What Does It Say About Tyson...

Bruno barely put up a fight, scared shitless, but Tyson was impressive. His only real good win post-prison.

Seldon DIDN'T put up a fight at all.
If that guy was any sort of "champion" then I'm the king of England.

 

Five inches taller even. But he didn't rule the heavyweight division.

 

Even though I think the division declined from the mid-70s on, I dont think that's the reason the 80s gets a bad rap.

The real reason the 80s always got a bad rap is because for the first time ever there was real confusion over the splintered titles. And at HEAVYWEIGHT, coming straight after the popular Muhammad Ali era, this was almost a death knell for boxing. From 1978-87 it was alphabet soup, and combined with a lack of charismatic champ it really turned people off.

That accounts for Tyson's popularity too. He looked like a throwback to purer times, and his rise coincided exactly with a Don King/HBO tournament to unify the titles.

The fat guys with drug problems isn't the real reason the 80s heavyweights were dismissed. That was just another thing to pick up on.

 

Well, I dont dismiss anything.

I actually think "the 70s" heavyweight thing is the most overrated, precisely because the latter part of that decade was especially unimpressive. The star player of the decade, Ali, was actually over-the-hill and embarrassingly so at times.

The alpabet soup of the 80s was disappointing, BUT I would defend the heavyweight fighters of the 80s against the idea that the (mid-late) 70s OR the new generation of the 90s were any better.

 

yep.after he trashed bruno and seldon,boxing monthly said his new reign would be easier than 1st time;
"there is tyson and the rest,tyson reigns supreme"is what they said in the holyfield build up.
nobody said he was damaged goods before Holy wrecked him.a new reign of terror was forecast.

 

This is true. In fact, I thought he looked at least as good in 1996 against Bruno as he'd looked against Ruddock in 1991.
With Lewis barely scraping past Mercer, and Bowe looking dreadful against Golota, Tyson was the outstanding heavyweight in mid-1996.

 

He was still decent in his later years, but his competition post prison doesn't tell us much. When you look at men like Mathis, Mcneeley, Savarese, Botha, and Norris these men did not give us an accurate gauge to measure how good Tyson still was. Holyfield and Lewis were his only true tests and he failed them both, albeit he was past his prime.