What if?

Agreed on the first sentence.

Tucker...his career never really took off, and he was beset by managerial issues. Although he looked decent against Tyson, I'm guessing it was because it was Tyson.
I'm not sure he'd have the same motivation had he been in there with Spinks, Bruno, Berbick etc.

Tucker had skills, but he often underperformed. Still, he could emerge the unified champion as you say...

 

It is actually a very interesting situation.

Michael Spinks is the big winner from this. Without the Tyson fight, I think he retires as undefeated heavyweight champion, or at the very least, after having fought and probably being taken the distance by the winner of the tournament.

Bonecrusher Smith would be another big winner. When he KOd Witherspoon it was massive news. In fact the Tyson Smith fight was one of the biggest heavyweight fights ever because of Smith's win. I think that he would take on the Tyson role in such a heavyweight tournament, though i dont know whether he could pull off the tournament. No matter what happens, i think that he ends up being rated as a Max Baer level champion.

Berbick is an interesting proposition in the tournament. If he won the tournament, his ATG status would have raised massively, as well. He wasnt stopped again after the Tyson fight, so he could have been in with a chance. Realistically, though, i think that he loses on points to Bonecrusher Smith in the first round, which would leave Bonecrushers 'aura' of invincibility gained from the Witherspoon fight attached.

This leaves Tony Tucker as the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle, having just won the vacant title against Buster Douglas. Tucker definitely did the better against Tyson, and personally i would tip him to win this title, his record shows that he lost to every world class fighter he fought, outside of Buster Douglas, a close split decision with Oliver McCall, and a split decision (which was later reversed) with Orlin Norris. Admittedly though most of those losses his 2 year break he took after the tyson loss. On this record, you would have to think that Bonecrusher Smith, given the momentum from winning the other 2 fights might just be able to edge this fight also.

Interestingly, if the tournament does unfold this way, it opens up a lot of possibilities and big money title fights. Bonecrusher would have a very good tyson like reputation, but he would need to still fight Spinks to unify. This would be a big dollar fight and should be still Spinks last. Personally, i think Spinks wins the fight, but for the sake of keeping this post going i will say that Bonecrushers size and power is too much for spinks and he knocks him out or wins a UD. Again, this grows his aura.

Bonecrusher then has quite a few big fights in front of him. Marvis Frazier had already beaten him once. With his surname, it would give him a huge chance to get the first title defence and possibly even repeat what he did to Bonecrusher. The winner of this fight then has the fight against the comebacking Larry Holmes. This time, i would assume that Bonecrusher wins by KO because Frazier was known to fail at each of his title fights and Bonecrusher did have enough power to KO when he landed.

I see a comebacking Holmes as the next logical fight which is a very interesting proposition. Tyson Holmes was really seen as Holmes being too old and not any serious chance. But given that Holmes had already beaten Bonecrusher, this would be a much more highly anticipated fight. Bonecrushers wins by this stage woud see him seen as a legitimate world champ and have Tysonesque image. But, like any other world champ before him, you would have to wonder whether he would get complacent. I think it highly unlikely given Holmes past prime performances that Holmes loses this fight, which would seriously raise Holmes stock. Still, if Bonecrusher was to get the win, it leaves him with a huge legacy. I would imagine that he would start to pick his fights and normal transmission would resume maybe a handpicked defence or two, or possibly, we would see a Buster Douglas like upset somewhere along the line, perhaps even in Tokyo by Buster Douglas, if not, you would have to think that Evander Holyfield would end the reign although who knows, Smith was bigger and he may have created Riddick Bowe like problems. It would have been quite interesting to see how Smith would have rated on an ATG level if he had retired as champion after these few wins. Certainly, there is every chance that he could have gained plenty from Tyson not being on the scene.

 

Yes Ruddock is becomes a big factor without Tyson