Tyson wouldn't have done any better than Earnie Shavers? Probably worse? WTF planet are you living on? And how's Berbick remotely similar to Tyson? Your whole post makes my head spin.
Yes, but neither was Holmes, my friend. I should mention, anyone notice Tim NEVER looked better in ANY of his fights after the Holmes? Most people, when they compare Tim against others in dream matches, are referring to the Tim of the Holmes fight. Something to think about. No disrespect intended, @NoNeck
I was expecting a lot from Tim Witherspoon when he fought Page, Smith (the first fight), Thomas...even when he fought Tubbs. And I never really got it. He just seemed terrific in the Holmes fight, young, rightfully arrogant, quick and smart. Now I see that that fight was way more about Holmes' aging than anything outrageously great about Tim. And I've still had Holmes ahead by two points, every time I've watched it (and I saw it the day it happened).
Plus, Larry could slug with some real big hitters. Larry stood toe-to-toe with everybody and won. Norton, Weaver, Shavers, Berbick, Spinks, Snipes, Cooney, Witherspoon, Bonecrusher, and even Mercer. A few of those guys were better than Tyson too. Holmes made insane comebacks.
It's not humility. Larry came back from everything. Shavers hit harder than Tyson, and dropped Larry, still got stopped. Larry WHIPPED top guys on his bad nights, and even when he was over the hill.
It’s true that some guys looked better against Holmes than anyone else. You can leave it to your discretion if you want to include Witherspoon.
I think I'll start a policy of no Tyson fantasy match discussions. I don't need to break a window afterall.
Yes because their 1988 match-up when Tyson was at his absolute prime, and Holmes was a past it, fat former great coming out of retirement means so much in a prime for prime discussion. Great comment there pal.
Witherspoon was 15-0 going into the Holmes bout. Holmes was quite lucky legacy-wise that the likes of Witherspoon, Weaver, Berbick and Smith went on to have fairly successful careers and win a piece of the title, because they were all considered soft touches when he fought them. They could easily have been another David Bey or Leroy Jones who dropped off the radar after facing him.
Shavers, Witherspoon, Smith, Snipes and Weaver all had Holmes badly hurt in their fights, and none of them was Mike Tyson in terms of power, accuracy and speed.
Tyson easily. I think Holmes had 3 very fast opponents (Spinks,Tyson and Holy) and the result is an unimpressive 0-4.
Speed will make an old fighter look very old indeed. (Plus - Larry should really have been given the nod in Spinks II)
