First of all, it was Tyson who fired Rooney, not King. And Mike was partying even before he won his first belt. He fought Trevor Berbick while having gonorrhoea he caught from the prostitute during the drug and liquor infested party. Looking at 6 months between Williams and Douglas fight is also kind of strange. What about 8 months between Spinks and Bruno, when he "retired", got locked up a few times for molesting women and drunk driving? I swear to God, these excuses are getting worse and worse.
Ok fair point about Gonzalez but that version of Holyfield,even at 205 lbs,would have given just about any heavyweight in history sheer hell.It was a great victory by Bowe.
And yet over a 5-year stretch Tyson still mowed down nearly all his opponents (with the balance literally merely surviving the distance... with a couple of them even praising God after the final bell for allowing them to !) 37 awesome, nearly flawless, performances over 5 years... not to mention of course a man who made history as the youngest HW champ ever, with an ironclad hold across all belts. How is it that such a fighter gets excluded from a list of top HWs "in their prime"....?? Look, I get the Tyson hatred (call it "TDS": Tyson Derangement Syndrome ), and I'm certainly no apologist for his often horrible behavior ... but whatever happened to giving the Devil his Due....?
I'll grant that I oversimplified on the narrative. And that Tyson was a pretty scary guy outside the ring as well as inside well before he met King. But I still assert King was his ultimate undoing as a fighter. Tyson fired Rooney because he wanted a more indulgent trainer.... and King allowed him to; Cayton would not have. Now back to the main point: It sounds like you acknowledge Tyson should be on this list.... ?
Are you suggesting Tyson ducked anybody? Seems to me he fought all comers. By contrast, looking at other highly productive, multiyear HW champs.... Holmes (much as I admire him) famously ducked Greg Page for years.... and of course Louis and Marciano were notorious for their respective Bum-of-the-Month Clubs.
How did Marciano have the bum-of-the-month club when he only has 6 title defences and fought only the top heavyweights of his time at this point? And who did Louis NOT fight that he should during his reign?
What Im saying, is that you are glazing Tysons undefeated run and how spectacular he looked, and maybe wondering why more people are ranking him, and I think most people take his opposition into account during that run as a big reason why he looked 'unstoppable'.
No, Bowe beat Holy because he was far bigger and longer, if Bowe took the same amount of shots from a powerful heavyweight that he took from Holy in that fight he would have been stopped, the fight descended into a wild brawl at times which was a negative about Bowe`s style.
