was the death of Cus, the deciding factor in Tysons greatness??

So was Mike a great fighter or a very good fighter?

 

He was a great heavyweight at his best, there's no denying that.

P4P he's shadowed by so many truly great fighters, as are most heavyweights, to be fair.

 

Only heavyweight to be rated p4p no1 too. And for a few years at that.

 

I get what your saying about his last fight , but in my opinion a great has longevity and beating a light heavyweight and past it Holmes isn't enough to be called great. And you add to the fact when he lost they were all bad.

 

You dont go 37 and 0 as a 23 year old heavyweight, fighting the guys tyson did and beating them the way he did if your not great...

 

Holyfield had been desperate to beat Tyson since he turned pro due to their sparring session back in '84

He didnt just pull these comments out of his ass in 96-97 after he beat Tyson.

Why was Lennox hell bent on securing his legacy by beating Tyson?

If Tyson wasnt great, why were people hellbent on cementing their place in boxing history by beating him?

Nobody wants to complete their legacy defeating a bum. You dont hear people calling out Audley Harrison.

Boxers tend to call out the best in their division/era, Floyd, Pac, Klits, Ward etc

If guys like Holyfield and Lewis desperate to beat Tyson, that was because his name meant something.

 

Pibb, I generally respect your opinion on most things, but beg to differ here.

He did great things.

As said, the youngest champion (heavyweiight) in history. And the lightning rise to the top...almost unprecedented.
Also absolutely destroying big grown men as a teenager with contemptuous ease.
He won all the belts in a short space of time, never seeking an easy fight, never ducking anyone. He went after everybody.

His style...probably the ultimate evolution of the short man, that head movement, the handspeed, the explosiveness, the combos, that little hop-step to get inside quickly...two handed punching power, great reflexes...had a ferocity not seen since Dempsey and combined handspeed and power that (in my mind) nobody else has managed. Had an aura of menace to rival that of Liston's.

Not too many guys under 6' can destroy opponents 6'6" and sometimes dozens of pounds heavier, yet Tyson did it many times. His destruction of the then-unbeaten linear champ Spinks was as conclusive and dominating a win as any in history.

People say he didn't have a long prime, but he won the title back 10 years after winning it the first time. That is almost the entire career span of Rocky Marciano, and only three short of Frazier's entire career span. He had pretty good longevity for a short guy.

Highest paid athlete in 1988...almost twice that of runner-up Michael Jordan.
P4P #1 in '87 and '88.
A true sporting megastar.

These are all great things.

 

Yeah. I was shocked in the Holyfield fight that Evander actually had quicker hands than Tyson.
You can see it in Bruno II as well. Mike had slowed up a fair bit.

Tyson was still quick, but at his best his hands were definitely quicker than Evander's.

 

I think they way he destroyed them was great. Nobody used Holmes like a heavybag before or since.

His losses...Douglas was one of those things. It was Buster's night and Mike had one bad one.

Post-prison he lost to Evander in a great fight and yeah...lost in a shameful biting incident. I do feel Holy gets a free pass with all that liberal headbutting though, which led to the biting incident. But they were losses all the same.

Lewis...Tyson was dangerous, but ultimately done as a fighter. He was done by the time of the Botha fight really, but the great KO papered over the cracks.

The other two losses were just the result of a fighter overstaying his welcome. Happens to every fighter if they keep at it eventually.

I don't see anything especially bad here to be honest. Douglas on that night was brilliant, and Tyson was poor.

Losses to ATG like Holyfield and Lewis when past his best (long past in the case of Lewis) are not bad losses. It's not like he lost to Michael Bentt or anything.

 

Tyson was/is a headcase. Cus being alive might have helped him prolong his stay at the top for a bit, but eventually I think he'd self-destruct.

 

its a miracle he achieved what he did given his zero environmental resources.

 

Utter Unadulterated Bull**** but there again youre one pof the clowns that thinks the sun shines outtta Floyd's ass aren't ya?
Give up watchin boxing go back to balletatsch

 

Cus and Rooney.