Is Mike Tyson a Top Ten heavyweight alltime?

Judging by his entire career, no.

Judging based on each fighter's prime, absolutely. Top 5 maybe.

 

Absolutely. Undefeated, undisputed, unified by the age of 22.
Power, speed, chin unstoppable. Tyson in his prime demolishes
Lewis, Vitali, even Holy. As for Wlad please dont make me laugh.
If not a 2nd round knockout for Tyson Wlad hangs on for dear life all night.
People discredit the Holmes win, but look what Holmes went on to achieve.
Even if Holmes came in the best shape of his life he would have lost.
Ali, Louis, Foreman, Liston, Bowe, Douglass you can argue they had
the goods, but all great fighters lose thats what makes them great.
Anyway I feel Tyson is underrated these days. Espn analysis at his
HOF induction was damn near disgraceful. I believe top 10 all inclusive
Legacy, resume etc. H2H top 2 or 3. A lot of oldtimers wouldn't have him
on top 10, the lowest would be 15 to 20.

 

I think so.. If Holmes is in there, Tyson should be.

 

Tyson was a cheater shielded by Don King's bribed referees.
It is what happens when 1 is allowed 2 cheat while his opponents are not.
The high platform shoes were not meant to enhance his staying up ability as much as they enhanced his effective reach.
Also good job in hurting opponents' forearms in clinches.
But both were nothing compared to his use of the elbows.

And does anyone suspect that Tyson never received exogenous anabolic treatment?

 

Tyson was old school. I don't ever hear Saddler get **** and he was a dirty
fighter. Lewis has nothing for Tyson, Vitali is too weak and slow, Wlad having
The best jab and right hand is a rather extreme but arguable assertion.
Someone with Tysons chin and slipping ability eats Wlad for breakfast. Who has Wlad beat that
didn't suck, was flat footed, had no gameplan or was shot. Im a Wlad fan and I rate his jab
and right hand top 5. Bottom line both men cleaned out their division. And even though Tyson
was shot and didn't givd a **** he did tear tendons in the Mcbride loss, which you
should not be mentioning. Who could take that beating from Lewis? Not many.
Even 96 Tyson checks a lot of chins and cleans out todays "talent".

 

He beat a lot of decent underrated fighters and some very good ones,Tucker for example. For me yes he is definatley a top 10 great. I have not seen enough footage of some of the older guys like Dempsey,Tunney and even Joe Louis to start commenting on how Tyson compares. Of great fighters I have watched Ali,Frazier,Liston etc Tyson is in that sort of league as for me is Holyfield.

 

if he doesnt just scrape in then hes knocking at the door.

Tyson is one of the most polarising figures in heavyweight boxing for me. He gets either overated or underated by many

 

Always got pitched against the late 60s/70s guys. Back then that era was still fresh in so many memories. Tyson could not have done anymore than he did,he dealt with the generation of fighters that followed the golden era and did it in brutal fashion for the most part. Gets little credit for taking out some very good fighters Berbick,Thomas,Tubbs although not great fighters would have held their own in any era other than the so called golden one.

 

YES!!! Emphatically. And he's a lock.

 

Exactly this.
But Tyson should not have had points deducted, he should have been immediately disqualified for what he did with his elbows after 1 warning per fight at most. I think Cus D'Amato learned his lesson from Patterson and trained Tyson exclusively on the missed hooks technique with the rest just used for decoration.
I do not know why loading gloves is looked upon as such a criminal act, but fully intentional use of elbows is gaining points of admiration for its employers.

 

The elbow was used,nobody can deny that but it isn`t what won fights in my opinion. Watch fights from any era and you get blatant fouling across the weight divisions. It aint good but I find people are selective in who they label as dirty.Tyson always gets the label and although he brings a lot of the negative stuff on himself there have been dirtier fighters than Tyson.

 

It is what brought him most of his wins.
Do you imagine him KOing Pinklon Thomas with that right hand without repeatedly breaking him down with so many elbows first?
You think he could have managed the same with left hooks? if so, what is your explanation to why he did not?
Because he, I and whomever taught him knew better than you.
You think he could have obliterated Berbick the same way he did without getting hit in return?
Would he have stood in front of Frank Bruno with real hooks?
Real hooks would have had less of an effect.
I think 1 of the reasons to why Michael Spinks folded the way he did was due to himself knowing that the referee that night was only going to protect 1 man's health and that man was not him, so why not take the cash and go home while health still relatively in tact?
I bet more of Tyson's opponents did it for the same reason.


Without them elbows Tyson might have also had hand problems and taken more punches than he did due to his opponents doing better than they did.
Probably had even more losses and stoppage losses as well.

Elbows were the main ingredient of Tyson.
At least as bad as Luis Resto's loaded gloves.

 

Have to agree with you. Tyson wasn't great for long, but he was fantastic from 86-88. The Tyson who beat Berbick was frightening, and it's easy to look back now and say "I told you he'd get beat!", but I still haven't seen a better 20 year old heavyweight. He lost focus and his mental frailties came to the fore later on, but at his very best he gives anyone a tough fight.

As you say, and as Seamus mentioned, some of his opposition was iffy, but you can tear holes in anyone's record. I think Tyson's lack of mental strength would count against him against the super greats, but his power and speed would give him a puncher's chance against them.

Like you, I wasn't a Tyson fan, but I think for a short time he was very special.

 

Yeh he was a dirty fighter...watch his fight v Tyrell Biggs...i counted 17 butts or elbows.or hitting on the break...the ref didnt see one of them but managed to warn Ty for holding