In 1989, did fans say that Mike Tyson could reach Joe Louis' 25 title defenses?

Close your eyes.

Imagine it is 1988.

Put on a video of Tyson obliterating Michael Spinks.

What would be your assessment of the guy? Bear in mind the guy was 22 years old and just beat the #1 contender in 91 seconds by way of fear.

I'd say the guy would reign for a long long time.

 

Who else was even on the radar as seeming like they could hang with him? I suppose Holyfield had already moved up by 89, but...

Certainly nobody was thinking Buster Douglas. :yep

 

Funny thing was, after watching Douglas drop a then undefeated Mike Williams three times with jabs I thought he might have the ability to give Tyson a bit of a struggle if they fought. I wasn't crazy enough to call the upset, though because Douglas had a bad tendency to fade late in fights, and I never counted on there being an exception to the rule.

Anyway, despite the fact that Tyson had a bit of a hard time with Bruno that year, the only person who seemed remotely capable of hanging with Iron Mike was Razor Ruddock, and that was only because of his virtual decapitation of Micheal Dokes. And even then, he was a huge underdog. Every heavyweight was, at that point. :deal

 

definitely, i couldn't even envisage tyson losing a fight back then, the concensus was that he was head and shoulders above the division. there were debates even when tyson that young about whether he would surpass ali as the greatest heavyweight of all time and many people back then believed he would be.

 

It was a commonly held beleif that he would remain champion for a long time.