Yes, love him or hate him, the division would not have been so fun, but what would have happened? For example: Do Dynamic Duo (Butch Lewis and Don King) still try and unify the titles? Does Spinks keep his IBF title? Who gets the Nov 86 date with Berbick? Does Holyfield go for the belts earlier? Who wins overall and who loses? How does it affect the 90s?
Oh jeez, who would be the stand out HW of the mid 80s without Tyson? Michael Spinks, Champion Mike Tyson James (Bonecrusher) Smith Pinklon Thomas Tim Witherspoon Tony Tubbs Trevor Berbick James (Buster) Douglas Tony Tucker Frank Bruno Tyrell Biggs Who beats Spinks? Does Spinks just bow out? I imagine Holmes might never come out of retirement too. Of the lot maybe BoneCrusher is the best of the lot? Err- Douglas or Tucker probably. Witherspoon at his best could mince the entire top 10 I think I'm not sure. It's actually a pretty fun question. Hmm. Oh, Tony Tubbs yep he's my pick.
To be honest, we would be stuck with champions like Trevor Berbick, James Bone Crusher Smith. and Michael Spinks.
Hard to say. I think Bonecrusher could make another defense until he meets a Tony Tucker type fighter. On the other hand, he was terribly inconsistent. The same for Michael Spinks, he´d find onother lower class figter for a victory. What about Berbick? He went 10 rounds against a nobody and lost to Williams after Tyson. It looks like all three of them were on a downward spiral due to age and injurys. Same with Thomas. Just a matter of time and they´d give up their belt. Holmes maybe never makes a comeback. The upcoming challangers/champions look to be Tony Tucker, Buster Douglas and Carl Williams. But it also wouldn´t surprise me if Tubbs, Biggs or Bruno took a title in 1987/88/89. If Holyfield eventually came in a position for a belt earlier than 1990, its almost 100% sure he´d be champ too. Its a mess to be honest.
Spinks doesn't drop out of the tournament so ends up meeting Tony Tucker in a unification fight. Tucker surprises Spinks by ko ing him in ten round. Tucker makes a couple of successful title defence s then loses to Carl Williams by split decision. William s loses by 7rnd ko to Holyfield. From there every thing is as it was. Till Frank Bruno beating McCall but loses it to Lennox Lewis in a rematch. Holyfield regains his portion of the title from Bruce Sheldon. The only difference is, Holyfield never gets to have his ears bit.
No Tyson means Jose Ribalta would be in the hunt for crumbs, I could see him upsetting Berbick in late 86, while he was still sturdy. He may have enough to beat Bonecrusher in the period too. But with no Tyson as a potential reward, perhaps Tubbs shoulder holds up and he upsets an unmotivated Witherspoon in their originally scheduled rematch and thus Smith never gets his title win...
No Tokyo-Douglas. Possibly no Bowe-Holyfield trilogy. Holyfield ‘s obsession with Tyson never manifests; almost anything could happen with him. Oscar rules the world. heavyweight’s rule ends fifteen years earlier.
There would probably have been some sort of unification tournament, before Holyfield challenged for the title.
Oscar rules the world? By the time Oscar became P4P tops Tyson wasn`t even ranked P4P, during the mid 90`s, unless you`re just talking about PPV figures. Oscar and Tyson were only titlist at the time for a short period, Oscar was on the rise to the top while Tyson star was in decline.
King would have tried to freeze Holy out of tyhe heavyweight title picture until he signed options in order to get a title shot at one of King`s fighters.
The only thing I can think of is that it would be a pretty inconsistent era without a single top dog. Holyfield wouldn't come up any earlier imo even with no Tyson his career would stay the same from the 80s through most of the 90s more or less.
