Wlad was so bad he put Fury in a 3 year depression which almost cost him his life. Fury sacrificed his mind and soul to save the HW division.
I actually think the decade is the third best decade in heavyweight boxing ever. Of course, it is somewhat subjective, and since it is only half over it can seriously take a nosedive, but I intend to make a thread on this at some point.
Well, I guess I took the liberty of ending his "prime" at some point between July 1989, when he beat Carl "The Truth" Williams, and February 1990, when he got kayoed by Douglas. Tyson hooked up with the deceitful, duplicitous and over-indulging King at the end of 1988, after which King fired Kevin Rooney.... and in that 6 months between Williams and Douglas, Tyson caught up on years' worth of partying he'd been largely denied under D'Amato, Jimmy Jacobs, Bill Cayton and Rooney. But from March 1985 to July 1989, he won all but four of his 37 fights by KO/TKO. And at least one of those non-KO opponents -- James "Bonecrusher" Smith -- literally merely survived the entire fight by hugging Tyson the whole time... earning the revised nickname "Boneclutcher." As Rooney himself said after the Douglas upset, "Don King has ruined another fighter." Was he still a very young man when Douglas dropped him? Sure. After all, Tyson was the youngest-ever Heavyweight champ. But a five-year record of 37-0, 33 KOs is a sufficient "prime" in my book....
Holmes = Never lost in his prime until he was 35 years old. Ali = One of the highest peaks ever between 64-67. Lewis = If motivated very hard to beat the best skilled big man ever. Tyson = Again during his peak between 86-88 had one of the highest standard peak performances ever. The 5th choice is hard for me it's between these fighters...... Usyk = Very skillful and a Southpaw with a rock solid chin he would be in my top 10 H2H but not sure about top 5. Holyfield = His peak performance vs Bowe in their 2nd fight I think very few Heavyweights would beat him. Vitali = Barely lost any rounds and was dominant in most of his fights but lost his 2 biggest fights and doesn't have a stand out win. Wladimir = Very dominant reign but got blasted out twice early and has a below average chin so hard for me to rank him despite a dominant long Heavyweight reign.
1)Muhammad Ali ( 1964 to 1967) 2) Lennox Lewis (1997 to 2002) 3)Larry Holmes ( 1978 to 1984 ) 4)Sonny Liston (1959 to 1962 ) 5)Riddick Bowe ( when he fought Holyfield in 1992 and Gonzalez in 1995 )
Never saw Bowe as being that great, just a quick brawler with a high work rate and decent power, he was too easy to hit.
Hmm.....yep,perhaps Riddick's defence wasn't top-notch but he showed in those 2 fights just how great he could have been.
