What would he have achieved say if his punch wasnt the dynamite that we all know it was...say his punch was equal to say Holyfield. He was skilled in his peak few years of dominance but his style as a go forward swinging bombs relied heavily on that power. His power had opponents afraid to engage with him...they mostly boxed off the back foot and becasuse Tyson punched with lots of combos one of his bombs would eventually land and finish the job...or at least set the beginning of the end as their legs buckled and he'd open up throwing hell for leather. Tyson was very fast to the punch and in his reflexes defensively in his youth. He did have good boxing skills...head movement, jab, bobbing n weaving, solid chin etc etc. But without that dynamite power how do you think he'd have fared?
i personally think tyson had great power too, but it needed about 15 flush shots to get pinklon thomas down. i don't think lewis or tua would have needed that much.
Too hard to say, say if Ali had no chin, Holyfield lacked heart an stamina, Lewis lacked defense can go on and on. Fact is that he did have great power that was part of his make up.
Yeah I know...but you have missed the point of this thread as its a "what if?" type of thread. Still nevermind.
I think he would've been a "good" HW. He would've had to change his style up for sure. He would've probably had to be sort of a PBF version at HW using his superior hand speed and reflexes against bigger and taller guys and try to outbox them.
A lot of that was because he had the big punch and opponents had to box accordingly. Now if he didn't have that threat.....
Fighters would have been less intimidated but that would also mean they would trade with him more. Tyson was good defensively as well as offensively and probably would have not fallen in love this his power and kept the technique that was missing later on in his career. He probably wouldn't have received the same amount of hype and would have been progressed at a slower rate than he was. He would have still definately been a champion but he would have been a very different boxer, probably would have been more of a swarmer, trading his power for volume and speed.
Mike with Average power tho can still combine his punches like no other. Thrown in combination with speed his punches would almost always result in K.O.'s of some sort's, maybe not the 1 Punch style, but a Evander quality to them. I'd Prob would have talked Mike down into fighting at Cruserweight first...
Thomas had a great chin, though. Holyfield beat Thomas from pillar to post for 6 rounds, landing flush combinations, but only wobbled him once untill they threw in the towel. On the thread, Tyson would still have been an excellent fighter in the 80's, but the way he relied on pure power in the 90's he would've lost quite a few. Remember that if he had less power, he would've been less feared and this could've made it easier to neutralise his come-forward style. However, guys that have lesser power usually do have a high workrate, so that would make him hard to beat. Tyson's workrate was good but nothing exceptional because nearly every punch was designed to lay you out.
