Why do some people try to claim Mike Tyson couldn't hang with today's "giants"?

uh, it means you're getting punched in the head,,,,

 

Let's be honest the name "Tyson" will now forever be primarily synonomous with the modern day heavyweight king GOAT candidate Tyson Fury who would've no doubt toyed with the 5'10" mental midget.

 

I gather he never had the best eye sight, but it's reported he lost sight out of one eye in the Fulton fight in 1917. So prior to that there were 8 fights with Wills.
In the first fight, Wills had a record of 14-1-3.

28 year old Langford: 101-9-27.
Wills got a draw!​

Langford would then KO Wills that same year, but I think it is safe to say the experience gap was still extreme. This was on Boxrec in regards to the KO loss for Wills: "Both men were knocked down repeatedly...but Langford fought with a superior knowledge of the game that gradually wore out Wills"
Then
1915, Wills 1W - 0W Langford
1916 Wills 3W - 1W Langford
1917 Wills 1W - 0W Langford

After which, in 1917, Langford lost sight in one eye. Langford lost all but one fight with Wills after that which was a Draw, and according to boxrec: "the two boxers did their best not to hurt each other and that the referee should have thrown both of them out of the ring"

Regarding Langford being out of prime 1915-1917; that is 29 to 31 years old. We can also factor in this from the Wiki: "On June 5, 1922, Langford knocked out Tiger Flowers in only the second round. Langford was mostly blind and Flowers would soon afterwards win the World Middleweight Championship." Again, I think this points to the size of Wills being the factor.

Langford is regarded as a master boxer, and his experience dwarfed that of Wills, and yet before Langford loss of sight in one eye, Wills had a record of 5-2-1 fighting Langford, and if you exclude 1914 (When Wills was only 4 years into his pro career) you have a record of 5-1-0. That is pretty one sided in terms of records. So that raises the question how could a relative novice have that kind of record against a master boxer?
The size difference is the elephant in the room.


edit: that quote from wikipedia about Langford's age. It is not clear when he was born. If March 1886 (wikipedia) then he would have just turned 28 when he fought Wills the first time. However, other sources claim Langford said he was born in 1885 (month unknown), which would put him at most 29 years old. But not 31 years old, so not sure why that has been written on the wikipedia page (the math doesn't add up).

 

He'd wipe all the top heavyweights out today. So would prime Wlad, Lewis, Holy, Holmes, Louis, Ali, Foreman, FOTC Frazier. Liston would certainly hold a belt.

That said, I have plenty of respect for Fury and Wilder, the two men with most obvious Championship Heart.

 

Actually, Ruiz has the most enlarged heart.

 

I've been reading the comments here and thought Id give this a go myself. Absolute 80s at his best Tyson would do well in this era, he would mop up most. Lets look at some of this years heavys

1 Fury - This would be his toughest fight and I'd actually favor Fury. However it would not surprise me if Fury has to survive quite a few scares and knockdowns to win. Furys high boxing IQ, toughness, size, and movement I think would carry him to a win at his best. Would be interesting to see Fury if he got dropped against a finisher as strong as Tyson.

2 Usyk - Its hard to tell because Usyk has had a grand total of 1 fight against a good heavyweight. Still I think Mike would probably KO him, I wouldn't count Usyk out though because he's a talent and dedicated to his craft, so a win by Usyk I don't think would be out of the cards, its just a tough hill for him to climb.

3 Joshua - AJ is going down or shelling up after taking a lot of punishment early.

4 Wilder - Deontay maybe stuns Tyson with a right, but its not like Wilder is some elusive defensive master, Tyson is going to eventually KO him probably brutally.

5 Parker - Tyson heavy favorite, maybe Parker can hang on to lose a decision

6 Whyte - Whyte has a severe allergic reactions to uppercuts, this is not good against Tyson. Tyson KO

7 Ruiz - Andy takes an absolute beating on his way to getting KOd. Tubbs had fast hands too.

8 Ortiz - Old man Ortiz is getting steamrolled in 1 or 2

9 Joyce - Joyce isn't bad, but Tyson is going to be way faster than Joe. I'd also like to see Joyce against an actual top 5 heavy so I can get a better gauge on him. Tyson KO, though Joyce to me is still a question mark.

10 Wallin - Tyson violent KO

11 Michael Hunter - Tyson KO

12 Pulev - Tyson KO

13 Frank Sanchez - Tyson KO

14 Martin Bakole - Tyson KO

15 Tony Yoka - Tyson KO

16 Helenius - Tyson KO

17 Daniel Dubois - Tyson KO

18 Zhang - Tyson KO

19 Hrgovic - Tyson KO

20 Charles Martin - Martin KO, I mean Tyson KO

 

Thank you doe all the diligent details FInkel, that makes a lot of sense!

 

I broke my BACK !

 

I personally think prime Tyson gets both AJ and Wilder out of there sharpish.

 

Prime Ali was the same size as Steve Cunningham. Would Ali also be "too small" to compete in this "era of giants?"

 

Tyson would do just fine today. Aside from Fury (who looks like he's past prime) there aren't any really top level giants in the sport right now. Joshua has already been beaten twice by smaller men, and Wilder isn't a giant, just tall. None of the other big men look to be significantly better than the big men of old. Joyce is probably the best of them, but he's slow as hell and very hittable. Makhmudov and Hrgovic are the only other really decent big men but both are untested and quite slow as well.

If Mike came back today his hardest test besides Fury would be Usyk.

 

Wilder, yes. I can see Tyson folding him in half within the first few rounds.

Joshua likely lasts a bit longer but I see him getting caught at some point and dropped as well.

Joyce would be an interesting one. Can see Tyson struggling there.

 

I agree with what you say about Lewis and Tyson for the most part. The only place I disagree is when you say this era of heavyweights is overrated. Overall, I don't think people rate this era too highly at all. Most seem to know that as a group this is a pretty average era as far as heavyweights go.

 

Usyk will beat Fury easily.

 

Ruddock was 6`3 and punched far harder than Fury does.