19 year old Tyson...Under Cus he was unreal (video included)

Not sure why the Tillis fight (which was not nearly as close as it is frequently made out to be) is often brought up to downgrade Tyson. You're not going to look awesome each time you're in the ring. There's going to be some unspectacular performances, especially when you're a relatively inexperienced 19 year old against a guy fighting in such a conservative manner.

The best version of Tyson was in 1988. Cus died very early in Tyson's pro career, in 1985.

 

Never beat anyone worth a ish. Most overrated fighter of all time. Too small.

 

I see that vid, and I can only imagine how he would have been different had Cus lived... but yes, way too many people overrate him. It's natural, being a KO artist tends to do that to many casual fans.

 

Too small yet was beating up men that were 6'6 and 250lbs.

So over-rated that he won the belt 5 times, was undisputed heavyweight champion, and TWICE heavyweight champion of the world.

He could only face who was in front of him. These mythical matchups are just that; speculation.

Now, unless you have invented a time machine and can transport a prime Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Joe Frazier into the late 1980's, it's unfair to say that Tyson was over-rated.

He did what he had to do, cleaned out the division. By the way, the 1980's HW division was stronger than the division we have today by the way.

 

Tyson can be excused from not knocking out Tillis and Green when you consider how often he was fighting. He fought 15 times in his first year as a pro and he'd already had 4 fights in 1986 before he fought Tillis & Green in May.

 

Late 80's was way worse than it is today. Cleaned out the division? Didn't he get KTFO by a bum named Douglas? We won't even get into when he actually fought real fighters, IE Holyfield and Lewis. The "prime" BS will come up, even though he was very young when he fought those two.