Is Mike Tyson the greatest heavyweight of all time?

He beat mediocre fighters in a mediocre era. Spinks had no business being in the ring with him. He was far too small-framed to stand up to Tyson's HW power. Holmes limped into the ring with a walker and a jab that was more like an old man's pawing after more than two years away from boxing. Tyson simply never beat a top level HW.

 

Those guys from the 80's you listed were garbage. Plus, Tyson lost to a 42-1 underdog fair and square.

 

Calling guys like Pinklon Thomas garbage who was ranked top ten pound for pound is absurd. Tyson hadn't trained right for Douglas, the announcers even said it before the fight began. Those 80s fighters weren't great, but good solid fighters that would have been competitive in other eras.

 

For the people saying he is...please answer me ONE QUESTION!

Throughout his career...name ONE PRIME ELITE HW he defeated?

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yeeeeeeeeeeah, didnt think so.

(when your best wins are Old Holmes, Blown up Spinks and Razor Ruddick...you just have NO CLAIM as the number one anything...I loved watching Tyson, but be serious guys)

Tyson's reign at the top was THE MOST DOMINANT OF ALL TIME among HWs, but that doesnt consitute him as being the greatest. I rank him around 7-10 all time.

No idea how he got 9 votes?????

 

Actually, he's pretty accurate about that "Tyson beats 99% of all heavyweights" thing. Whether he meant it this way or not, there's probably about 1200 ranked heavyweight boxers fighting TODAY alone. Wouldn't mean much to be in the top 1% of ALL TIME crop. So, he's right (on a technicality).

 

Tyson before jail top 3-5, the whole career top 8-10

 

Many surpass him in accomplishments. Ali, Lewis, Holyfield and maybe Foreman beat him on a H2H argument as well.

So.....NO, he is not!

 

I think career wise, it's not even close,he was no where near the greatest in terms of accomplishments or career achievements. H2H? I'd say if there were a mythical match up he'd be in the top tier along with Ali, Lewis, Holmes, Foreman, Liston and maybe Louis. As to who would win this round robin, I don't know, but certainly Tyson would have had a chance and win this..so h2h he's got to be no lower than 5th or 6th.

 

Barely Top10.

 

Still waiting???

 

:roll: :-( 10 people have voted yes?

 

No, he's not the greatest heavyweight ever and isn't close to it on a combined resume/H2H combination, only because other fighters have denser resume's, such as Ali, much denser at that.

I do however believe that Tyson is the best H2H HW, #1, though #2 is also a good choice. There are not many in history who would beat a prime Tyson, there are a few, but very few and less than would get the other ATG HW's by a bit. Tyson would also blow some out more impressively than other HW ATG's.

I rank him at #7. Anywhere give or take a few there is very good. It does irritate me when people don't put him in the top 10, as if there are actually 10 greater HW's than Mike Tyson. His resume is extremely underrated because of the fashion that he dominated a decent crop, he also beat some elite fighters along the way impressively and his H2H ability is top or close to the top spot.

To rank him outside of the top 10 is a joke. It's odd, because some people overrate Tyson, then some, including the majority of the boxing establishment underrate him in response.

Tyson's probably the most overrated and underrated in history at the same time.

Well, he's undoubtly the quickest ever, Ali was in NO WAY quicker than Mike, but Ali could sustain his speed over a much longer period of time.

His combination speed, accuracy, timing, precision, defensive prowess, power and durability at his best was a sight to behold, few fighters even outside of HW are gifted as much as he was physically and that's saying something.

Definitely the most physically talented in history, that's a fact.

 

Excellent post.