In retrospect it certainly appears that way . Holmes , despite fighting on till 2002 was never stopped again and apart from the Butterbean ft ?was never even knocked down . So , to look at , imo , Tyson ko 4 Holmes , was his peak performance .
No , I'd say Spinks, Holmes timing was way off for that fight even for a 38 year old who hadn't been active and Tyson did very little up until he caught Holmes
I get that ,he looked unbeatable in 88 . It's just what the fighter s he beat went on to do . Holmes came close ish to winning a belt again 7 years later . Yet Tyson destroyed him ,made him look finished tbh .
True and he was supposed to polish off Frank Bruno in the autumn of 1988 in London at Wembley Stadium. Then he ran into another tough guy. The infamous Mitch Green inside Dapper Don in Harlem. Tyson broke his hand and Mitch Blood Green got a black eye. True story. This content is protected This content is protected Yes Tyson was in his pomp in 1988 and he looked almost unbeatable like Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano. But that year was the beginning of the end. He fell in love with that horrible social climbing gold digger Robyn Givens. She was spending his money on herself and her mother.She spent millions of dollars on that Kenilworth, Bernardsville NJ mansion And she wanted control of his business affairs. Then Jim Jacobs died. And that was that. Don King took over and prostiuted Tyson. Bill Cayton was out and then Rooney. What a shame. I don't think we will ever see a 21 year old undisputed lineal ring magazine world heavyweight champion.
Bigg s was a good performance but he wasn't all that to begin with and he never did anything after , but a good fight .
Tyson crammed in Holmes, Tubbs and Spinks in the first half of the year. That's 6 months! Incredible. Yes, Tyson peaked that year and won Fighter of the Year for 1988 despite not defending again until February 1989. As JamesFoster posted above, Cayton had a plan for a world tour that would've followed. Bruno was to be next in England, Damiani in Italy, Foreman in China, Ruddock in Canada, Adilson Rodriguez in Brazil and then Holyfield somewhere along the lines as the next SuperFight in Vegas.
Not for me, Holmes had a couple of moments, when he got up on his toes. The Pinklon Thomas fight was pretty convincing imo.
Nah, you can't have your peak performance against a guy well past his prime with marginal reflexes left. That doesn't work all that well in determining how good a fighter looks against another.
Holmes fought a fighter that was outboxed by Bruno in McCall for the title and look what Mike did to Frank twice, even though he fought far better v Holmes.
No the Spinks fight was Tyson`s best, he was awesome and getting better with each fight at that stage. This content is protected
It was a perfect execution of how to settle old scores from past amateur days by carrying an opponent for several punishing rounds and gradually and painfully breaking them down physically and mentally but always stopping short of an actual stoppage until they decided that the time was right. To cap it all off, Tyson completes the humiliation by telling everyone in the post fight interview in the ring what a good time he was having during the fight and that Biggs was crying out like a girl every time he got hit by a body shot.
Exactly! Many people claim this fight as Ali's best. Why not Holmes for Tyson? Holmes knew a bout with Tyson was a deal once Mike unified the belts. In fact, and I'm sure you know this, Tyson-Holmes was originally scheduled for 1986 but HBO nixed that bout so that Tyson can join the HBO tournament.