Tyson says he would have beaten V. & W. Klitschko in their prime.

Neither K2 Brother nor Mike Tyson would have beaten Ray Impellitaire

 

If you get walked down and ko'ed by two Punch bags in Purrity/Brewster, blitzed by the number one flash in the pan sanders and going life and death against no skill caveman Peter you aint got a prayer against tyson.

If your two best "wins" are losing by TKO6 against a old man and a TKO10 quit job against a feather fisted late sub ypu aint got a prayer against Tyson.

 

Tell that to the ref who reffed the 2nd fight between Ali and Frazier. Ali should have been docked countless points for excessive holding.

 

The love in with Tyson when his best win was a LHW is one of the great wonders of the sport. He was blowing away fringe level operators and fighters on their way down for a handful of years but is considered an ATG. Struggled badly when pushed back and lost against every elite level fighter he fought. I think Vitali would have beaten him because of the chin, power, stamina and height advantages, in a similar way to Holyfield-Tyson I. That being said I'd fancy him to beat Wlad, especially if he caught him early, absolutely horrific match up style wise for him, a ferocious and tenacious fighter could do what Corrie Sanders did all over again.

 

Shut up with your nonsense. Tyson was just too damn good, that's why his opponents looked like bums.

 

I don't think Mike beat bums. But his best win truly was over an overblown light heavyweight.

Regardless of the overall kind of meh state of the heavyweight division in the 80s, both Holmes and Tyson righteously dominated that era. It's easy to see it wasn't populated with guys like Frazier, prime Foreman and Bowe, Holy, Lewis, Norton...but they fought the best there was besides them and (for the overwhelming most part) won. They were both great champions...hey, I myself wish there could have been guys to give them superfights. There wasn't a Norton-Holmes, Ali-Frazier 1 and 3, or Foreman-Lyle fight in the 80s because there just weren't enough high quality heavies going around then.

Sure, Ali ended up at the top of the heap in the 70s, and yeah it meant more than what Holmes and Tyson did due to the incredible competiton of the time. But Mike and Larry were both fighting champions and I would hope they'd be top 10 ATGs in anyone's heavyweight book.

 

Take a look at every other ATG heavyweight and their opposition and tell me if they beat other "name" ATG heavyweights in their prime? Not many have, in fact probably only a few have and it's their only win over a prime ATG.

Tyson has wins over guys who never lost, were never battered or never even knocked down. Here's a record of heavyweight ATG's and their winning % of their opposition. Look at the ranking and who's in the Top 12:

1) Ali 56-5-0 (37ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1975-319-72
Opp Winning %-83.5
Winning %-91.8
Overall Ranking: 87.7

2) Tyson 50-6-0 (44ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1334-213-17
Opp Winning %-85.3
Winning %-89.3
Overall Ranking: 87.3

3) Lewis 41-2-1 (32ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1124-240-23
Opp Winning %-81.0
Winning %-93.3
Overall Ranking: 87.2

4) Marciano 49-0-0 (43ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1502-515-88
Opp Winning %-71.4
Winning %-100
Overall Ranking: 85.7

5) Louis 66-3-0 (52ko's)
Opp W/L/D-2749-711-185
Opp Winning %-75.3
Winning %-95.7
Overall Ranking: 85.5

6) Holmes 69-6-0 (44ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1482-384-50
Opp Winning %-77.3
Winning %-92.0
Overall Ranking: 84.7

7) Frazier 32-4-1 (27ko's)
Opp W/L/D-942-196-36
Opp Winning %-80.2
Winning %-86.5
Overall Ranking: 83.4

8) Foreman 76-5-0 (68ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1727-609-96
Opp Winning %-71.0
Winning %-93.8
Overall Ranking: 82.4

9) Liston 50-4 (39ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1178-447-100
Opp Winning %-68.3
Winning %-92.6
Overall Ranking: 82.3

10) Holyfield 26-10-2 (17ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1445*-119-22
(Only counts Heavyweight fights)
Opp Winning %-91.9
Winning %-68.4
Overall Ranking: 80.2

11) Dempsey 61-6-9 (50ko's)
Opp W/L/D-1554*-486-444
(6 fights with no info)
Opp Winning %-62.6
Winning %-80.3
Overall Ranking: 71.5

12) Johnson 84-13-14 (45kos)
Opp W/L/D-1653*-537-322
( does not include all bouts with no info or his 17 newspaper fights)
Opp Winning %-65.8
Winning %-75.7
Overall Ranking: 70.8

 

Too damn good until he came up against fighters who could bully him back. I don't like slating Mike because I do rate him highly, he was arguably the most exciting HW that's ever lived. But in his true career defining fights, with the exception of Spinks, he came up short. There's no shame in that at all, but the true elite fighters found that extra 5-10% that could push them over the line when things started to work against them and Mike didn't have that which is why I wouldn't have him near the top when it comes to this type of discussion.

 

He came up short cause he was unprepared and no longer the same Tyson when he faced them.