How many fighters 218lbs or under could have beaten a prime M.Tyson?

Please, please tell me you're referring to the Holy of the third fight with Bowe.

 

Something I love with this forum is how size accounts for nothing when it comes to HWs - except of course for the added pounds Ali had for FOTC and Holy had for Tyson. Then all of a sudden a little bit of extra mass is way more important than declined speed, stamina and reflexes.

 

Yep, some of these folks are downright delusional or they simply never competed and don't know what they are talking about. Size is not everything but it does matter when you start comparing 180 pound heavyweights to 240 pound athletic heavyweights.

 

And at the same time a 200+ HW adding some mass with age, even if it's muscle, won't make up for declined speed, stamina and reflexes. Funny enough, everyone is agreement that a career heavy Liston in '64 wasn't the best version of him any more than the heavier Tyson in his 30's was the best version of him - but for two fighters relying a lot more on their speed and workrate than power, the benefit of added mass brought on by age for some reason outweighed everything else.

I wonder how this equation adds up... Wonder, wonder.

 

60s Ali.
Possibly late 70s Holmes but I think Mike would find him with the right hand and stop him eventually.

 

So you think those 10 lbs would make all the difference? So much that Tyson would destroy a faster and fresher Holy instead of getting his ass handed to him?

Did 10 or so extra lbs do any such miracles for Tyson in the late 90's?

You will, of course say "no, his loss of speed, timing and stamina was much more crucial". And yes you're right about that. But that's a fact that goes for other fighters too, for example Holy. In reality physics does't make any 180 degree turns in order to make excuses for your guy.

The long of the short of it is that Holy was plenty strong and durable at 205 lbs. The extra 10 lbs didn't transform him more than 10 lbs extra transformed Tyson. All in all he was declined in 1996. It was a fact for anybody who followed boxing back then and it is a fact still.

He just had Tyson's number. Stop twisting yourself into knots and just admit that. It's frankly a bit unsound to think that to believe he'd ever "destroy" a prime Holy.

 

Yeah because Holyfield got destroyed all the time didn’t he Mark?

Seriously get your hand off it with the Tyson fantasies. An old and shop worn Holyfield beat Tysons arse so the prime version likely does it even more emphatically.

 

And this means precisely nothing because an older, Holyfield still beat the bejesus out of a younger fresher Tyson.

Your arguments are totally based on fallacy and supposition. You parrot the unbeatable Rooney trained Tyson chestnut as a coping mechanism to explain away any blemish on Tysons career even though a few cracks were on display even when Rooney was there against fighters a damn sight less formidable than Evander Holyfield.

Oh and the “heavier” Holyfield didn’t destroy Alex Stewart at all. He won a UD in a fight Stewart was competitive in. I don’t know where you got that from. The lighter Holyfield stopped Stewart and based on the evidence of their actual fight probably stops Tyson too.

 

Ali and Louis seems to be safe choices.

 

Tyson would have never had the dimensions he did without peds just like every heavyweight who competed in the 80s and after. Weight is relative to the era

 

Louis would be the only one I can think of. Perhaps Liston. Prime Ali was 210-212 pounds. Prime Holmes was 209-215 lbs. They all PROBABLY could get it done.