How would you rate Mike Tyson if these things happened?

His resume would have stood better and answered many questions (as long as history after he went to prison remained the same).
He would have demonstrated that he could avenge a defeat ( Douglas ), he would have beaten his most highly regarded foe ( Holyfield in his prime ), and a few young hungry contenders on their way up ( Bowe or Mercer or Morrison ).
His defeat to Holyfield in 1996 would have been definitely acknowledged as a consequence of his prison stint.
But thinking about it, there would always been people who could have said that he beat a puffed up cruiserweight and a green contender in Bowe.

 

Adding Evander and Bowe to his resume would land him in my HW top 5, potentially top 3

 

I've always felt that Tyson's failure to beat even one of the "Big 3" HoFers that emerged shortly after his initial title run (Holy, Lewis, Bowe) was a gaping whole in his legacy. Beating even 1 of those 3 would've significantly improved his resume IMO.

 

To be fair, Mike was essentially gone mentally by '89. The only times he got close to his 86-88 greatness was Ruddock 2 and Bruno 2 imo.

 

I don't feel like rematching Douglas mattered too much, as it was obvious that that Tyson was obviously out of it for that fight, but adding Holyfield, Bowe, and Mercer to his list of scalps would elevate him a lot. They probably would be the best wins on his record.

 

Top 3 HW of all time most likely.

 

I think that Mercer-Tyson would be a tough fight, but it's all about what Mercer comes out, as Witherspoon outworked Ray quite easily. Golota also was just too much of a stiff to fight evenly against anybody who could blitz him, we may get a straight knockout this time, as Andrew was in a worse mindset in the 90s, but who knows.

 

The idea that he was ‘gone mentally’ at such an early point in his physical prime says all we need to know about where he should stand historically.

He was a shooting star and that meteor came crashing down. Mike should thank Don King every day for paving a path that kept him relevant and earning at a high level while managing risk and avoiding the toughest tests.

 

I think that it's his prison stint that destroyed his boxing mentality. After that, he was mostly there for the money.
When he lost to Douglas, he seemed determined to regain his title and was still caring about his historical standing.

 

Tbh its not dishonest. Holyfield was not nearly as effective at HW he just kept getting title shots. He was 4-3 going into the Tyson fight and his legacy comes from winning those fights. If that doesn't happen things go very different for him and hes not viewed the same. But yeah if Tyson has the Bowe and Moorer wins it really doesn't matter.

Obviously anyone fighting at HW is a HW but if someone made their name at a lower class comes up and isn't as good people will say they are really the smaller weight class even if they win a belt.

 

See, this is the paradox with Tyson defeats to Holyfield and Lewis. If he had beaten them, some people would still have said that he beat a washed-up Holyfield and an old, chinny Lewis who was KOed by a mediocre opponent just before (I specify that I disagree with both opinions).
Sometimes, I think it's just better to lose well and win the rematch than destroying straight away your opponent lol.

 

#3 heavyweight unquestionably