Oliver McCall warned Mike Tyson about the Douglas fight ~ Listen In

Yes he did. You cant fight everyone. Tyson fought the best the division had to offer. If Witherspoon lost, he was obviously not at the top of the division.

 

I completely agree about "that Buster Douglas." He was a very good boxer, a big man, and he was strong.

Buster Douglas is arguably the greatest missed opportunity for greatness in the heavyweight division.

 

I strongly disagree . tyson beat more skilled fighters such as tony tucker and tony tubbs .Tucker employed the same tactics against douglas but tyson started jabbing with tucker moving his head to make him miss and upset tuckers timing. Tubbs had quickers hands a quicker jab, tyson had no problems slipping tubbs jab by the way , better reflexes he made a prime tyson miss with great reflexes and defense . tyson said douglas fought a great fight but he beat much better fighters. the fact of that matter is that tyson was there to be hit that night . tubbs,thomas and tucker were all better fighters than douglas any night but they couldnt hit tyson on consistant basis because tyson used a lot of head movement and they would of given tyson a hammering that night aswell . they would of beaten any tyson after spinks . ray leonard said it best when said that when tyson is fighting taller guys who jab and move ., tyson has to jab his way in , work his way in , hit them with body punches to slow them down. he said reaching his way in isnt work against douglas because douglas has fast hands and good lateral movement which enables to catch tyson reaching in with a right hand or an uppercut . tyson jabbed in round one but he didnt do it to look for openings he did to hit douglas and he did hit douglas a few times with it but never followed it with combinations or worked the body . he actually hit douglas with a few body shots in round 3 and he slowed douglas down but he head hunted for the rest of the fight . if tyson worked douglas body for a few more rounds he would of slowed douglas punch out put and knocked douglas out . douglas was a very skilled boxer but he didnt have anything in his arsenal that tyson hadnt seen before . believe me even frazier or marciano would got douglas out of there in 6 rounds . buster couldnt take it to the body.

 

He was in the top 5 from 1987-1990. He was a perfectly reasonable opponent who Tyson didn't face, meaning Tyson did not clear out the division of good contenders.

 

Louis was a champion under extremely peculiar circumstances and there was little money in black vs. black heavyweight clashes then. Johanssen did almost nothing after his losses to Patterson and was not gunning for a title shot at all. Lewis (a) pursued Bowe and Tyson and (b) was inhibited by not being the undisputed champion until late 1999, neither of which apply in the case of Tyson and Witherspoon. Nino Valdes rarely (if at all) went a year without losing at least one fight.

Again: I'm not saying this counts against Tyson at all, unless you endorse a certain specific myth about his title reign.

 

When people say Tyson "cleaned out the division" they are referring to beating all three champions to unify the title, along with the "recognized" champion in Michael Spinks. Of course a couple of decent contenders are going to missed. There isn't enough time to fight everyone.....and Tyson fought a lot.

So anyway, yes, Tyson DID clean out the division.

 

If you mean by "clean out the division", "unify the titles", then yes: he unified the titles. If you mean by "Tyson was a bum", "Tyson lost fights", then yes: Tyson was a bum.

 

The magazines rated Witherspoon, but the sanctioning bodies didn't (because of Don King's influence), so Tyson couldn't have fought Tim even if he'd wanted to. You need to face RANKED contenders on the alphabet lists, and Witherspoon wasn't one

 

Witherspoon was fighting Smith for an ulitmate showdown with Tyson. He lost! That is the only reason Spoon never faced Tyson.

 

Yes, and then he was unranked by sanctioning bodies which in truth was related to his lawsuit against Don King.

If he had beaten Smith he would have faced Tyson in March 1987.

But if he hadn't had been in dispute with King and exiled from the rankings, he would almost certainly have been among the re-treads who were lined up for Tyson, regardless of his loss to Smith. He was a recognizable name to sell to TV audience.

 

Definitely, but people forget at that time King did not control Tyson. King had to produce belt holders and viable fighters inorder to get the fights to promote. It wasnt until after the Spinks fight that King took total control of Tyson.

 

If I was Tyson, the Spoon-Smith debacle would make me more keen to fight Terrible Tim.

However, I DO think that as far as dominant champions in heavyweight history, Tyson was certainly one of the most dominant.