Did Mike Tyson in his prime only beat bums and over the hill fighters?

That was an informative post by ecto

 

I bet EVERY single one of the ABC guys he beat would demolish Corbett.

 

@McGrain
Why did Ecto get banned?

 

They weren’t bums. But they weren’t elite level either. Average resume and because of his later loses too holyfield and lewis makes him look a weak era bully.

 

This is a very good, more than legitimate question, Mark.

No offense, but I'm not sure about ANY of this. Wilder didn't have the punch output or even boxing skill of Mike Tyson. AJ would have been sorely outboxed. Fury might outbox him in a snooze fest. But I wouldn't bet on ANY of those guys against Tucker.

 

Mark, are you serious? "Opposition bums and over-the-hill fighters?" Now, really. Shame on you.

 

I think Mark is simply conjecturing, my friend.

 

To be fair he has posed it as a ? not a statement.

 

Look at some of the guys that Louis fought in his championship days.
With all due respect to Joe, some of em wouldn't make it to a title shot or in the last fifty years.

 

That is impossible to know, but either way, it doesn't change the argument very much in my eyes.

You can only fight what is available at the time.

 

No Tyson did not only beat bums and over the hill fighters but he had a considerable advantage over 99% of them because he was so much more active than any of his opponents.

As good as Tyson was, it made him look so many times better.

Eventually he ran into Douglas who had fought just as often, and against just as good fighters.

Douglas had fought on the same card as Tyson in his last few fights. That really helped Buster prepare enough to give his best.

In hindsight, A lot of Tyson opponents were really not that well prepared. Very few of them had beaten ranked guys recently enough. Tubbs,Thomas, Holmes, Spinks and Bruno couldn’t be expected to do themselves justice going by their recent results.

Even Williams and Biggs had not been as active.

This leaves only Berbick, Tucker and Smith as decent wins.

 

That’s right. Tucker beat Douglas, a legit win, then was outpointed by Tyson.

It should be noted that in 1987 Tucker and Douglas were pretty unknown though. In reality Tucker and Douglas were rated below all of the name heavyweights at that time.

Had Spinks not been stripped of his belt, Tucker and Douglas would have met only for the USBA title.

In real terms, As fringe contenders, Tucker and Douglas were promoted into a vacant IBF title bout based on nothing very much.

 

It is pretty damning that that 1987 end of year ratings in @Boilermaker “lineal rankings system” which is based on a real “man who beats the man” rating, Tony Tucker and Buster Douglas only make #16 and #17.

Proving in 1987, The IBF belt was only worth that kind of ranking.

 

louis beat more hall of fame fighters than ali ,you are doing what most do judge boxers from then by modern (watered down) standards and coming to the wrong conclusion of their skills!