Who is it? I don’t mean amongst the casual boxing fans who think Mike Tyson was superman, amongst real boxing fans, who in your opinion gets far too much recognition
Really, so many ATGs and even many of the best ever are a bit overrated. Dempsey, Louis, Patterson, Ali, Foreman, Hagler, and SRL are all overrated imo, although still some of my absolute favorites, and still some of the best ever. Dempsey is an ATG, but aside from power and stamina, and decent speed, he was a very basic fighter (he did have a good bob and weave). He was not a great tactician. Louis was an ATG as well, but part of the reason he seems so impressive is because the gap btwn himself and the guys he fought: Baer, Carnera, Farr, Galento was so huge. Louis was not particularly fast, mobile, or even had a top 12 jab, but considering the era he fought in, it was a huge step in boxing. Patterson is another good fighter, but had serious defects that were all brought out of him at one time or another in his losses. Even Ali gets overrated, moreso for originality than anything else though. He was one of a kind, but then when you go and watch Pep, SRR, Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Gavilan, Machen, and Terrell, it is easy to see that a lot of guys fought that way before Ali. People always compare Ellis, Jimmy Young, Holmes, SRL, Dokes, Tillis, Page, and so many others and call them imitations of Ali. Very true, but Ali did not pioneer that style. He himself is a composite of guys like SRR, Charles, Pep, and Gavilan. SRL gets overrated for the same reason. He was not original in his style. Foreman and Hagler are what I would call underrated-overrated. Both are extremely underrated for their technical abilities and Hagler for ability to box as well as his style as a switch-hitter. However, for those who think of Foreman and Hagler just as power-houses, they are overrated. Foreman was powerful and tough, but he was painfully slow, had no mobility, and had no combinations. Hagler as a puncher alone is overrated too. A lot of people credit his knockouts just to his tremendous power, tho many of them had to do w/ his technical genius, timing, and switching as well.
As much as I like him, I think Mike Tyson is a bit overrated. Yes he was a great fighter and a delight to watch. There are however a lot of people out there both casual fans and devout who would pick him to win literally every single head to head fight. He also seems to have more apologist for his lackluster performances than most other fighters..
Well, THE MOST is difficult, but when you have ONE OF THE MOST: I go with Shavers here. He always gets mentioned in one breath with Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Holmes etc., but he was not in the league of them. Maybe he really was THE hardest puncher of all time in HW, but when it comes to boxing class he is not even near the ppl i just mentioned.
Ali and Tyson. The thing is you can make an argument for Ali because of his resume but Tyson just gets ridiculously overrated on this forum
Tyson is the most underrated. The 60s/70s/90s heavies are overrated. Louis and Larry are streets better.
Ray Leonard. He was great but I dont think he deserves quite the accolades he is generally given. For example #2 Welterweight of alltime? He didn't stick around long enough. Leonard wasn't dominant. A Superstar certainly. Great fighter but I would have him in a lower tier.
Dempsey likes me a lot cos his road. He started to do this for a living and from club level fights. Did not had notable coaches in beginning of his career, was not wealthy then, even not middle class or close to this. This was old era, gloves and approach to boxing was different than today. More almost wrestlebox era for a living. He had proper instincts and used his body properly to become noticed and get chance to climb up. It is not Tyson story with decent tutor that bringed him to the famous and great Cus that also managed to deliver for Mike all the best he was capable to gave him for his career and skills. It is real symbol of hardest road in boxing history to the glory. Damn high natural talent level. Is someone needs story: boxe as real road out of real poverty........it is Dempsey. It does not matters how good if looking from today perspective he was or how bad he was for forums. He is real symbol for boxe as a real road out of poverty. It cannot been defeated. Any human is defeatable but road is road. Undisputed big dream for millions in this world.
Anyone who retires undefeated inevitably gets overrated somewhat because it is hard to imagine them losing when nobody saw it happen. Usually it's just that they didn't stick around long enough or fight often enough to be beaten (though not always).
He wasn't overrated when he won FOTY because he was impressive. But later it seems like he got pretty comfortable as a celebrity and his eye injury didn't help. You think the rise of Donald Curry and Terry Norris takes away from his legacy because he could've continue to fight by simply taking some time to heal his eye injury?
