Have Holyfield and Lewis been greater than Tyson?

DAMN!

 

Evander Holyfield
CW accomplishments: Qawi x2, Carlos De Leon
HW accomplishments: Bowe, Tyson, Holmes, Moorer, Mercer, Foreman, Dokes, Thomas, Ruiz

Lewis
HW accomplishments: Holyfield, Tyson, Klitschko, Tua, Ruddock, Golata, McCall, Morrison

Tyson
HW accomplishments: Holmes, Berbick, Smith, Thomas, Spinks, Ruddock x2, Golota

There's a gulf in accomplishments between Tyson and the other two. Tyson might have been as good as them, might have been the better speaker and had the most exciting fighting style, but he failed to capitalize on it to the extent that they did. His resume looks cherry picked compared to theirs. Tyson had the opportunity to fight anyone he wanted but he didn't fight the best.

He didn't fight Holyfield, or Witherspoon in '88
He didn't fight Holyfield, Dokes, or Witherspoon in '89.
He didn't fight Holyfield or Ruddock in 90.
He didn't fight Holyfield, Bowe, Mercer, Foreman, or Witherspoon in 91. Fair play, he did fight Ruddock.
92-95 he was in jail.
96 He finally fights Holyfield.
97 he skips Lewis, Mercer, Moorer, Witherspoon, Foreman
98 instead of fighting Lewis or Moorer he fights nobody.
99 has the chance to fight Lewis, Ibeabuchi, Tua, and Klitschko but doesn't fight any of them.
00 Doesn't fight Lewis, Tua, or Klitschko again.
01 Doesn't fight Lewis or Klitschko
And then he finally fights Lewis and is done.

Look at all the names he could have added to his resume but instead he fought nobodies. He could have possibly added Witherspoon, Dokes, Bowe, Mercer, Foreman, Moorer, Ibeabuch, Tua, Klitschko, and possibly Lewis to his list of victories if he'd been more ambitious. That list of names he missed is longer than the ones he actually got.