mike tyson prime for prime would beat any heavyweight that ever lived

What the Klits do works well against these B class HWs of this era. It would be there KO/TKO had they fought A class HWs of the last era.

Prime Bowe, Holyfield, Tyson, Lewis all beat up on the Klits.
Even an old out-of-shape Lewis TKO'ed Vitali, and he was well past prime.
Vlad has never faced an opponent as good as the old Lewis.

The klits use the jab to keep their opponents at bay. That wouldn't have worked on prime Tyson. He would have worked his way in and unleashed Atomic bombs on those poor souls.

It's good they didn't exist in that era. They are fortunate enough to have avoided meeting prime Tua and Ike in this era.

 

:happy Great post. It seems some in General are paying attention.

 

"Iron chin" is something boxer shouldn't rely on. It wouldn't matter as long as a boxer has poor defense. Now, Bowe didn't have exactly a "poor" defense, but it wasn't on the level it should have been. I wouldn't say that he was very fast, his speed was okay, although slower than Tyson, but I still agree that he was fast enough to keep it up with Tyson due to his style. Like you say, I don't think that Tyson would like getting hit with the uppercuts. If Bowe fought smart (which he rarely did) he could have defeated young "prime" Mike Tyson by wearing him down and not backing up, similar to what Douglas (a much inferior fighter) had done. But if he went mid-distance and inside without neutralizing Tyson, he would be in trouble as his defense wasn't very good. In that case I could see Tyson hitting him with a plenty of big punches and stopping him.

Like I've said for the Klitschkos, I don't think that Tyson would have "chopped" them like you say. He was fast and explosive, but short and unable to fight from the distance. He would be forced to rush in, and I doubt it would work against well schooled boxers who have been beating guys who rush in for a decade. I give him less chance against Vitali, who was slower than Wladimir, but had better ability to fight while going backwards and punch from the angles and while not being in a prefect balance. Even if Tyson eventually could get inside at some point, he would have eaten loads of punches by then and Vitali could still tie him up and prevent inside fighting from taking place. Also, Vitali's chin was very good and Tyson would have extremely difficult time doing anything of significance. It's simply a guy Tyson can't beat.

As for Wladimir, he his style is entirely different to Vitali's, and although he's faster, he doesn't prefer stepping back, but ties the opponent up if he tries to force an inside fight. Both guys are so much bigger than Tyson that I just can't see him just rushing inside and being successful. If you've watched Wladimir vs. Povetkin, you know what I'm talking about. Plus Tyson used to take even less risks than Povetkin takes, and considering the fact that Wladimir puts very serious weight behind his punches, even jab, I don't see Tyson having success. He had good movement, but not a sense of distance and boxing ability good enough to defeat them.

 

Good post.

But I still would put my $$$ on Tyson by KO of either brother.
He would be at a severe size disadvantage, but in his prime he usually always was the shorter fighter.
Perhaps this is why he threw that devastating left hook to the Kidney followed by a left or right Hook or uppercuts.

It seems Mike was always punching up, and still KO'ing his taller opponents.

In all of their past 10 years, Neither Klit has ever faced an opponent as skilled as prime Tyson.
Based on this, I can't in clear conscience say they would win against him.

 

And what Tyson did in the late 80s (one of the weakest HW eras in history) worked well against the tomato cans he fought. Prime Tyson would have zero chance against Lewis/Bowe/both K brothers.

Remember this simple rule: A good big & tall fighter usually beats a good smaller fighter. It's a great rule of thumb and applies very well in this case. Tyson was too small with reach that stacks the odds against him when trying to compete with modern day elite SHWs.

 

Holyfield beat the **** out of him twice, so Mike Tyson doesn't beat them all.

 

Watch Tszyu time Judah and Forrest ( ama) and realise how timing can easily beat speed.

Frazier was fast enough to deck Ali, but couldn't stay 2 rds in front of Foreman.

It's no secret Tyson was scared of George.

 

I'm not a big Tyson fan, but he was the best 20 year old heavyweight in history for sure. He peaked really early, though.

 

Agreed, people complain about his opposition but he fought some ****ing good opponents who on paper had all the tools to beat him yet Tyson wiped the floor with them, even outboxing guys who dwarfed him and massively outreached him.

He never even looked close to being beaten until his life fell apart around the start of the 90s. People who say he lost to Douglas because he is the first decent opponent he faced are talking out of their arsehole. Douglas was a bum and Tyson lost to Douglas because he was a mess at the time, this was evident from the first round.

 

Tyson knocked down Douglas in round 8. Imagine for a second Douglas was counted out and Tyson won by KO. Then who here would say now that Tyson was 'past his best' in the Douglas fight? All you Tyson worshippers would say 'Oh of course, in the Douglas fight Mike was at his peak, just look how he knocked out Douglas' :rofl

But Douglas got back up. And came back strong, and knocked the living **** out of a gassed Tyson who shot his load and was unable to keep up his defense. And all of a sudden 'Tyson was past his best'.

Douglas getting up from the knockdown makes the difference in your argumentation that Tyson was or was not beyond his best. Isn't that hilarious? :deal

 

And for those who say Tyson always won impressively against big guys. Here's Tyson vs. C-level fringe-contender Bonecrusher Smith. A boring 12 round hugfest where Tyson looks helpless and uninspired at time. He doesn't know what to do against all the leaning and holding, he has little recipe. A 12 round borefest that totally destroys the idea of Tyson 'always slipping the jab, then knocking out all the big guys on the inside':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dlqkcmbPf8

 

So your calling a former champ a fringe contender atsch

 

Tyson at 20 / 21 looked unstoppable, a real force of nature. I think the statement is potentially accurate, but there are certainly fighters who would give him problems and some who would probably beat him, Lewis in particular.

On his best night, though, a young prime Tyson has a good chance of knocking any of them out.

 

This.

I'm a year or two older than Tyson and I remember that after he beat Spinks, (who basically threw the fight he was so scared) people thought he was invincible. I remember how we'd go to the pub and watch all of his fights with anticipation and thought he'd never lose.

Turns out he wasn't invincible and he did lose.

I still say that if you had a box off between Ali, Foreman, Lewis, Liston, Holmes, Holyfield, Bowe and Tyson, nobody would win all of their fights. I think Tyson would win 3 maybe 4 of those fights but I don't think he'd have the most wins.

 

No, because anyone who knows anything about boxing/Tyson could see he was on the slide even before the Douglas fight, he had zero head movement and timing even in the first Bruno fight. Also as I just said he looked shocking in the first round against Douglas, so no I would never have said mike was at his peak in the Douglas fight if he had won. He looked ****ing awful so why would anyone say he looked at his peak? :?