People like to say tyson was throwing combos, giving angles, and faster during his prime, but he was also fighting a bunch of stiffs, and scared fighters. Holyfield could match tyson in quickness and was physical stronger than tyson. What separated them was holyfield had toughness and determination that is an atg level.
Tbf to tyson if his books to be believed...the guy was living like an amatuer for years. Taking drugs, drinking, not training properly. Its pretty much testament to tysons ability and cus,s training that he got by with it as far as he did. The guy fighting holyfield tho was a long way off the guy that ripped through the division. Thats the reality of it. Mike didnt have the mentality to stay at the level he should have...for that he has to take the blame...but people are fooling themselves trying to believe any version of lewis or holyfield beats prime tyson based on there fights. Tyson would have beat them both if he stayed on the right path. He didnt tho....lewis and holyfield will and should go down as achieving much more in their careers...but....the best version of tyson beats the best version of both of them. Tysons hype wasn,t just based on people getting carried away. He,d have got better with age if he continued on the right path...was a young mans style that would have came unstuck eventually. But till 30 tyson if he,d have kept improving/training properly would have been untouchable.
I don't think anyone matched prime Mike for quickness, but he was definitely physically stronger thanks to whatever he got at BALCO.
It's very difficult to predict, Tyson 86/88 was a lot better than the 96/97 version, he would roll with punches & was a lot harder to hit, he was also faster with excellent stamina & could go the distance with relative ease if he had to. However it's difficult to go against Holyfield after we witnessed what happened when they did finally meet but i would suspect it would be a lot more competitive with Holyfield having to go the distance and hang on for a close split decision victory.
Tyson in his prime was unstoppable even for Holyfield imo. His frightening aura plus his devastating power plus his unpregnable peekaboo would have dropped everyone. Who says that the fighters he KOed were bums or old men is a liar. But after that brief period he lost with all the big names of his era. Facts. He would have lost with Bowe and old Foreman too imo. For these reasons I have Tyson two positions behind Holy in the ranking of the best ever.
Itt - people who can’t tell the difference between a prime Tyson and a post-prison, flat-footed, minimal head movement, headhunting, has to be set to punch Tyson. Post-prison Tyson was about 60% of himself. Prime Tyson potentially beats anyone, and I mean anyone in boxing history. Tyson Fury would be his hardest fight.
So you think going to prison for years losing your life long trainer, refusing to train because once again cus was gone so nobody to keep him in check and you think that's the same as 80s tyson yea ok sure buddy!
People forget how good the early 90s version of Holyfield was. That’s his prime, he was already past it by the time he faced Tyson. I’d still favor Holyfield if they both met in their primes, he just knew how to deal with Tyson’s style