Best five wins thread. Lineal / Ring Magazine heavyweight champions.

I am suprised by just how poor Tyson's list is to some other ATGs. Lots of depth, lots of dominance, but no real top end wins (By atg status). Not sure if my consideration of the circumstances will change this for me, by the end of this post.

1. Spinks - Pressure was on this was his crunch moment and he won it in 90 seconds. Right up there with any performance of any heavy in history, when i think about it.
2. Holmes - Was considered past it at the time, but holmes had been dominant champ, performed well in his last fights against spinks, would be a top contender for many years. He started okay, but was simply demolished. This was a very, very good win.
3. Berbick - He was a champion with as good a claim as any (at the time), was experienced, had beaten very good fighters. He wasnt unbeatable but he was proven first class. Tyson smashed him in a round. It was a huge win and we are supposed to be considering the manner of the win here. This was considered a real (if not splintered) championship fight and tyson came through with flying colours.
4. Smith - Bonecrusher was a massive fight. He just KOd witherspoon in a round, hype was massive, no one thought it would last longer than a round. Tyson completely dominated him, and made him hug for dear life. It was a domination on points which showed Tyson could go the distance. He couldnt really have done much more in this fight and it was considered a massive fight.
5. Bruno 2 - there was a number of fights, Tucker, ruddock etc which could have gone here. I have used the 2nd Bruno fight, not because he was the best of these fighters, but because he was a good fighter, and Tyson was past prime by this time. Despite this, he didnt just win the fight well, he did so in a manner that was so impressive that no one had an inkling of just how vulnerable he was going to be in his next fight with Evander Holyfield. It was a very good performance by Tyson, considering his condition (in relation to his prime).

All in all, after looking at those wins, i think his ATG ranking does make a comeback in my eyes, though it is based on the impressiveness of his performances more so than the quality of opposition.

 

Tyson wasn't rocked badly vs Bruno.

And it wasn't his toughest fight prior to Douglas.

Tillis, Thomas, Tucker all gave Tyson harder fights than Bruno.

 

Not to mention Bruno lost every round against Tyson. I think the Tucker fight was Tyson's toughest before Douglas.
To me the Tillis fight looks fixed.

 

James Buster Douglas

1. Tyson
2. Trevor Berbick
3. Oliver McCall
4. Tex Cobb
5. Greg Page

Interesting choices for Douglas not as bad as I thought but not great by any stretch

 

Everyone says Spinks was scared. I think that is garbage. Spinks was just outclassed by a better and more focused Tyson who kod him early. If you watch spinks, even after Tyson caught him and Knocked him down with his Bob Fitzsimmons style Left hand shift, the first time, Spinks still went for the big right hand, and was beaten to the punch again.

Spinks wasnt scared, he just knew that he needed to earn Tysons respect and until he did that he wasnt winning or settling into the fight.. Tyson was just too good on the night. No shame in that either Larry Holmes had an all time great chin and was dropped the first time he was caught clean. Berbick, Williams and others all had very good chins and were demolished.

If spinks really was scared stiff, hed have held on for dear life and fought like say Bonecrusher smith or tony tucker. He was demolished but he did his best. If Tyson wasnt at his best, Spinks would have found a way to make it a great fight. I think he beats the mythical Tokyo Tyson and i would certainly back him against Tokyo Douglas and several of Tyson's other opponents. Spinks Holyfield would have been a great, great fight.

 

James Buster Douglas

1. Tyson
2. Page
3. Berbick
4. McCall
5. Williams

 

tyson
mccall
berbick
page
cobb

 

I had assumed that everybody would have McCall as the #2 on their Douglas lists.

He was very much a going concern when Douglas beat him, while Page and Berbick were very definitely on the slide.

 

The reason why I put Page at #2. Two fights prior he brutally KO'd Gerrie Coetzee and won the WBA belt. He may have been on the slide, but not so far from his prime.

Also you can watch the fight, and Page looks pretty good there.

Berbick and McCall were both nice wins too.

Cobb is another good win, and Mike Williams as well.

Pretty good resume overall.

 

Tyson
1-Tucker
2-Holmes
3-Spinks
4-Bruno
5-Thomas

Douglas
1-Tyson
2-McCall
3-Berbick
4-Cobb
5- Mike "King" Lear