Iron Mike Tyson...top ten wins! Name 'em

If we rate by performance :
Spinks
Berbick
Holmes
Biggs
Tucker
Ruddock 1
Ribalta
Bruno 2
Williams
Stewart

If it's by the quality of opposition (at the time he fought them) :
Spinks
Tucker
Berbick
Ruddock
Holmes
Smith
Biggs
Bruno 1
Williams
Tubbs

 

I choose the performance ranking.

 

1. Michael Spinks
2. Larry Holmes
3. Trevor Berbick
4. Tony Tucker
5. Pinklon Thomas
6. Razor Ruddock 1
7. Bonecrusher Smith
8. Frank Bruno 1
9. Carl Williams
10. Tyrell Biggs

@catchwtboxing here's my list I'll explain some of my choices.

Spinks number 1 for me that's Tyson at the peak of his powers destroying lineal champion in 80 seconds.

I have Holmes at number 2 because he's an ATG Heavyweight yes he was past his prime but taking into account Holmes was never stopped in his whole career including years after the Tyson fight I still rate it high.

Berbick for number 3 Tysons real arrival on the world stage and becoming youngest Heavyweight champion also Berbick was coming off beating Thomas who was undefeated in 7 years.

I do think Tucker is a tad overrated but he was 34-0 and a 6'5 skilled durable Heavyweight its a good win over a prime opponent.

I didn't include Tubbs because he was a beached whale.

I didn't want to include rematches as then I would have to leave off Tyrell Biggs and I think he definitely deserves a mention.

 

Keep up these top 10 threads mate I enjoy doing these every week it's like a tradition now.

 

Spinks
Berbick
Bruno 2
Tucker
Smith
Seldon
Frazier
Ruddock 1
Biggs
Williams

A list over best performances would probably have looked a bit different, but talking wins I think a large part is the effect they had at the time. And beating Spinks like that for lineal in the biggest HW fight since The Rumble certainly had an effect.

The Berbick fight made him the youngest holder of a HW belt, and destroying a capable alphabet champ like that proved he was the real thing.

Bruno 2 was a really big thing at the time. He won his first title after losing to Douglas six years earlier and the way he did it made it look at the time like he truly was back and would go on to dominate again.

The Frazier destruction is what got him into the tournament I think and really cast him as the new sensation. Maybe that should have been over Seldon actually, but Seldon was for a title and while seen as a farce it also reinforced Tyson's aura. There's a lot of revisionism going on for Tyson, but then and there his stature were almost back at where it was after Spinks. He looked to have scared a title holder into a stoppage. It really was something.

 

Tubbs was 244 when he lost a MD to Witherspoon, 238 for Tyson, and 238 when he beat Seldon. Not exactly the same quality of opponents.

 

Tubbs's 2 best performances over Bonecrusher, Page, he weighed 228 and 229 respectively which is a considerable difference to 244. And you can even look at the fights and regarding the eye test Tubbs looked in way better shape for those fights.

Even when he had a good performance vs Bowe he also weighed 10 pounds less than he did vs Tyson at 234.

Whilst I'm not saying Tubbs could beat any version of Tyson he was in terrible shape for the fight hence I rate other wins higher than that one.

 

I didn't think he looked bad against Witherspoon. I didn't think looked bad against Tyson either, honestly.

 

Physically he looked terrible vs Tyson but up until the stoppage he was arguably winning the fight I did give him the 1st round atleast from memory.

I guess its down to your personal preference Tubbs is a better name than someone like Biggs but I dunno for me I prefer the Biggs win but that's just my personal preference.