Mike Tyson - bully of bums?

Still a stellar resume compared to Beyonce Wildebeast.

 

He was a good bully though

 

Totally agree, Tyson is who truly Kidnapped me, far more than srl or any past fighter, but really. Him beating tiny spinks and Holmes that was literally bought directly off his couch with Doritos and soda in hand, couldnt even get into decent physical shape.

When had Holmes entered a ring with a big ass belly and love phucking handles in the past ? Never. And those are the 2 best fighters he actually beat.

Getting douglased and getting a 6 yr stink hurt terribly, 3 year and 300lbs coming out the clink went nite nite to his career

 

I always thought the bully theory was a bit of a myth. in his prime he fought plenty of opponents that were not scared of him, they tried hitting him back and even had a few successes on occasion but they were just outmatched.

post prison I would say he was more of a bully as he seemed to rely on his reputation more, and when he was hit back he acted like a bully, either trying to quit or blow the fight up in some way. the difference was pre prison he could cope with another fighter having a bit of success, he had the confidence to know he would catch up with them. after the lay off he had no real confidence just fake bravado, if anything went wrong he melted down.

I think the bully mentality post prison leads a lot of people to think he always was one, which I don't think is necessarily true.

 

if you compare that resume with other great fighters you would be surprised how well if fares. Ok its not Ali like but a few of those guys were good fighters and Tyson either wiped them out or outclassed them, up to Douglas of course. his comeback before prison wasn't too bad either, beating up the dangerous and fresh Razor Ruddock. he fought who was there with almost flawless results when it comes down to it.

 

Great post and thinking about it, you make a good argument that I can't disprove

 

Yeah i agree i think the bullying thing was a bit of a myth. If they we,re scared of mike...it was based off of what he could do in the ring as opposed to intimidation otherwise mitch green would have probably been the best.

Actually think it was a solid era...they guys back then we,re skilled fighters. Its just that tyson was trained from about 14 with one goal in mind from a guy that was not only very knowledgeable about the sport but almost obsessed with achieving the same goal in cus d,mato.

What he achieved at 20 probably wont be done again imo...not at heavyweight anyway. These we,re solid experienced men he was knocking about. Still say if you took tyson out of the equation. That would go down as a decent competetive era. They we,re well rounded fighters. Its just that mike came along at the wrong time for them.

 

When GGG was blowing out his opponent, his middleweight run is weak. When Jacobs gave him a hard time, suddenly the division become stronger.
When Wlad beat everyone for 11 years, the division is weak. When he lost to Fury suddenly it's open and strong. But the truth is guys like Parker, Ortiz and Joshua is not much better than the fighters Wlad beat in his reign.
Same with Tyson. A dominant champion will make the division look weak. Take a dominant champ out, people will have different perspective.
Tyson reign is as good as any champs in the past and present with the exception of a few. And his standing in the sport reflects that. Honestly most have Tyson outside top 10 nowadays. So I don't see the issue.

 

How many rings did Karl Malone, Barkley, Robinson, Dominique, and basically everyone who played at the time who didn't win a ring while Jordan was playing minus the retirement years? Was Jordan's era weak? But you better believe Jordan was a bully, that's for sure.

 

I really don't know where to place Tyson. He sure had exciting fights but when he faced the elite in Holyfield, Lewis; Mike came up short. I would like to think it was the distractions in his life. All I can measure is how he did against the best of his era and that's why he's not high on my list.

Nobody since has transcended boxing like Mike. When he had a fight, EVERYONE talked about it if they were fans or not.

 

Sure Mike transcended the sport and basically invented PPV, he was also grossly overrated.

 

Very true, he was very good but people were basically walking around the streets all over the world thinking this bloke could beat the Aliens if they came to earth looking for trouble...... The hype was out of control.

 

Chinny Lenni's era could be regarded as weak, outside a past prime Holyfield, a shot to **** Tyson, which world class fighter did he beat? Vitali was his best win and that also he got extremely lucky and was not man enough to rematch him.

 

Tyson's career a lot like Ali's- had Ali not had the long layoff due to the draft controversy, you would have seen him probably dominate Frazier in the first fight, and would have been twice the fighter he was in the 70s.

For Tyson, had he not lost Cus, then Jimmy Jacobs, and not dumped Kevin Rooney as his trainer, he would have probably not gone to prison and not lost to Douglas, etc. I know, a lot of crystal ball, woulda, coulda, shoulda, but as far as the eye test is concerned, the Mike Tyson at or just prior to when he beat Berbick was a fast, sharp, powerful killing machine that I would put up against any ATG and he would have fared very well.