Why does Tyson get so much love from the majority of boxing fans? Considering he had such an up and down career, also his life outside of the ring.
At his peak he was one of the best KO artist if not the best ever. People love to see someone get KTFO. Most people are compassionate so they sympathize with him for his up and down career due to his now medically treated emotional imbalance.
At the time, the media was really big on him. It might be hard to understand now, but media-presence-wise he was ten times the size of Pacquiao. For a year or two, he was at the Jordan-Woods-Federer level of celebrity. And then he had a spectacular fall from grace, which the media also loved. No boxer has had more press coverage since Ali.
He was so exciting. There has been boring Ali fights, boring Joe Louis fights, boring GEORGE FOREMAN fights, but never a boring Mike Tyson fight. and of all the "ATGS", he is the most vicious and "bad ass", therefore Mike acquires all the bloodthirsty fans and certainly brings up a crowd every time he fights. Even today he gets a lot of attention. It's funny because he is practically a replica of sonny liston as far as intimidation and power goes, but he is still loved much more. Why? I realize they have different styles, and people HATED sonny outside the ring. everyone hated him even though him and Mike were still down to earth guys who were involved with all kind of negative ****.
I'd kill to have a heavyweight as exciting to watch as Tyson in today's game. Fast, powerful, aggressive and deceptively skillful. So much better than watching the current fat, plodding giants, who seem to spend 95% of the fight ensuring not a single punch comes close to landing on them. I'm sick of seeing 6'4''+ guys fighting in barely double figure punch stat jab-fests. So... I reminisce about the days when Tyson used to enter the ring with the sole intention of taking his opponents head off as quickly as possible.
Believe it or not, many people actually relate to him. He's certainly a tragic figure but he was definitely a product of his environment.
special and gifted and being young with what he achieved plus the media attention..Everyone wanted someone to Fill in Ali's plateau.