Is Mike Tyson the greatest heavyweight of all time?

Is Mike Tyson the greatest heavyweight of all time? No
Could he have been? Without doubt.

 

hmmm... interesting.

save for that joke i underlined, i agree on your thesis:good

 

Prime for Prime, the guys that would at best have 50/50 is:

Lennox Lewis
Muhammad Ali
George Foreman (Although, personally I would have Tyson as a favorite)
Evander Holyfield (Stylewise, but he would fold technically against a prime Mike)
Larry Holmes

 

1. Nope
2. #8. He's there because of that devestating 1st title run, looking very good in beating some reasonable fighters. A few good'uns too.
3. The ultimate offensive HW machine. Lightning handspeed, great footwork/movement and frightening concussive power. Great combination puncher, only perhaps Louis was better in that regard. Very good defensively too. Just lacked the mental fortitude when the going got tough against top notch opponents.

 

at his best...:good

 

Intrestingly enough I actually make a peak Tyson favourite against Foreman, but take Evander to beat Tyson at any stage.

 

**** no!

 

head 2 head, late 80's version, arguably YES

 

No, the second he booted Rooney he stopped all head movement and never beat an A-level heavyweight, ever. Spinks was not a true heavyweight and Holmes was ancient when he fought him. Huge potential, possibly the greatest potential ever, but never came close to being the greatest HW ever.

 

look at my list of ATG HWs
some points tho:
• louis has glass chin but he can always beat tyson to the punch. he has dealier combos, can throw any punch in the book, carries bombs on both hands. but in the final analysis, tyson is still the safer bet. but knowing how buster busted tysons ass up real bad and the ability of louis to come back stronger into the fight after getting floored, he can beat prime tyson.

• dempsey. his shoulder roll defense and the way he close the gap for his punches is similar to that of tysons. but his kills in the ring is laudable than tysons. 21 first round KO, that says a lot.

• ali. see ali-foreman

 

I have him between 12-15 all time at Heavyweight. His best wins were a Light Heavyweight in Spinks and an old Larry Holmes. The Douglas and Holyfield losses really hurt him in my opinion.

 

I have Tyson at 3, behind Ali and Louis. Head to head he is 2nd only to Ali but Louis's long and impressive reign at the top puts him above Tyson in the overall rankings. Tyson head to head was nearly perfect, fast, powerful, granite chinned, textbook style. The only fighter I would pick to defeat him is Ali, and Foreman is the other one I would be worried about if I was Tyson's trainer due to the power and Tyson being short played into Foremans hands.

 

I rate him around 10. You can't really justify having him much higher, on resume. H2H he'd figure very highly, probably top 3. My ratings have to actually reflect reality, not what could have been.

 

That Light Heavyweight Spinks happened to be the undefeated former Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champion. Great win. Holmes would go on years later to beat Mercer and give a peak Holyfield a fight. Also he had quality wins against Thomas, Tubbs, Tucker, Smith, Ruddock, Berbick, Williams, Bruno. They are all good fighters that Tyson defeated.

I dont see why the Holyfield fight hurts him too much, it was pretty obvious it wasn't a peak Tyson.