Where do you rate his athleticism compared to other elite heavyweights in history when he was in his prime? In a scale of 1 to 10 where do you rate him in these categories Power(George Foreman is rated 10) Chin(George Chuvalo is rated 10) Speed(Muhammad Ali is rated 10) Reflexes(Roy Jones Jr. is rated 10) Stamina(Rocky Marciano is rated 10)
He was a freak of nature, amazing handspeed and balance but would always look human at heavyweight being only 5`10.
Power 9 Chin 8 Speed 10, his hands were quicker than Ali`s. Reflexes 9 his slipped more shots than Roy Jones who got clipped a bit by the mega slow Ruiz. Stamina 7/8 just average but decent v Tucker he had enough stamina to out-point Tucker which was pretty good but nothing special.
Jones was 34 and fighting 3-4 divisions above his best weight. Prime Jones never got tattooed with punches anywhere like Tyson did vs Douglas. Hell Roy never got hit anywhere near as much at at the same age as Tyson did against Razor Ruddock or Holyfield either. Jones’s reflexes p4p were streets ahead of Tysons.
Tyson was amazing while being trained by Rooney, Douglas would have jabbed Roy`s head off, he had an 83 inch reach, Roy was ranked P4P no.1 when he fought Ruiz, Tyson wasn`t even in the P4P top 10 when he lost to Holy and was on the comeback trail when he fought Ruddock, plus Ruddock v Tyson were slow fights, Tyson didn`t get hit that much in those fights, but his reflexes had slipped a lot when he fired Rooney.
Tyson got hit loads against Ruddock and even more so against Holyfield. That’s your opinion re Douglas jabbing Jones’s head off. When Roy had his legs and reflexes he barely got hit. Certainly way less than Tyson who got turned into a human punch bag against Douglas. Roy would do fine against the comparatively treacle slow Douglas. He wouldn’t plod forward like a dummy like Tyson , did getting his head punched in that’s for sure.
Roy back pedaled a lot compared to Tyson, he didn`t have to slip shots, Tyson slipped and countered shots more which takes better reflexes than just running around the ring or covering up on the ropes, look how much Griffin hit Jones when he covered up on the ropes in their first fight, despite Jones over powering him in the rematch.
How about if we rate Tyson's "heart" ...we know that Marciano was a "10" in the "heart department. Let's see...Tyson never "walked thru the fire" to win a fight...Tyson never "got up off the canvas" and came back to win that fight...Tyson never came from behind to win a fight"...etc. So if you don't have "heart" then all the "athletic" prowess...speed...and all the other "stuff" doesn't really matter...does it? I've been following the boxing game since 1964...I've seen guys coming up and hear all the usual crap..."Look at his style....look at his speed...look at his footwork...then "BANG"...some guy hits him on the chin...he goes down...and he quits sitting on his stool between rounds. If you don't have "heart" kiddies...than all the other things mean nothing at all.
Some of these posters just don't realise boxing ended in the 50's Jim. Thankfully you are here to remind them.....every.....single.....time.....you.....post.
Tyson fought a 12 round war vs huge puncher in Ruddock who would've knocked Marciano's head clean off his shoulders if he hit Marciano with "The Smash"
Mike's chin is likely more than 8. I've said this before and I will repeat - in terms of single shot, I think he probably has better whiskers than Ali. What he didn't have was the same ability to survive an onslaught and get off the floor and win that others have displayed. I've seen Mike eat shots that knock down guys rated as better chinned, especially with a come forward style.
Peak Tyson had GREAT athletic skills--deceptively quick, KO power in both hands, great strength--dude was a beast!! But I'll always rank FOTC era Joe Frazier ahead of a peak Tyson--(FOTC era Frazier had PHENOMENAL conditioning, a left hook that could KO an elephant, incredible head movement, and a burning will to win that very few athletes in ANY sport have ever matched!)
I have a different view it seems than most other people here, Power - 6 or 7 So to start with this, Tyson has never been amongst the strongest at heavyweight. He's been stronger than some of his opponents sure, but plenty of other guys were stronger or hit harder than him. Tillis is overall stronger, so was Douglas, Rudduck hit harder, etc. A number of dudes from the 70's were (i.e. Shavers, Holmes, Cooney, Foreman, Lyle, Frazier had a harder left hook, etc) and in the 90's his power largely appeared to be average when you look at monsters like Lewis, Mercer, roided Holyfield, Bowe, etc. You could also see this in the clinch because Tyson rarely outmuscled the other guy. Definitely one of his weakest attribues IMO. Chin - 8 This is more impressive. He survived hits from Bruno, ate an assault from Douglas before finally going down, waged a massive war with Rudduck, etc. His chin post-prison seems to have taken a hit given he was knocked down by a shopworn Holyfield, though its still atleast above average. Speed/Reflexes - 9 He's near perfect here. He even noted himself that a lot of his knockouts didn't come from power, but speed. He could hit the opponent with shots that were quick and at angles they couldn't predict which allowed him to knock them down. Another great display was against Holyfield in the first fight. If you watch the replays you'll see he either parried, dodged or blocked a lot of Holyfields subsequent shots after initially getting hit and its all the more impressive considering Holyfield had faster hand speed than him. Stamina - 10 This is the one thing I'd wager most people consider to be Tysons weakest area, but IMO its his strongest area. His speak-a-boo style was very demanding and he didn't often have it keep it going for 10-12 rounds, but when he trained right he could as shown with the Tillis & Tucker bouts. To be able to move, dodge and still throw fast shots for that long is no easy feat and its more impressive when you consider most of the shots Tyson threw....were bombs. He almost never went for the jab. He was definitely weaker in this area post-prison. His stamina was gone downhill horribly by the time he fought Lewis. He had enough in the tank for 1 round. After that, he was nearly burned out.
I think physical strength and punching power are two different things. Like for example Fury is physically strong but his punching power is average. For punching power Tyson is definitely above 6 or 7 he had 24 first round KO's and 10 stoppages in world title fights. For physical strength well that's up to you what your criteria is but I don't think his physical strength was lacking, it's more like his inside game wasn't of the elite level which sometimes people mistake about Tyson. He often needed distance to get his punches off despite being the shorter man in most of his fights.
