Is Prime Tysons Defense Overrated??

He had a good defense for his offensive, swarming style. Like Duran.

 

Yeah. Some people say he's unhittable.

 

Great defense considering his style

 

Ask yourself this...

If the majority of Mayweather's opponents were tall athletic fighters, with great jabs, would his defense be THAT great.

In his entire career, he's never fought one taller athletic, slick, fighter with a great jab.

How spectacular would he look against Hearns or Forrest?

You gotta use what you CAN to get the job done.

 

Tyson's head movement and high guard were very effective in his prime, when he was a disciplined fighter. "Great defense" in the HW division is rare. None of the greats that I can think of had it (Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Louis, Lewis, etc.).

 

His offence was part of his defence. If you missed Tyson would make you pay like no other, this made many of his opponents very hesitant. Most of the early opponents pulled back their punches before they landed. Apart from that he had good head movement, and excellent reflexes. He got hit but rarely by a flush punch that he did not see coming.

 

He was a complete fighter that was a great defensively as he was offensively. Just because he wasn't slick as a Pernell Whitaker or Floyd Mayweather Jr doesnt mean he wasn't a good as them defensively. All fighters, even great defensive masters like those 3, still get tagged and dropped on occasion, having a great defensive style does not guarantee your not getting dropped or ko'd or outpunched. Floyd, Sweet Pea, etc all have been dropped before at some point. And like some have stated, Tyson was one of the shortest HW's out there, most of the time he was at a size and reach disadvantage, as was Pernell Whitaker, which is what make them great. Can't really say that about Floyd, his greatness is a more diluted type.

 

Amen

 

defense was good enough to become youngest heavyweight champion in history. unified at that.

 

everything about tyson is overated

 

No.

It all depends on who you talk to and/or what you like.

But considering his devastating style I'd say his defence was very good compared to other fighters with camparable power and style.

 

Prime Tyson was a very good fighter, but Tyson is a case where the mythology is much greater than the man.

 

It's not overrated.

At his best, yes, he was hittable, who isn't, but he was very hard to hit clean, especially with a repeat punch/and/or the same punch over again. If he did take a solid shot right on the chin, he absorbed it and good luck on doing it again.

All this changed of course when he got away from the system.

He fought as an offensive counter-puncher who wanted to take your head off. That is incredibly hard to do and not get hit repeatedly. He always put himself in the line of fire.

Winky Wright's defense is overrated as far as "great" skill is concern to me because most of what he does, like a lot of fighters, is to hold those gloves up and tight and block punches. Good at what he does, no question, but not quite what I think of that takes a lot of practice and/or rare ability.

Height advantage and Reach advantage were not with Tyson.

 

:good