Great or not ? To me Tyson more than any other fighter, even including my beloved childhood UK hero's defined boxing in my childhood. I know people on here are fond of bigging up classic fighters and putting down modern day legends but i reckon wasted years and **** aside Tyson is a true legend of the sport.
Mike was an incredible fighter. Dominant early on as one could possibly be. Tommy Brooks said one time mike had more talent in his pinkty than anyone in the division had in there whole frame. Mike is 8 or 9 all time in the heavyweight ranks to me. When it comes to being gifted he takes 1 easily
Mike Tyson ... the fighter who was groomed to meet Michael Spinks , or the version who dismantled Alexis Stewart in AC .. was probably the finest tuned young heavyweight machinery i have come across since watching Holmes v Norton... Tyson was the lightning rod that ran the heavyweights from 87 until he faced Douglas, after than he did slip a little but it was Prison that hurt him the most......... after the indiana state youth facility he was missing a puzzle piece... and the whole jigsaw couldn't be completed properly after all that mess..... I just wonder what might have been.??
Tyson was one of the most dominant champions the sport has seen..even if it was only for a short time. He is a great IMO aswell and I cant see how anyone wouldnt love watching him at his best. The classic forum isnt for putting down modern fighters by the way..its for appreciating ones from other eras.
If Mike had beaten Douglas in Tokyo i remember he was looking at a gimick fight in Toronto apparently due to face two heavyweight contenders in one night because he was getting to look unstoppable.. Firstly they were looking at Douglas (before the Tokyo date came about) and Razor Ruddock both on the same night ........ that was actually the truth.. Rudock and Dokes became 2 other options but Dokes outpriced himself.. Mike by then had beaten.. Berbick, Smith, Thomas, Tucker, Biggs, Holmes, Tubbs, Spinks, Bruno, Williams, The only real players left to meet were Dokes, Douglas, Norris, Stewart, Witherspoon and Ruddock.. Ruddock, Norris and Stewart were soundly beaten anyhow after his loss to Douglas, Mike was fast running out of opposition...They were talking about rematching Tyson with Ribalta after he beat Carl Williams, but Ribalta had looked attrocious against Jeff Simms that night.. Holyfield was the only real threat on the horizon and it turned out 5 years later he was the man with the kryptonite......
Tyson was an all time great fighter for about a 3 year span, but an all time great fighter nonetheless.
Of course he is, to have such a short prime and be the second most well known boxer of the last 50 years speaks on how dominant he was. True he had that dynamite personality that helped but nobody would have been interested in him and his problems if he hadn't been such a knockout monster.
How about the fact that he never got off the floor to come back to win a fight? ...to me...if he had come back and KO'd Douglas after the beating that he took during the course of the fight....or had come back to KO Holyfield after Evander had basically manhandled him..I might think differently. I remember during the late 1980's..all the magazines said that Tyson would have destroyed Marciano...Dempsey..Louis...Ali..etc.I used to say why don't we wait until he's in a fight...gets cut...gets knocked down...has to come from behind to win..and then decide...I think Douglas answred my question...
Maybe he should have sat on the title for years like Dempsey? Or fought completely old men like Rocky did? Mike defended his title against better opposition than both and took a viscious beating against Evander. Tyson had plenty hard scraps.
Mike just purely knocked over the number 1 ranker as they lined up.... One at a time , he never once questioned meeting anyone.... It was only when past his best he saw his limitations and knew he had his hands full with Lewis etc... In his prime he would have climber the Empire state to box the ears off King Kong....... He just beat the men they stacked up for him , and they were all legit fighters.........