No Mike Tyson: What happens?

Oh jeez, who would be the stand out HW of the mid 80s without Tyson?

[url]Michael Spinks[/url], Champion

1. [url]Mike Tyson[/url]
2. [url]James (Bonecrusher) Smith[/url]
3. [url]Pinklon Thomas[/url]
4. [url]Tim Witherspoon[/url]
5. [url]Tony Tubbs[/url]
6. [url]Trevor Berbick[/url]
7. [url]James (Buster) Douglas[/url]
8. [url]Tony Tucker[/url]
9. [url]Frank Bruno[/url]
10. [url]Tyrell Biggs[/url]

Who beats Spinks? Does Spinks just bow out? I imagine Holmes might never come out of retirement too. Of the lot maybe BoneCrusher is the best of the lot? Err- Douglas or Tucker probably. Witherspoon at his best could mince the entire top 10 I think I'm not sure. It's actually a pretty fun question. Hmm. Oh, Tony Tubbs yep he's my pick.

 

To be honest, we would be stuck with champions like Trevor Berbick, James Bone Crusher Smith. and Michael Spinks.

 

Hard to say.
I think Bonecrusher could make another defense until he meets a Tony Tucker type fighter. On the other hand, he was terribly inconsistent.
The same for Michael Spinks, he´d find onother lower class figter for a victory.
What about Berbick? He went 10 rounds against a nobody and lost to Williams after Tyson.

It looks like all three of them were on a downward spiral due to age and injurys. Same with Thomas. Just a matter of time and they´d give up their belt. Holmes maybe never makes a comeback.

The upcoming challangers/champions look to be Tony Tucker, Buster Douglas and Carl Williams. But it also wouldn´t surprise me if Tubbs, Biggs or Bruno took a title in 1987/88/89.
If Holyfield eventually came in a position for a belt earlier than 1990, its almost 100% sure he´d be champ too.

Its a mess to be honest.

 

Spinks doesn't drop out of the tournament so ends up meeting Tony Tucker in a unification fight.
Tucker surprises Spinks by ko ing him in ten round.
Tucker makes a couple of successful title defence s then loses to Carl Williams by split decision.
William s loses by 7rnd ko to Holyfield.
From there every thing is as it was.
Till Frank Bruno beating McCall but loses it to Lennox Lewis in a rematch.

Holyfield regains his portion of the title from Bruce Sheldon.
The only difference is, Holyfield never gets to have his ears bit.

 

There would probably have been some sort of unification tournament, before Holyfield challenged for the title.

 

Oscar rules the world? By the time Oscar became P4P tops Tyson wasn`t even ranked P4P, during the mid 90`s, unless you`re just talking about PPV figures. Oscar and Tyson were only titlist at the time for a short period, Oscar was on the rise to the top while Tyson star was in decline.

 

King would have tried to freeze Holy out of tyhe heavyweight title picture until he signed options in order to get a title shot at one of King`s fighters.

 

The only thing I can think of is that it would be a pretty inconsistent era without a single top dog. Holyfield wouldn't come up any earlier imo even with no Tyson his career would stay the same from the 80s through most of the 90s more or less.

 

Would be interesting. A mess but interesting. Maybe Holmes would come back ? Would Holy take over ?

 

Tyson wasn't a part when the tournament got started, was he? If not it goes ahead anyway and Tucker probably wins it. From there a meet with Spinks seems the most logical. If Spinks wins, he probably retires. In any case, I think the titles splinters shortly after and Holy, Bowe and Lewis emerge as the new alphabet champions. Bowe probably milks his title for all it's worth, but Lewis and Holy might unify.

In the end, we might have a showdown between Lewis and Vitaly for the undisputed, as McGrain suggested.