What is your ranking of Mike Tyson?

Winona... :hitit

 

Man Addie how could anyone not put Tyson in the top 100:huh Quit being nitpicking the mans resume and watch him fight. Not too many fighters have ever possessed a combination of speed,power,ferociousness as this man. In fact no heavyweight ever has. Yey a few had his power and ferouciousness but not his speed, or no matter how you look at it no one had a combo of all 3.( yey a few will mention Dempsey but not like Tyson)

Tysons resume isnt as great as others but on ability,dominance alone he is 7 on my all time Heavyweight list, and a top 50 atg.:yep

 

He's an all-time great on the "what coulda/shoulda been" list been realistically he's in my top 10 all-time HW list regardless.

 

I will give Mike an A in ability in 1985-1988. Head movement and hand speed and anticipation.
Resume? I give Mike a B.. He fought good guys but did not fight Witherspoon who I thought was the toughest opponent for him and could have beaten him. Mike did not have that other great fighter to test him.
Dominance Mike gets a A. In his prime we are talking. He beat all the contenders of the 1980's with the exception of Witherspoon like Tubbs,Thomas,Tucker,Bonecrusher,Biggs,Berbick,Spinks, Holmes ,Williams. A good list and he dominated them.
Longevity B- or C+. Had he just focused more on boxing he could have stayed champion until Bowe or Lennox took over and the big heavyweights became more the norm.

 

I'd have him among the top 15 heavyweights of all-time. Possibly he'd scrape in to the top 10.

 

Agree with that.

 

I have Tyson at 9 sandwiched between Foreman at 8 and Ez Charles at 10 (correction to earlier post - thought I had Ez at 12 but he's number 10 definately)

PS in agreement on Winona Ryder too - and Anarci who is the babe on your avatar - she could go a few close rounds with Winona - would probably try to get a ringside seat for that :heyshock:

 

Ability: Extraordinary combination of speed and power, with subtle technical skills, a good defence with that peek-a-boo stance and bob & weave movement, and a good chin to back it up. H2H, he is tough for anybody. However I do feel that his foot speed is somewhat over-rated in conjunction to his hand-speed, although he's still pretty nifty on his feet. And I do feel he can be out-boxed (Ali) or taken out of his rhythm, frustrated, roughed-up and then out-boxed (Holyfield), even in his prime.

Resume: His resumé is one of the things that let's him down. In terms of achievement, it's outstanding being he unified the heavyweight championships all by himself to become undisputed, and the youngest champion ever at that. However, it's a resumé full of B level wins. Even the top names such as Holmes and Spinks aren't A level in my opinion. Holmes was past his best and Spinks, while an ATG light-heavyweight, was merely a 'good' HW in my eyes.

Dominance: His dominance was there for all to see, but short-lived. He cleaned out the division early and put in some very dominant performances, but it lasted only around 2 years from the time he become the undisputed heavyweight champion. 6 defences of his crown is okay, but it should of been a lot more. And his dominance is pale in comparison to the likes of Louis and Ali, but probably around the level of Lewis' when all is said and done.

Longevity: Poor. He had about 4 years in the 80's where he was operating at top-level, and a couple of years in the 90's. That's it, nothing more to say. He was around for a long time, but for a lot of that time he did nothing.

ATG Heavyweight Ranking: 11-14
ATG P4P Ranking: I'd imagine outside the top 100.

 

hmmm

 

His accomplishments speak for themselves. The youngest champion which you mentioned, the last to unify all three titles separately. Argueably the most dominant heavyweight champion in history. His wins over former greats Spinks and Holmes are often downplayed by Tyson's dominant destructive wins. Same goes for his competition. How do you define longevity, years or fights? Over the course of four,five years he cleaned out the entire division, unified the titles and was 36-0 before his first loss, which equates to about 12-15 years of his fellow greats fighting careers.