Where Tyson's opponents in the 80's absolute bums or he made it look easy?

Green and Tucker were undeveloped talent who had drug issues.Tillis had been faded for about 3 years. Frazier, whenever put in with a legit top 10 talent, was always going to come out second best. Holmes was old. Berbick was good, but Tyson was better. And Bonecrusher, Ribalta, and Ferguson were liimited.

 

Or, if he had come around about thirty-seven years earlier and plied his trade from the late 40s through '55 he might well have been the first fighter to go 49-0 with 49 KOs.

 

Yeah..you can drop a Tyson,Lewis or Ali in any era and im sure they will more than likely dominate the field

 

His opposition was neither stellar nor weak.. It was middle of the road when contrasted to challengers that heavyweight champions throughout history fought.. On one hand, there were no Joe Fraziers or George Foremans on that record.. But at the same time you didn't have Scott Ledouxs, Chuck Wepners or Jack Ropers either. Most of them for the most part were pretty solid fighters but either falling short of elite or were formerly elite but had slipped.

 

The OP asks whether he fought absolute bums in the 1980s, and I say, yeah, he fought some. And also some good fighters.
Then some other postor asked "who are the bums ?"
There's a much longer list than the two I mentioned, I'm sure, if that's what you mean. :good
It's hardly stooping low to answer some basic questions. :good
We seem to agree.

Anyway, if we're honest, since 1986 Tyson was marketed on the highlight reels that included those very names, and similar ones. Perhaps you should blame Cayton and Jacobs for stooping low by matching Tyson with unmentionable bums.

 

Excellent breakdown of his opposition.

 

Tyson didn't avoid Witherspoon. Witherspoon got kod in 1 round by Bonecrusher, so Tyson fought James instead of Tim. Then, Tim split with Don King and therefore couldn't get a shot at Tyson. I think Tyson-Witherspoon would have been a competitive fight, but I don't think Mike avoided him.

 

yes this is a pretty good answer,,,

Tyson seems to be getting a lot of hate on ESB these last few years,,,,

for me he had a short prime but he was a all time great in his short prime, his speed and energy in his prime was what made him so good, after he became really good he lost focus more than most and kept imploding and I don't ever recall him coming back after that with the same speed, agility and energy that he had before he started loosing that prime focus he had in his first few years before buster.

 

Mike Tyson made more money than Ali, Foreman, Holyfield and Lewis all put together. He wasn't grounded as a person so that 300-400 million he made had him more interested in a life of luxury with drugs and alcohol than living the dedicated life of a fighter. He didn't fight buns he was just a phenomenal fighter that destroyed people and made them look like bums. Holyfield fought Holmes 4 years after Tyson and went 12 rounds with him. Tyson was the only man to ever KO Holmes and he didn't just TKO him, he put him to sleep.

 

:thumbsup

 

Marvis Frazier
Tyrell Biggs
Trevor Berbick
James Tillis
Peter McNeeley
Alex Stewart
Pinklon Thomas

this are bums with names , the other fighters like
Sammy Scaff are under Pro level

 

Just to correct you Holmes was not put to sleep.

 

How was Trevor Berbick a bum? He was a former world champion


Alec Stewart a bum? The same Stewart who beat the **** out of Foreman and gave Holyfield and Moorer competitive fights.

Infact Holyfield fought him twice!

Pinklon Thomas was another former world champion, it didn't stop Holyfield and Bowe fighting him years later.

Tyrell Biggs was an undefeated Olympian with the style favoured to beat Tyson who also went on to give a good account of himself against Bowe.

James Tillis and Marvis Frazier were experience journeyman/gatekeepers, not bums.

Ffs.

 

Except he was.

 

I feel pretty much all Tyson challengers were legitment. Tucker, Thomas, Tubbs, Berbick, Bruno, Williams were all very solid contenders when they faced Tyson and he has to be given a lot of credit for beating them. Spinks is a truly great fighter even as a heavyweight he was very cagey and hard to beat but Tyson came out strong and blitz him early, very impressive victory. Biggs was a gold medalist and undefeated at the time he faced Tyson. Gotta give Tyson some credit for this victory, Biggs was a tough stylistic match up but Tyson pretty much took the fight out of him in the first round and dominated after that. Biggs may have been rushed into his title effort but what Tyson did to him was exactly how you'd expect a great champion to take care of that challenge. Smith didn't have much aside from a punchers chance against Tyson and pretty much just tried to survive. Holmes was far passed his prime but I believe still good enough to beat mostly anyone out there. It would've been wise for Holmes to take a couple tune ups before fighting Tyson but still Holmes was a master boxer and the way Tyson disposed of him was maybe his most impressive performance. Remember Holmes would comeback I believe 4 years later and launch an impressive comeback where he beat Ray Mercer and gave a good losing effort against Evander Holyfield in his prime.

Tyson's reign was very good and is certainly enough in my opinion to prove he was a great fighter when at his best. The only thing missing from Tyson's reign and career was a victory over a great heavyweight who wasn't over the hill. If you put Tyson in his prime against the top 10 heavyweights I wouldn't count him out against any of them.