Best win for Mike Tyson post-prison?

Peter McNeeley!

 

Bruno.

 

Bruno and not close.

 

I’ll also go with Bruno, which is to say it’s not a super impressive list of wins.

 

I'd say Bruno, but Frank didn't want to fight. So was Botha, although Mike lost every round except the last.

 

Bruno, Golota and then Seldon. Historically bad performance against Tyson but he was ranked and held a belt. Wasn't Francis or Etienne ranked as well?

But the list clearly shows how carefully managed Tyson was after prison. Holyfield of course turned out to be a formidable opponent but was seen as washed up at the time.

 

1) Bruno (regained the WBC title almost 10 years after winning the first time).
2) Seldon (tainted performance, but Seldon was a fast, athletic titleholder with a decent jab).
3) Golota (last good performance against a top 10-15 contender).
4) Botha (great one-punch KO of a durable challenger)
5) Savarese (obliterated a decent fringe contender)
6) Etienne (same as Savarese)
7) Buster Mathis Jr (a slick and very elusive target who gave Mike plenty of problems ; would have ranked higher if he was more powerful/higher rated)
8) Nielsen (decent top 20 contender but horrible preparation for a Lewis fight)
9) Francis ( good performance against an overmatched opponent who had multiple regional/national titles).
10) McNeeley (come-back fight against an easy opponent who came to fight).

 

The way Tyson utterly dominated Golota was impressive. Keep in mind how competitive Golota was with others, including giving Bowe two bad beatings. Golota was mental and likely to find a way to lose, but never that quickly and he usually was winning at the time.

Bruno had gotten bigger and stronger and beat McCall for the title, the man who KO’d Lennox Lewis and had defended against a sharper version of old Holmes.

Lou Savarese had knocked out a comebacking James Buster Douglas, and had gone 12 with Foreman.

Tyson blew through all of them quickly, with ease. As an explosive puncher he was nonpareil.

I think the Botha victory was impressive in its own right because Tyson probably was losing at the time he scored the one-punch KO, but it also showed how mental he was at that time because he did try to break Botha’s arm.

 

Didn't Golota have a car accident that affected his left hand before fighting Tyson ?

 

If that had being the Bruno from 1989 in there with post jail Tyson, then we'd have seen a lot more lively fight.
Tyson said himself that the 89 Bruno had more fire about him.
The answer to the question, I'd say Frank followed by Golta

 

Surprised to see no mention of Ruddock. Always thought that was a pretty decent win for post-prison Mike.

 

He had his 2 Ruddock fights before prison.

 

And people hold Tyson up as a paragon of boxing virtue, like he's Archie Moore or something.

I don't think he had a GREAT win after prison.

 

The correct answer is Bruno.

It was a very dominant win over a belt holder, and a legitimately dangerous contender.

You could also make the case for the Golota fight, but it ended as a NC so I won't.