A thread for Tyson fans only.

:think Interesting.

I didn't see the thread about avenging a loss. If that is true, and he is Liston_Tyson, it confirms that Liston_Tyson is a total douche. The early parts of my suggesting so come in the RZA thread.

 

...And miraculously he pulls out of the thread as these statements are brought to daylight.

 

I loved Tyson - I did - And he was amazing.

But when you talk about all time rankings - A lot of you have talked about the attributes he had - Speed, power etc, how do you guys rate him at getting off the canvass for a victory? His heart?

This is like saying Lewis is the 3rd greatest HW in history.

Neither Mike of Lennox are top 5 simply because they don't have the heart of a Joe Louis - If Joe got dropped - Galento etc - He got up and whupped them into submission.

Lennox was poleaxed by McCall and Rahman and Tyson by Douglass - You put a guy like Ali or Holmes in with those guys and they're not even in the fight. I mean - Ali and Holmes took flush shots from Earnie Shavers and still battled through.

A lot of you guys are picking on Burt Sugars list - But a lot of you are doing what Sugar didn't - Which was to put them in a fantasy match up and decide who wins - You just can't do that.

How the hell do we know how Jack Johnson would have fought today - A lot of modern boxing snobs say that period of fighters were slow and held and hit a lot etc - But at the same time - How many 40 round fights did Tyson have on his resume'? Those guys had to keep reserves of energy for the deep, deep DEEP water.

Can you imagine Joe Frazier fighting his style for 30 rounds? A human heart would explode if it tried to keep that sort of pressure on!!!!

I think Mike is probably 5-10 - I haven't thought about my list for a while, I might rank him as high as 8, but his prime was VERY short, wonderful - But very short.

I love the guy, I do, I am a fan - But I'm not deluded either.

You COULD say he could beat any of the fighters of their day in their prime to prime head - But it depends on your criteria for judging greatness.

Achievements usually are what most rely on.

Teddy, after Mike tried to molest his sister or whatever - Could hardly be blamed for not exactly being a fan - But seriously - Who on this board knows Tyson like Teddy did?

Opinions are like assholes, and a lot of them on this board have a bad case of dysentry...

 

perfect. tysonian should be the official ESB lexicon for tyson fanatics. so far we've got:

klit-ites
joyboys
pacnatics
roytards
oscarsexuals
tysonians

 

Since when do we only look at a fighters prime to determine how good he was though? I think it may be fair to ignore when they where WAY over the hill, but to only judge him on fights from the mid 80s, is ridiculous. Include everything up to say, Lennox, and then rate him. He was a good heavyweight, but you can't call him a top 10 all time great when you include his terrible performances in the 80s.

And how do you define someones prime? In this case you're just saying his prime was when he was still winning, thats BS!

 

Tyson would knock Joe Louis out. I don't care for romanticizers of the past. Please look objectively at how these two match up. Joe Louis could be dropped, and Mike Tyson would drop him and knock him out. This fight does not go the distance, be it twelve or fifteen rounds.

 

IMO Tyson on his day is the no1 heavy of all time no doubt. I think in most cases you either love him or hate him . Ali is the only one comes close.

 

agreed, i dont care for romantacizers of the past as well. i have nothing but respect for the acievements of past greats, but boxing has evolved since the days of SRR, pep, louis, johnson, cerdan etc.... boxing seems to be the only sport that does'nt evolve from the point of view of the romaticizers. louis KO wlad? pep UD barrera? greb KO hearns? fairy tales. if schmeling, galento et al. put louis on his ass, tyson would cave his face in.

 

the joe c mafia. :yep

 

That's right. I see Tyson really battering Joe Louis. I've seen the tapes on Louis and respect what he did and how he did it, but this fight just does not go in his favour.

 

Couldn't have said it better. At his absolute best he was terrifying but it was over so quickly

 

Bert Sugar's list was not based primarily Head to Head, which is what some of us have been discussing. If you missed that point, that's on you.

 

Tyson probably reached about 80% of his potential. There is no doubt he could have gone down as the best heavyweight ever, with guys like Lewis, Bowe, and Holyfield all available contenders during his prime that he really never got to fight at his best. His prime was certainly cut short with the break away from his original team and prison. Say what you want, but Rooney was as important to Tyson as Emanuel Steward was to Lennox Lewis.

 

Very well said.

 

Well said :good