Was Mike Tyson the biggest HW under achiever of all time...

Yes he underachieved... he could have been better and trained harder but he was satisfied with what he did and the tomato cans he faught... no Mercer, no Foreman, no Morrison, no Moorer, No Bowe, etc.

 

Tyson could have easily been better if he stuck with Kevin Rooney and surrounded himself with better people/management.

 

Let's be honest though even if he wasn't in his prime he probably would have ko'ed all these guys at the time

 

he sure was/

 

Well Tyson couldn't beat Douglas when he wasn't serious what makes you think he could beat bowe or foreman?? I think he might have been able to beat mercer morrison and moorer but barely by the skin of his teeth. Tyson could have easily beaten all of these guys with the peek-a-boo defense of Rooney's.

 

And discipline

 

Well, he had a young man's style but look what he packed into his time at the top and did even after he fell hard (arguably becoming an OVER-achiever. He individually unified the WBC/WBA/IBF titles AND individually garnered status as the Ring/linear champion. He's the only HW fighter since all three majors have been around, I think, who not only put them all together himself but held on to them throughout his reign, defending them together. Lennox, Holy, Douglas, Holmes, Old Foreman, Moorer, Briggs lol none of them did/had to. Also, remember, terrific fighters were coming in around the time Douglas got him. Holyfield, being right there, in particular. I'm not sure he'd have stayed dominant champion much longer, honestly.

 

felix savon

 

Prime Tyson - rematch with Douglas
Prime Tyson - Prime Bowe
Prime Tyson - Prime Lewis

If these bouts would've been possible, it would be easier to asses Mike Tyson's capabilities when he was in the top of his game.

Unfortunately, because of his own actions it never happened.

In my books Tyson is probably the most talented HW ever. He was a short man with incredible head movement/skills/power. Still, I do not think he could beat any of the great big men like Bowe or Lewis, for example.

 

Yer dude Thats what I meant when I said in his prime. As soon as Rooney went it just went down hill from there. Having thought about it more I think he beats foreman and mercer by a wide UD (comes close to koing mercer) close decision against bowe, early stoppage against Morrison and a late stoppage against moorer. The peek-a-boo defense was genius for Tyson and it's a shame he left Rooney after the Douglas loss. Even without cus and with Rooney I think his career had the potential to get back on track and still had the potential to be a top 5 heavyweight of all time.

 

Yea and I take the foreman part back he proly wud have beaten foreman in the 90s

 

yer couldn't agree more. I still think a rematch with Douglas he wins and bowed a close win as well, however the Lewis match is to hard call imo

 

Golota

 

Tyson is absolutely an underachiever, given his natural gifts and skills. However, since he still became undisputed champion, unified the belts and cleaned out the division en route to doing it before staying on top for several years, in my mind he can't be called the biggest Heavyweight underachiever in history.

That distinction goes to these guys:

David Tua
Corrie Sanders
Ike Ibeabuchi
Andrew Golota

Of those, I'd say Sanders is perhaps the biggest waste, because he was not in shape often (perhaps even less than Tua was) and was not even seriously committed to boxing for much of his career.

 

Tyson was the most overrated fighter of all time. Rubes are always saying "prime" Tyson. He lost to a bunch of bums in his prime. "Prime" Tyson according to his fans was 3 years, when he fought the worst competition in HW history.