Was Mike Tyson a cherry picker in the 1990's?

So McCall stopping Lewis and then losing his title to Bruno was King's doing?

 

Bowe's standing had been ruined by Golota at that point and he retired soon afterwards.

 

I repeat: Going into '96, Bowe and then Lewis were indeed seen as the most exciting match-ups for Tyson, but neither held a major title. Tyson went after the available titles and Bowe ran into Golota and then Tyson ran into Holy. Few expected Bowe to get his ass handed to him by Golota or Tyson to get his handed to him by Holy, but reality doesn't always follow the script.

 

I see that as a toss up. Bowe never fought a puncher of that level or skill. His defense was pretty poreus. Therefore we can't quite rule out Tyson Ko 1. Granted Tyson would have to get Big Daddy out early. It's one of the classic 50/50 fight but I'd lean Tyson getting the Ko.

 

Pre prison Tyson fought everyone. Post prison ended up in one of the deepest HW era with only a portion of his previous skill. He didn't fight a lot of big names. But he still fought a lot good ****ing fighters.

 

I think he cherry picked after Holyfield 2 in his comeback in 1999. But by then he was just fighting for money and to get out of debt and probably wanted soft fights. People can say he tried cherry picking with Ettiene, Williams, Mcbride but he was not good enough to deal with cherry picked opponents anymore at this stage.

 

Yes that's true but the point I was making was that had Tyson kept winning he would've fought the bigger names in the division at the time.

 

First off Mercer was not unranked, if you go by the fights you mentioned both were very close wars so your point is unfocused. What is the definition of cherry picked other than avoiding the toughest men you don’t have to fight while fighting China chinned opponents vulnerable to your style like a Seldon or a Steward and get positioned to fight a game but limited Bruno who you already previously dominated ?

 

Mercer was unranked by The Ring going into '96 and hadn't won a fight since' 93. How can he possibly be a better opponent than someone who actually held a major title?

 

Is it just me, or is it something completely new to call facing title holders for cherry picking?

 

I think it's a given that Bruno & Seldon were not the strongest of champions, but they weren't the worst either. Given Tyson's 4 plus years inactivity I think these sequence of fights post prison is perfectly reasonable in shaking off the rust. To expect him to jump right into the top tier is not realistic to say the least, it was just fortunate for Tyson that Bruno & Seldon held versions of the title. As I said before, had Tyson kept winning he would've been matched tougher.
As Bokaj pointed out, Bowe was fading by this time but I think King would've pushed for that fight after Holyfield for the same reason he selected Holyfield. But after that I've no doubt the other fights would've happened.

 

Some seem to mean that Tyson should have called the two title holders as unworthy of his time to not be a cherry picker. The guy held two of the three major titles a year after his comeback. For me that's a productive year. I actually can't get my head around what's wrong with it. Is it really a seriously held position that he should have ignored the available titles of pure disdain for those that held them, or else be a cherry picker?

 

Actually, Tyson's run up to his his fight with Berbick in '86 was pretty risk free. Mostly it seems to have been set up for him to put together a highlight reel. The fight with Tillis turned out to be competitive, but seeing how Tillis came off four defeats in his last five, he was probably supposed to be another easy win, albeit a bigger name than the previous opponents. Green and Frazier were decent, but I don't think he faced a ranked opponent (well, maybe Frazier at the time he faced him) before challenging the experienced and rugged Berbick. A clear jump in class from his previous opp, but it obviously didn't bother him much at all.

 

Not to say I'd call this "cherry picking", as such. I think he'd done enough to earn a shot at Berbick's title.