Did Mike Tyson in his prime only beat bums and over the hill fighters?

no

 

Green was huge, athletic, had a strong amateur pedigree and an iron chin .. he was a mean SOB and had a tough bout with highly established Trevor Berbick under his belt going into the Tyson match .. he was a tough guy and a serious challenge ..

 

The Spinks win was a great destruction but I'm not sold it was that great a win. Spinks had 5 fights at heavyweight two against an aging Holmes and he actually lost the second fight. His win over an alcoholic Cooney and Tangstad are hardly resume builders at heavyweight. It's hard to say what Tyson's best win was but one thing is certain, he lost to the best fighters he faced.

 

I think some would assert his best win was Holmes, forgetting the inordinately long lay off and keeping in mind how bizarrely well he did in his comeback.

 

This myth was started by Teddy Atlas who despised Tyson with reason is simply not only not true but an insult to many that came to fight but lost to an all time great in his prime ..Berbick, Thomas, Smith, Tucker, Briggs, Holmes ( w asterisk) , Tubbs, Spinks, Williams and Bruno were all very good fighters capable of fighting at near great levels when they fought Tyson .. the nonsense that they were all scared to dearth and tanked is crap .. the issue with Tyson is that he was never wrapped too tight to start, became so huge so young and made so much money that he lost his edge at a very young age .. A prime Tyson was the biggest boxing draw of all time .. if he fought during the same days as Floyd with all the HBO show hype he would have been even bigger ..once Tyson lost the edge for the reasons discussed here endlessly, he fell a notch and was not the same fighter .. the post prison version, while still very dangerous, lacked the conditioning and focus which is why Holyfield upset him .. I love Evander but fighting the Tyson that fought Berbick or Briggs would have been a very different fight .. I even think he beats Lewis and I rate Lewis super high up there ..