Was Mike Tyson good or great?

Tyson was great. How great? Depends on how much leeway you give him and how far you buy into the excuses.

 

Possibly buts its arguable he wouldn't. There a debate somewhere about how Holy would have done against Tyson's 80s competition, some great points on both sides. I do edge towards Holyfield defeating them all but I dont think he would do it near as emphatically as Tyson did, minus the Douglas fight of course.

 

Doing it less emphatically yet beating Douglas is better for the legacy don't you think? A loss at the top of your game is a devastating setback.

 

Tyson for me is a great not only was he a dominant champion for a while but he really got a lot of people excited about boxing

 

I almost forget myself there for a minute, here was I thinking Holyfield beat all Tyson's competition in the 80s and then wiped out Tokyo Douglas. you give out a lot of free passes to anyone not named Mike Tyson. Anyway I'm not even comparing Holyfield and Tyson which is what this has turned into. My main argument is Tyson is still a great fighter despite his loss to Douglas. Where he is placed in terms of that greatness or in relation to Evander is another subject.

 

I'd say the only knock against Tyson is his lack of longevity.He is in my top ten.

 

If Douglas was in the same condition as he was for Tyson it would have been a tough fight for Evander.

 

His number of title defences are as good as anyone outside the top 3.

 

Or it would have been the same outcome, Douglas showed technically he was far from perfect in that bout. Holyfield had the intelligence and the ability to jump on any mistake he made.

 

I won't disagree. When your in there with Holyfield he likes to take the fight to a place that has nothing to do with boxing. Everything to do with desire and faith

 

Except in that fight he capitalised on a massive mistake from Douglas, he saw the opening and that's all she wrote.

 

Buster was only half there that night. Very sad way to go out. It was like he was saying people can't change.

 

I always got the impression that Buster planned to retire after the Tyson fight and showed up for Holyfield simply to pad his nest egg. He was clearly out of shape and put forth no real effort.

I've seen him in a couple extended interviews and he's a pretty intelligent and low-key guy (I get the impression he'd have probably have been a dentist or a tax lawyer or something if he'd been born where I was) and I think he just decided he'd paid all the dues anyone could rightly expect and was done getting hit in the head.

 

hard to argue that someone who is undisputed at 21 isnt great. Its not like he bottled it within the year like floyd.

However its interesting that they both ran out of the goods early in their careers.

 

Yea his dad probably pushed him into boxing. You had to drag dad out of the gym and drag Buster in.