Who is greater? George Foreman or Mike Tyson

prime for prime id say tyson its amazing just because frazier was the same height as tyson people assume foreman would have done the same to tyson if you look at it another way tyson knocked out far more fighters the same height as foreman than the other way round foreman never faced anyone with the speed and power of a peak tyson thats for sure .

 

as a quick question, has anyone in this thread (haven't gone through it all yet) compared top 10 ranked fighters on both guys resumes?

I saw a few times about foreman's "reign" but honestly

his first reign was norton and jose roman. norton was top 10
his second reign was schultz, grimsley (??) and savarese. schultz i think was scrapping top 10

bottom line for me, is his reigns, with the exception of norton were complete ****ing jokes. outside of this, what ranked fighters did foreman beat.

1)frazier stands high in this regard and pretty much makes up the majority of his legacy. twice dominating a top 10/15 all time heavy is a huge achievement

2)moorer-the legit champion. chinny but well schooled, with some decent pop

3)Ron Lyle-wild brawl, legit contender

4)george chuvalo-past prime but still game. totally dominated

then we have guys like qawi, conney, coetzer, and cooper. not really saying much

then we have loses to guys like morrison, holyfield and briggs (if you say that's a win for foreman than schultz and stewart were loses)

i'm seeing 6 wins over top 10 fighters: norton, frazier X 2, moorer, lyle and chuvalo

how does tyson compare in this regard?

 

Foreman has the worst record against top10 opponents than anyone considered great.

I think Tyson beat around 16-18 top10 Ring Ranked opponents

 

Resume: Tyson
Best win: Foreman
Achievements: Foreman
Longevity: Foreman
Dominance: even

 

agreed bod, but i can't go with dominance. foreman raked up a lot of wins over lesser fighters on his way to the title, same as tyson. but once he reached the top, foreman quickly fell. i think we're letting tyson's shennanigans affect his earlier career; he did make 9 defenses after destroying berbick (only 2 though of the undisputed title). tyson's destruction of every single possible legitimate threat to the title on his way up was thrilling. foreman was not dominating to but not the same quality of opposition on his way up. tyson's initial reigns were overall more impressive against better opponents. foreman's career was defined by two great wins (norton, frazier) and dominating lesser opponents or going tooth and nail with contenders (morrison, stewart, schultz)

 

sounds about right :good

including ali, frazier X 2, norton, morrison, lyle, chuvalo, briggs, schultz, young (who i forgot), moorer, holyfield=12 (legitimately) ranked top 10 opponents

his record is 7-5 against them. that's not all time greats, that's his record against top 10s!

 

Not a chance Tyson could ever become HW Champ in his mid forties :-(

 

Fair assessement and yeah, on their way up Tyson was more impressive. But when I talk about dominance I talk about dominance in their reing - lineal title - and there they are even. Anyway, Foreman´s second win of the title was just huge, one of the biggest achievements in boxing and combined with his blow outs of Frazier ... it´s hard for Tyson to rival him despite having a better resume. Just my opinion though.

 

and it's a fair opinion. foreman has two of the biggest heavyweight wins in history on his side (frazier 1, moorer). it's just that, without those, his resume is a let down

 

true but his style of fighting wasn't designed to last into his 30s, never mind beyond

 

Foreman's resume is better, but prime Tyson (1988) is much better than prime Foreman (1973). Watch Tyson vs Spinks, and then watch Foreman vs Norton. It's obvious that Tyson was much faster and would have hit Foreman at will without taking a punch.

 

In my opinion, foreman was a much more complete fighter in his comeback.

 

it's about as significant as foreman beating ali when both are in their mid forties. when they are at their best - that's what counts.