How weak was Tyson's opposition, really?

Tony Tucker is an underrated win.

 

Tyson's opposition was stronger than the Klits opposition.

 

Pinklon was pretty good considering those shorts. Terrible Tim certainly wasnt terrible. Both fair contenders, they werent bum of the month.

botch sorry he didnt fight Tim, it was Bonecrusher. He really shoudda fought Tim, but not his fault.

 

He never defeated a prime heavyweight great but taking Spinks out in the fashion he did remains highly underrated. Stopping an older Holmes in the way he did, which was never duplicated, remains underrated. Taking Tucker's 0 and title-underrated. No prime HW greats, but some still very good fighters. Thomas was a damn good scalp, though not an elite one either. The Berbick destruction at the age Tyson was, it was fantastic. Rahman didn't stop him in ten, ten years after that. That was a very good win. Tubbs was out of shape, but still a fine fighter, fine win. Bruno was a good win. The manner in which he defeated these guys caused what some people call "hype" but it was perfectly understandable notoriety, that was earned and deserved, even though his legacy hasn't seemed as strong as you'd think it would have, having lived through that time. I regard him as a top ten HW, though. :conf

 

The Larry Holmes win is greatly underrated. Yeah, he was old but four years later, he beat Mercer and pushed Holyfield so it's not like he was finished.

Tyson was the only person to ever do that to Holmes, despite fighting on well beyond his peak. A great win.

The manner of his destruction over Spinks works against him. If Tyson had lost three or four rounds but got the stoppage in the 10th, it would be seen as a much better win. The fact is was a massacre is why some forget about it.

 

I think he beat a lot of solid world level guys (Smith, Holmes, Ruddock, Spinks, Tucker, Thomas, Berbick) but just didn't have any ATG's to fight. You can say Spinks is an ATG but thats more for his work at LHW than HW.

Had he been around when he was incarcerated he could have fought Lewis, Bowe, Holyfield earlier. There was also guys like Briggs, Foreman, Mercer, Morrison who were around as well, again not ATGs but solid competition.

In reality his timing was terrible in accordance to opponents but he beat most of the guys out there in his division first time round.

 

I was thinking, one of the reasons he never fought an ATG or HOF genuine HW was perhaps that he stopped everyone attaining greatness. BUt then I am struggling to think of someone who would have dominated if he hadnt been around. Certainly talent was there but often the credentials of being a long term champ often werent. Spinks didnt have the mentality to be a long term champ at HW, I think just folded for the money, and superfast HW Tucker fell into drugs and flubber.

 

This.

If that had happened, it wouldve gone as many predicted before the fight in terms of competitiveness. Instead, revisionist history.

 

Tucker and pinkleton...maybe bruno because of his sheer size and strength advantage, the rest were club fighter bums

 

The Spinks win is over rated - That semi retired version of Spinks would have been KO'd in one by many heavyweights.
The Holmes win is over rated - Holmes was very ring rusty and jumped in at the deep end for the cash - when he came back properly with warm ups he proved to be a much more formidable opponent - posing more problems to a peak Holyfield than Tyson did.
I think if Tyson had fought and beaten Witherspoon, that would be his best win

 

Tyson was a phenomenal can crusher who always lost against prime world class opposition.

There is no arguing that.

 

Yup, he laid the foundation for RJJ. An HBO can crusher.

 

Povetkin probably has a better CV than Tyson. With Atlas he first created the Povetkin prototype in Mike Tyson but the finished article is clearly Povetkin. Povetkin has all of the same repertoire that Tyson possessed before him but Povetkin will not be bullied, will not fold like a cheap tent, not to mention Povetkin has a much better chin and needless to say has that winners mentality and never say die attitude that you just can't teach, only a select few are born with this trait.

 

Oh lawdy

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