Tysons Legacy Defining Fight

Exactly what i was just thinking. Some people are more interested by statistics, checking boxrec, or he didn't fight this amount of ATGs or he beat this level of fighter! Instead of actually observing the fighter in front of them, and looking at what he achieved.
Tyson not an elite fighter ?!???! FFS! Some very high standards on here.
People trying to devalue the Spinks win is just laughable. The man was undefeated, he beat Holmes when Larry was 48-0, and then done it again for good measure. If i remember rightly wasn't Spinks labeled 'the people's champion' at the time. The whole boxing world wanted to see Tyson in the ring with Spinks...they got what they asked for.
I think it was you lefthook that said earlier, that that win for Tyson is now devalued because of how easily Tyson beat him. So true!
Has i've said earlier Tyson was a world phenomenom, and you don't become one of them unless your doing something right.
The way he ripped through the division i probably won't see again in my lifetime. Beating quality foes such as; Berbick, Smith, Tucker, Thomas, Biggs (who's career he ruined), Holmes, Spinks, Bruno, Williams, Tillis. All of whom would be contenders and champions in this era. He was the youngest champion in history and the guy was still only 23 when his dominance ended. How is that not an elite fighter?
Even years removed from his best he still garnered interest more than any other boxer on the planet! Was that because he fought bums or beat men who were'nt up to the mark? NO! It was because his destruction of the division had left such an impression on people's minds.
No doubt his personal life was compelling viewing for a lot of sadists, but first and foremost it was his reign of terror during the late 80's that people could never forget about. Even when it was virtually impossible for him to reach those heights again, people still believed he could, simply because of the imprint he left on their minds.
I understand some posters on here are young and can't appreciate what Tyson actually done back then. But no one can sit there and say he WASN'T an elite fighter or ISN'T an ATG. If that is the case, then you have no right talking boxing, on a boxing forum.

 

An elite 'pound for pound, great. Sorry.

 

I notice 25% of votes for Holyfield I, but seriously that's just people using hindsight to rate '96 Holy as better H2H than '88 Spinks. In reality, his "Legacy Defining Fight" cannot be Holy, because the 34 year old Evander was considered old, washed-up & even Shot, prior to the fight. People had good reason to believe this...

Let's look at the 4 fights Holy had before facing Tyson:

'94 Moorer I: The turning point for Evander, which signaled him being Past-Prime. Holy had a badly injured left shoulder & a collapsed left ventricle of the heart, he looked visibly ill in this fight. Still the performance by Moorer was uninspiring & i scored it for Holy by a hair. However, officially Moorer won by MD12.

'95 Mercer: A close war with the very "hot & cold" Mercer, who after coming from behind to stop Damiani & Morrison in 91, went on to be whitewashed by Ancient Holmes in '92, lose a decision to unimpressive journeyman Ferguson in '93, & draw with a 7-9-2 bum in '94. Ray then took almost a year layoff before facing Holy. I know Mercer can fight-up to high level opposition, like he did against Holy & Lewis, despite year long layoffs prior to fighting both, but still my point is this was a country-mile from being a dominating performance.

'95 Bowe III: The now clearly Past-Prime Holy started strong against the also clearly Past-Prime & faded Bowe. Seemingly on the way to a KO, & dropping Riddick once, Holy would suddenly become totally exhausted from Hepatitis (or more severe heart complications?) & be brutally stopped in round 8... with 2 knockdowns i believe?

'96 Czyz: Bobby was meant to be early cannon-fodder, but lasted 5 rounds & landed lots of punches on Evander. Underwhelming performance.


Conclusion... Wow, Holy really should've retired after his monumental upset victory in Tyson I. :deal

 

i voted holmes. at this point he'd cleaned out his division and was awaiting a new challenge to emerge but douglas got in the way a bit (should have been holyfield)

 

I voted Spinks. Those who voted for Holy, must think of the rematch. If Tyson had managed to win that one he would look a lot better, but before the first everyone just thought he took an easy pay-day against a has-been.

 

He still fits that bill. He lost one fight before going to jail, and never got a shot at a rematch. Its ******ed to judge Tyson's entire career based off his loss to Douglas. When people say he was exposed in that fight its a total joke.
Do you consider Lennox Lewis an elite heavyweight because he avenged his losses to mediocre fighters?
No heavyweight to this day has eclipsed his accomplishment. Hes also still the last heavyweight to unify all three title separately. 24 years now.

 

The thing with the Douglas defeat : most of the all-time greats don't have comparable defeats in the midst of their championship reign, a mere 18 months or so removed from their very best performances.
It wasn't as if Tyson lost a close decision or was stopped on some fluke cut. He got thrashed.

 

See guys, this is proof you don't have to be a Tyson "fanboy McNuthugger" to recognize what is real.

 

Well, I was around following boxing closely at the time, and let's be honest, the heavyweight division was viewed as being in a very sad state when Tyson came long.

So, on one hand you have to give him credit for bringing back the fans to boxing and the heavyweights in particular - no one can deny his famed and incredible marquee value. His KO artist style was box-office gold.

But it's just wrong to try now to paint his opponents as a high-quality crop of primed contenders.

 

In reality it wasn't in a sad state it's just it was transitioning from one of the great eras in heavyweight history. The division was recovering nicely and peaked again in the early 90's before going on a 16-17 year doldrum that's only continued to decline.
Again Tyson didn't have a chance to avenge his defeat so it's perfect ammo for the haters but he went on to defeat far more dangerous opponents than James Douglas.

 

I've said this a many times before that the 80's were looked down upon as a sorry decade with the alphabet belts being passed around like the town slut. It started to look that way in the mid-90's as well with the belts not having a home for very long. Holyfield to Bowe, back to Holyfield, then to Moorer, to Foreman, then Seldon and Botha and McCall, then post prison Tyson and back to Holyfield again.

There was Bowe, Lewis, Tyson, Holyfield, and then you had Ruddock, Foreman, Moorer, Mercer, Morrison, who got good exposure to the public and the division got hot. I wouldn't say the decade blew the 80's heavies out of the water.

 

The division was full of fatties and druggies, and guys who were squandering their talent or spending their energies fighting with Don King, who controlled the heavyweight ranks like a plantation master.

I'm old enough to remember, so don't try to tell me otherwise.

One of Tyson's main assets in those days of '86 was his management team of Jacobs and Cayton.
They kept his as active as possible - and off the streets. And they provided the right professional environment and weren't intent on robbing him blind.

 

Those fatties and druggies were still better than what was to come and Tyson fought all of them. Im old enough to remember too. Jacobs and Cayton were the ones who cleaned up the division by dictating to King what was going to happen with Tyson no the other way around. King, like he did throughout the 90's, had some sort of interest in most heavyweight contenders, so he was always involved in one way or another, even if he didnt control the champion.

 

Better than who ? Holyfield, Lewis and Bowe ?

Don King promoted the HBO unification series, which became a bit of a farce when Spinks pulled out, if not before that with the Tubbs and Witherspoon trouble in December 1986.
In was only the presence of Tyson that saved that tournament's credibility at all.