No Tyson.

Well he would be a very decent chance of beating Bonecrusher and Tucker i think. Tucker would have some backers against Trevor but he never actually got that much done in the ring.

 

Trev would whip Smith's ass in a good fight I think. Tucker would spoil his way to victory over Trevor I think.

 

Sad state the heavyweight division would’ve been in had Berbick been champ through the 80s. Talk about unwatchable. I tend to think Tucker and Witherspoon would’ve been the top dawgs.

 

Hard to say isn't it.

 

It sure is!

 

If Mike Tyson never exist (if I understood correctly), I think the second half of 80's would belong to Tonny "TNT" Tucker; before the others. Rarely did a fighter box 12 rounds with Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and stay on his feet; quality boxer.
The 90's to Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe before the others. George Foreman, Michael Moorer, Shanon Briggs have the same or slightly more important role.
In the late of 90's Klitschko brothers would have played a slightly more significant role than they had.

 

That's a good one, Will.

 

You would likely have seen the titles changing hands a fair bit.

I think that unification would have happened anyway, owing to the political climate.

None of the belt holders would be generating much excitement on their own, and Don King would have controlled them all at some point.

This would have made a unification tournament, the only way to generate interest in the sport.

God knows who would have come out on top, but I doubt that they would have held the title for long.

If they did by fighting weak opposition, then it would only be a matter of time before they ran into Holyfield.

Bottom line, you are probably looking at an additional 2-3 lineal heavyweight champions.

 

What a dystopian timeline this would be.

 

If you remove a dominant champion from the timeline, you are almost certainly generating multiple additional lineal champions.

 

Or just nobody. This isn't the 30s we are discussing. Remember how long it took after Lennox retired?

 

That is a good argument for that being the single worst period in heavyweight history.

Admittedly the rules change a bit after the titles fracture.

In Tyson's case, Don King holds all the belts, and Spinks is still out there with the lineal.

 

Worst in the sense that the viewers didn't get to watch unification bouts, perhaps. Worst in the sense that the fighters were inferior, probably not.

 

Pretty bad in both aspects.

I don't take anything away from the Klitschko's, but the other belt holders were a sorry bunch.

 

Thomas stops Berbick late in a rematch, clearly UDs Page, UDs Holmes, stops Coetzee, struggles to SD Tucker, stop Spinks very late in a unification (losing on the scorecards before the stoppage).

He then saves face by stopping Dokes in consummate fashion.

Despite a noticeable deterioration in skills, boxing fans and scribes are starting to wonder if this is an ATG champ when Holyfield knocks the bejesus out of him.