How good was Post-Prison Tyson?

A little bit of a spazz out there+homophobia. Tyson in 95 still would’ve beaten most of the “true” champions, not just the ones claiming to be champions because they won belts in the ring.

 

I think Tyson would’ve beaten Shannon Briggs, who was the real champion around that time.

Now stop wasting your time trying to hurt my feelings.

 

*shot to bits Foreman

 

I do wonder whether Tyson remained good up to Holyfield 1 or so. It still looked like he could take the title at that point, so he had something to realistically shoot for. Harder to muster such motivation after Holyfield 2.

So post prison Tyson would be like FOTC Ali for a brief period, and then let himself go.

 

1995-7 Tyson was still a dangerous, dangerous fighter. The handspeed, power, timing, ferocity and chin were all still there but while his skills and footspeed had declined what Mike still had left immediately post prison and before the Holyfield ban was more than enough to dispatch the majority of HW's Mike just made a terrible decision when he decided to vacate the WBC title rather than fight Lennox Lewis and take the supposedly easier fight with Holyfield that would make him a lot more money.
What Tyson and almost no on else knew was Holyfield had Mike's number both stylistically and psychologically and the rest as they say is history - Evander forever destroyed the aura of invincibility and intimidation factor of Tyson. When MT returned 1999 against Botha he was finished as a top level HW the timing, speed and reflexes were gone all that was left was power, chin and the occasional glimpse of his previous skills.

Believe me the history of HW boxing would read differently had Mike taken the Lewis fight in 1996 or even a Michael Moorer fight.

 

Knocked out Frank Bruno, Andrew Golota, Frans Botha, Bruce Seldon, Lou Savarese, Cliff Etienne, Orlin Norris, Buster Mathis Jr..

Bruno, Seldon, Botha all held titles in the 90s. Golota ended Bowe's career. After losing to Tyson, Golota arguably should've picked up two belts - over Ruiz and Byrd. Savarese did fine against Foreman, Douglas, Whitaker and Grant, just not Tyson. Etienne was a big deal briefly against Clay-Bey and Brewster.

In the mid to late 90s, Tyson was better than most if not all the contenders. Just not better than Holyfield or Lewis. Third-best heavyweight from 1995 to 2000, maybe #2 for a while. Probably never the absolute #1 at any point in his comeback, unless you had him there for a few months in the first half of '96.

Still very very good.

 

Dubblechin beat me to it, but for 95-2000 he was the third best heavyweight out there. Sort of like Joe Frazier, post FOTC, maybe.

 

He was 50% at best. He had lost his best asset, his amazing head movement, which made him very elusive. His defense was the thing that made him that dangerous in the 80s, he barely got hit.
Also, his combination punching decreased.

 

Still had the speed, power and chin but what made a 5'10"-11" powerhouse work in the era of the giants was defense, timing and precision....sure he could bomb away and stop most if not all but he had to take punishment to do it and that shortens careers. He was still a dangerous top 10 heavyweight but even fighters like Frans Botha who was more puncher than boxer was outboxing him.

 

Good enough to be worthy of a top 10 rating from 1995-1997. Beyond that I’m not sure

 

Very good until the ban for the ear bite. He looked as good against Bruno and Seldon as he ever did. Short fights, so hard to know exactly what to make of them, but that was almost always the case on the other hand.