Well, if Schmeling was elite, I´d say Walcott was elite also. If Walcott was elite, then why wasn´t Patterson? If Walcott was, what about aging Wlad as a win for Fury? If Vitali was, what about young undefeatet Tim Witherspoon? Etc etc. What does it show? Imo "elite HWs" in H2H comparisons are as overrated as it gets. Imagine yourself this: Check the fights for all HWs above and check their odds having trouble or losing to a non-elite HW. Then check the fantasy polls here on BF24 for elite HWs fighting non-elite HWs. Calculate the win/lose ratio and compare it to the odds of problems/fights for what elite HWs actually did. I´ll bet elite HWs gets way overrated in fantasy bouts compared to what actually happened to them.
Who was Bowe? A guy who broke down fighting a no hoper like Golota? A guy people gushed over only to be disappointed by a non-existent work ethic and a tendency to lose his control in and out of the ring? Exciting fight but Bowe's a footnote now. Wlad beat 22 fighters straight, KO'ing 16, barely losing a round in the process. His opponent's average record was 29 wins and 1.4 losses. Utter dominance. This content is protected
Intellectual dishonesty. I'll use Floyd Mayweather to expose biased fangushing. Moneyman turned pro the same year Klitschko did 1996. Throughout 20 year he beat champion after champion. Elite leveller after elite leveller. Never lost. Ranked on the P4P list for 14 years straight. Ring mag Fighter Of The Year twice. Wlad did none of those things. Not even fighter of the year once. . K? Now for the meaty part.. All that dominance for Floyd means squat when talking about fantasy H2H fights against Duran , and Ray and Hearns. Nobody ever used Floyds long run to justify him beating those guys because nobody he beat was in their ballpark. And he beat a lot better opposition than WK did. . Understand ? Picking WK to beat Tyson is like saying Scorpions were better than Guns N Roses
So much of what you're saying is true Seamus. To be perfectly fair, though, Golota showed up well into Bowe's bizarrely early decline. I don't think Golota would have made it two rounds against Bowe 91-93.
No, Tyson was NOT AT ALL too small to compete today...is this a trick question? lol Joshua and Ruiz would get blown out in 7, max. Fury would be the trickiest, but Mike was a FAR better, tighter finisher than Wilder he'd get stopped in the late rounds. Wilder would be a cool slugfest, but I don't give him 7, either. There isn't an elite heavyweight today that could beat prime Mike Tyson, and there hasn't been since MAYBE 1991-1993 Bowe (and that a BIG maybe btw). Holyfield, old George, Steward-era Lewis, and prime Wlad and Vitali might all prove quite interesting (and in the case of Holy, George, and Lewis...they were all greater overall ATGs imo). But I don't see any of them beating the ferocious Force of Nature that was Tyson 1987-1989. And I'm not even a big FAN of Mike lol (though I have huge respect for him during that period, he was amazing).
Maybe. But Golota also declined rapidly after the Bowe fights. Mentally, he got gunshy and gained a penchant for freezing. Physicaly, his reflexes, especially his jab, seemed diminished. Dude took a lot of punishment in his career. If he were a better person I would feel a lot more sorry.
Yes - Tyson, in his pomp, could compete with the giants of now. There are really only a handful of guys of exceptional size (compared with the size of the guys Tyson actually faced), in the current Ring Top-10, anyway. Guys like Parker, Whyte, Hunter, Povetkin, Ruiz, Rivas etc are heavy, but not creating atypical obstacles of height and reach for Tyson. As to what one thinks of their abilities, it's up for debate. I would suggest that only the uncommonly tall guys present Tyson with some kind of an issue - and only those opponents with a good deal of ability produce a close call or an upset.
Well said. I wonder if Golota had at least as much taken out of him during the Bowe fights as Bowe did. That would explain his extremely sharp decline, though some might assert that's a bit too neat.
Andy Ruiz TKO'd Joshua and Tyson in his prime was much faster than the overrated Ruiz and a bigger two handed puncher , not to mention much better conditioned. Deontay Wilder is the biggest one trick pony in heavyweight history and Tyson would have crushed him. I love Tyson Fury for his hubris and courage but also feel he is very overrated .. he decisioned a slow motion Klitschko in a fight with the fewest punches thrown I've ever seen and beat the above mentioned Wilder .. The best superheavyweights that ever lived by far were Lewis followed by Bowe .. a prime Tyson was even money w Lewis and I'd favor him over Bowe ... I'd also favor him over Wlad and Vitali ..
Oh. Dino. Your way with words takes me to the magic of the moment on a glory night. You know. Where the children of tomorrow dream their dreams in the wind of change.
I agree, though I think h2h in his only "prime" (1991-1992) he could have beat a couple of the top 10 ATGs, including Marciano, Wlad, and pre-Steward Lewis. It is one of boxing's biggest, most disgraceful shames that Bowe just didn't seem to care much after winning by far his greatest victory (Holy I of course). Plus he missed out on a super payday (Lewis, back when Bowe was quite capable of beating him) due to his low life manager.
