How can people think Tyson is overrated?

The real answer in this thread. Rich you always keep it a buck.

 

The Tyson haters seem to be the more outlandish, in my opinion. They're the ones making excuses against him: why couldn't he KO Bonecrusher? He lost to everyone who was good! He was a mental midget who quit in fights! If he doesn't KO someone before the 6th round he's toast!"

These same people would berate Tyson if he never went the distance.

I get it, Tyson was a dick to people and put on some disgusting displays of humanity. He was held under a microscope and did some terrible things but put yourself in his shoes for a minute.

But look at what he did accomplish. Even after prison where he made more money than he did in his prime 80's heyday. For someone to be the name of boxing for years, even riding the coattails of his name years after his prime vanished, something must've clicked with the "experts" and "casuals".

The man brought the entire sport of boxing back into the public eye where Pay Per View events took off because of his name. He's not the greatest heavyweight in the world. However, I think he was the best when matched against anyone else in the history of boxing. I can't make anyone a favorite over him on paper in a Head-2-Head scenario.

A Top 10 heavyweight lock.

 

Over rated nah - Over EATER yes. Eating EARS

 

Holmes was not better in the Mercer fight. Taking place 4 years after the Tyson fight, Holmes was fatter, slower and older. Was Jesse Ferguson better in his bouts with Mercer than he was for Tyson?

Sorry Rules, I just had to add that. Holmes is my 2nd favorite heavyweight after Tyson. A battle in their primes would've been unbelievable. They had ill feelings for each other. A genuine grudge match this would've been.

Was Mercer better than anyone Tyson faced post prison? Possibly. Frank Bruno was considered a solid guy after finally getting a belt. I think Mercer got exposed a bit. The 80's retreads started picking on him. First Holmes, then Ferguson and then Witherspoon who deserved the nod. Mercer's best fights were defeats at the hands of Holyfield and Lewis.

Would've liked to see Mercer up against Ruddock, Moorer, Foreman, Bowe or even a rematch with Morrison.

 

Longevity is a big part of dominance and Tyson only dominated the division from around November 1986 to June 1988. That's a pretty short amount of time to be number one and make a top 10 list.

 

As much as I love Larry, yes that's true. Unfortunately, I think that goes for Larry's prime as well, though it would have happened later imo.

 

I agree with all of this, and yes I would have liked to see Ray fight those guys, too.

Absolutely, my friend.

 

But look how many defenses he made. 9 successful title defenses in that short amount of time. Only Louis, Ali, Holmes and I believe Frazier had more title defenses.

Tyson fought anyone that mattered. Every #1 contender and the guys they beat to make sure every stone wasn't left unturned. And don't forget prison took a big chunk of his prime.

And Tyson was champion from 1986 to the beginning of 1990. He was still on top and considered the best heavyweight until prison in 1991.

 

A lot of people have Liston in their top ten who only won two title fights and against the same opponent. Dempsey sat on the title for 3 years with no defense. Larry Holmes never unified and was stripped of the one title he had. There’s more to greatness than just time spent on a clock

 

Tyson was from the same era as Lewis and Holyfield and is 0-3 against them. If he wanted to go down as one of the greats he would need to beat his most formidable contemporaries to start with rather than losing in decisive fashion.

Holmes not unifying is no more damaging than Tyson failing to face
Witherspoon
Dokes
Bowe
Mercer
Moorer
etc etc etc

 

This is a straw man’s argument. Tyson didn’t fight Lewis or Holyfield until after he had lost 4 years of his career to a jail sentence and by the time he fought Lewis in particular he was shot. As for the list of guys you mentioned they are irrelevant because they’re respective positions of contention didn’t line up to when Tyson was champ. You’re telling me that Tyson not facing Bowe or Moorer while he was In prison is worse than Holmes dropping the WBC to face Greg Page ?

 

He was still in his prime or very close to it in his fights with Holyfield who has older and had taken far more punishment. Those fights count against him legacy wise. As far as Lewis he could have fought him earlier if he wanted but opted not to. Part of being great is cleaning out your era and Lewis and Tysons primes overlapped so not fighting and beating him has to count against Tyson legacy wise

 

his overall career is overrated, him as a fighter i'd say is somewhat inbetween.

 

Nope.. nothing of substance here. He wasn’t prime in 1996 or anytime after. And the guys I initially mentioned didn’t really clean out their eras either. Especially not Holmes.

 

You don't like Mike Tyson, so he must be overrated, eh?