I see your points, but the Lewis fight came in June of 2002, which is well over 10 past his prime, and was all about money from the begining, getting 20 some million for a fight is enough for someone take a loss. The Holyfield fight was against a 70% Tyson, if that, and Tyson was being hurt by butts more than punches, and was winning on a scorecard or two by the 6th round. Tyson beat alot of good heavyweights, but only beat one great in Holmes, and did lose against the two greats he did fight in Holyfield and Lewis, both of which wouldnt of stood a chance against Tyson if they fought him back in 88, especially Lewis, who admits that he would of lost to Tyson if they fought at that time.
Despite the ridicule you have received for suggesting it's uncanny how many things Hamed + Tyson have in common. One I missed earlier is both Muslim.
just as hamed beat 7 current former or future world champions within a 2.5 year period,im sorry,i may be real dumb,but there doesnt seem to be too many differences.
i totally understand where you are coming from,it is hard to avoid 'tyson the phenom',but i feel so little respect is given to hamed and sooooo much to tyson for actually doing much too little. hamed fought many many champions,went up in weight twice to claim titles,fought some absolute nightmares for him stylistically in mccullough and vazquez and he defeated many very good champions.hamed ****ed up big time against MAB,but i respect knowing to go out,i feel shame for tyson for fighting for the money rather than the hunger (i know it wasnt his fault),everyone knew holyfield was a dirty fighter,but was tyson skillful enough to do anything about it,no.holyfield was a cruiserweight coming up and honestly although he was great,a truly great fighter should have beat him at HW. you can't listen to lewis when he says,o he'd beat blah blah blah,he talks alot of ****,kind of like pele calling eveyone the best in the world. there is no excuse for losing to buster,he wasnt a great fighter while barrera was. they have a truly similar record,and truly similar natural talents imo
Another point of comparison: Both fell in love with their own power in the last stages of their careers and thus started looking for 'one big shot' rather than their earlier sharp form.
You make good points, and I am now starting to see the similarities more between the two of them, aside from just the awsome power both showed in the ring, time and time again. It's funny that most people forget about all good fighters Hamed beat/embarassed in the ring, most people remember the one-sided beat down MAB gave him. I'm a huge Tyson fan, but I do think Tyson showed more skill in the ring than Hamed, the head movement, combinations, how effective he was with a wide variety of different punches, I still believe to this day, Tyson was physically the most gifted Heavyweight the division has ever seen, though you can make a case for Ali being more gifted though.
i certainly agree with you,tyson's raw boxing ability was something to behold along with his physical assets,i'd have lewis,wlad(only in physical) and ali up there with him in terms of raw ability and natural talent,its such a pity what happened to him. the thing about hamed was he was no boxer,he was an entertainer,for this i thank him,he toyed with people,his movement was certainly only paralleled (and bettered) by rjj and pernell in the 90s,but it was his counterpunching ability also.people were scared to throw shots at hamed,much like tyson,but once they came up against someone with enough know how and talent to do something imo they were stunned shocked and abused.its the unorthodoxy of hamed i loved,the way a punch would come from the side,over the top and anywhere else he damn near felt like. i also think that people over exagerrate hamed's loss,the scorecards weren't as bad as some suggest,it was more the shock of what was happening that was pleasing and the fact people liked to see that arrogant we **** get beat.
I think they both bought into their hype too much in their first losses, MAB and Douglas. They were both tremendous favorites in the betting. They were both overconfident and didn't prepare properly. After that the comparison has to end because Tyson chose to continue his career and Hamed fought only once more.
exactly,continuing tysons career hurt his legacy more than improved it,he went on to lose to every other great fighter he faced.