyson. Although Tyson didn't beat great opponenets, he beat very good opponenets... and it was the way he beat them. There was a time when Tyson fought, it was an event... no one wanted to really be in the ring with him... he KO'ed Bruce Seldon and missed, and Seldon went down and stayed..hahaha... Spinx beat Holmes twice... then got Ko'ed in 1 minute by Tyson... easily, Tyson is an an time p4p great... Spinx is a great lightheavyweight... enough said.

 

I am a huge Tyson fan and some accuse me of overrating him, but i got Spinks higher... He beat tougher competition at LH than Tyson ever did at heavy and then too jump up and beat the linear HW champ was a huge win.. Holmes might have been on the downside, but he was still the top dog. I rank Spinks maybe as high as top 20? No lower than 25.... PFP id rank Tyson around top 50 or no lower than top 60.

 

yeah because thats all he did....:roll:

 

So wat m8,?
He did beat,
Pinky Thomas, Mitch blood green , Holmes, Berbick, Tubbs, Mathis, Seldon, Bruno, golota, and Botha.
Plenty of game , gud, "contendas" .

 

So him beating Those "Contenders" makes him an ATG?

 

Spinks by light years. Next.