I know almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades but Tyson "almost" pulled the greatest come from behind win, possibly of all time, but Douglas was saved by the bell. Besides, when has coming off the floor to win a fight been determined as a must for claiming greatness? Would Tyson have passed your "greatness" test if he was dropped against Tucker in the first? He would've come back and won a UD, right? So what's more impressive: absorbing the bomb and staying on his feet or getting dropped but coming back to win the fight? What if Bruno dropped him? Or Smith?
Amen. Actually, go ahead and name the next best heavyweight that Francois would be up 4 rounds to zero................ Every other bout he had against good competition, Botha lost rounds and was not a guy that got out ahead of fighters. He fought competively, but man, it sure is tough to think of another heavyweight champ I can think of Frans Botha would be way out in front of.
Thats why i said not a great example, but an example none the less. He should have never been behind from the get go, it showed how rusty and far gone he was againts a relativley mobile opponent. But he still managed to turned the tide. All the crap about fighting through adversity to get the win is crap too, all fights are different. I count tysons prime from 86-91 with only one loss. He had his ass handed to him all fight but he never stopped trying, dropped buster in the 8th (weather or not you think its a long count is debatable), but what if the count had been picked up sooner? Would he have forght through adversity then? It makes no difference. He was there he forght through it never quit never folded and went out like a true champ instead of running to spare getting knocked out!! The way tyson fought was kill or be killed, if things werent going his way he was gonna try and stop you no matter what, and if that mean taking shots to get his own off the so be it! He never ran nor backed down or folded ect.
I agree. Magoo asked for an example and you gave him one with the Botha fight. And with Douglas, Tyson almost pulls off the end all be all of come from behind victories. So you're not going to convince me that Tyson will be docked points for never getting up off the floor to win a fight or never being able to come back from adversity. Kinda lame if you ask me.
And who else? Who or what other top heavy was he whitewashing, other than Tyson? 1 guy out of a career of what 50 fights? and another 10 or 15 k1 fights and he was ko'd in some of those as well. Ko'd 4 out of 5x as amateur against Sanders. So you can definately say he has a long history of being stopped. Hardly the hardest heavy to stop. Why was Tyson that far behind on the cards? He's the guy fast out of the gate. Not Francois. Why was he so far behind to this guy? It cannot be Botha was too big of a jump up skillwise. What was it?
That's speculation at best. Foreman, Liston, and Lewis all had the tools to potentially stop Tyson. As for winning on the cards, Holmes and Ali could win by decision. Maybe even Bowe could make it somewhere on this list. It's a relatively short list I agree, but ANY fighter can be beat if the style is wrong for him.
as to the question on the thread, I've been watching boxing now for about 40 years, and if you'd have asked me this question when Tyson was in his prime, I would have easily picked him and my sentiments about him weren't too far off from WABC's, but over the years I've realized that he was a more limited fighter than I had previously thought. If Holyfield could force him onto the back foot and survive the first 4-5 rounds, I could see him winning a decision, and since he's extremely hard to KO that's a fairly likely outcome. Best option for Tyson would be combinations which included numerous bodyshots.
"prime" tyson fought tucker just the same, or maybe even worse, than he fought james b douglas.. tucker just wasn't ready or willing to upset the apple-cart (he also probably knew instinctively that tyson would bite his ear or try to break his arm if he didn't comply with a tyson win) tyson's aggression brings out the combination punching from holyfield every time. holyfield stops tyson every time.
plain as day. holyfield just glided right in there, walking through iron mike.. and he'd do it every time 91? holyfield ko4 tyson
