The best fighter Tyson beat ?

So many. Most significant would have to be the spinks fight, Mike
had unified the titles and then the lineal with the Spinks fight.
Skill wise Holmes. Tyson detroyed an atg. Always love how Holmes came
out on his toes in round 4. What a career though Tubbs, Tucker, Bruno,
Ruddock, Thomas all great wins over great fighters. Most exciting fight was
Ruddock imo, very competitive with fireworks chin display by both.

 

Tucker is the only guy who fought both a Prime Tyson and Prime Lewis and was stopped by neither. He fought much better versions than Holyfield did as well.

Between them, they both stopped, Ruddock, Bruno, Golota, Tyrell Biggs and Botha but couldnt stop Tucker.

Tucker was the undefeated IBF champion at the time of fighting Tyson. Not only that, he had the size and style to beat Tyson. Tyson won more or less every round against a guy, who on paper had Tysosn number.

Tyson sparked Tubbs in 2 rounds, same Tubbs who gave hell to Riddick Bowe.

Most of Bowes best wins are Tyson leftovers and Tyson always performed much better than Bowe. The only thing Bowe has over Tyson is the win over Holyfield. Then look at what the old fat Tyson did to Golota.

Ruddock was a very good win at the time because Ruddock was thought to be the heir apparent to Tyson. Tyson had just been stopped by Douglas and Holyfield was lightly regarding. Both Holyfield/Bowe refused to fight Ruddock (for whatever reasons). Tyson took Ruddock to hell and back twice and pushed his sh*t in.

 

Yeah, but Tucker hardly ever beat anyone good. He beat a load of bums mostly. His best win was over Buster Douglas, but it was hardly entralling stuff.
His claim to fame is going the distance with Tyson.

Tucker wasn't very good. People talk about his size and skills but he labored to beat some ordinary fighters. I noticed he rarely made his height advantage count.

If he had fought more of the top names of the 1980s, I think his record would fool a lot less people. Some of those guys would beat them.
His camp turned down a Holmes fight in 1985, a fight that the lot less experienced Carl Williams accepted. He never fought the likes of Witherspoon, Berbick, Thomas, Tubbs.
I think he got made #1 contender for the IBF by beating James Broad !
A seriously padded record.

 

Most of his wins were taxi drivers and toilet cleaners

 

... and taxi cleaners and toilet drivers !

 

One of the best things that could have happened for Tyson's legacy is losing to Douglas in 1990, instead of losing the title to Holyfield, if you get what I mean, as the way he was going he would have lost to either at that time

 

So losing to a bottom feeder is better than losing to an ATG? What sort of stupid logic is that.

knockout artist
"When the next SMW champ comes along, like George Groves who brings genuine excitement like Tyson used to, Ward will be forgotten about. "

http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?p=14476741#post14476741

 

I'm glad you enjoy that quote

But on topic yes, lose to Douglas and it's because Mike was 'out of shape', 'didn't train properly', 'would have beaten him 2 years ago, Buster caught lightning in a bottle that night' etc.

Lose to Holyfield, and it's because 'Mike was never that good in the first place', if you follow me

 

King and his camp told Tyson he didn't need to train for Douglas and he didn't. He did nothing but party in Tokyo. Tyson himself and everybody around him thought he would be easy work.
A fight with Holyfield would not of been the same set of circumstances. The fight would probably of been in the US with Tyson coming off a proper training camp and with professionals working his corner.

 

Possibly, you may well be right. The way I see it depends if you trust that Tyson would have trained properly though. From what I've read, seen and heard, Mike's life was chaos to say the least in 1990, I don't think his focus was there until he got beat. I don't think he would have trained hard for Holyfield if he fought him that night instead of Buster. If he lost to Evander, I don't think he'd be afforded the same excuses, it would be seen as Mike losing to the better fighter.

A focused, in shape Mike v Holy would have been a hell of a fight though, alot better than what we saw in 1997

 

I did start a thread on this years ago, not a lot of people know this, but Tyson and Holy SPARRED, yes they sparred in 1984. According to Holys book (not mentioned in tysons book for whatever reason) But Holy said the match was very physical and both men were going at it. Holys corner told him to leave the ring after one round because the battle was intense.

A lot of people will say Holy always had his number etc etc, but Holyfields actual quote from the book says something to the effect of if/when they do fight for real, whoever backs off the slightest will be loser. If you watch their '96 fight Holy was winning clearly but Tyson was making him work for it and in the end it was Tyson who was huffing and puffing after about 4 rounds and thats due to poor conditioning. When was the last time Tyson had gone past 4 rounds?

In a recent interview Holy made some interesting comments about his fights with tyson. When asked what would have happened in '91 had Tyson not gone to prison, Holy replied, 'it would have been the greatest fight ever'. He also said that one of the mainreasons he won in 1996 was due to his better conditioning (than Tyson).

Holyfield seems to be more honest about his opinions about Tyson but people on the inernet feel they know better.

 

I agree with this. Holyfield would have beaten, probably stopped, an in shape Tyson. And Tyson being beaten by the first great prime HW he met would have given much less room for this "the only one who truly defeated Tyson was himself"-talk that his fans like to indulge in.

 

A larger, stronger version of Holyfield was just about able to stop a post prison Tyson in 11 rounds and that was more due to the fact that Tyson was exhausted more than anything else (he hadnt been past 4 rounds for about 4 years)
But a younger, smaller version of Holyfield is going to bully and stop a younger much better version of Tyson? the same one that went to hell and back with Razor Ruddock

I see a '91 battle with Tyson/Holyfield as being intense and physical, but no stoppage.

 

best win and best fighter are kind of two different things. I mean, for best win you do take into account how good the fighter was, and also how he won. Best fighter is just the very best guy all around.