How many fighters 218lbs or under could have beaten a prime M.Tyson?

Yes, but he only did that when he thought he could avoid getting countered clean. It's not like he was swinging wild all night long.

 

No one said anything about Holyfield "swinging wild all night". You don't need to swing wild to land your strongest punches anyway so that's a moot point and a straw man.

The discussion was about Holyfield's power vs Ali's. Holyfield threw plenty of shots with bad intentions to give Foreman a decent idea of how hard he could hit. To suggest otherwise means you either didn't watch the fight or you have no idea what you're looking at.

 

Liston
Holmes
Ali
Holy
Louis

 

This. Maybe Marciano, if he'd hung into the later rounds.

 

Not too many.

 

I don’t see why it’s ridiculous. Ruddock was a heavy hitter with a monster left hook, but was kind of one dimensional. Douglas and Holyfield hit Tyson with more consistency and a better variety of shots. Jabs, straight rights, uppercuts, etc....Ruddock was in love with his power, neglected the jab, and didn’t throw enough combinations. He did land his share of hard shots in the Tyson fights, especially that left hook late in round 6 of the rematch that sent Tyson’s mouthpiece flying, but Holyfield and Douglas just hit Tyson more often