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

Savak · May 19, 2015

heizenberg said: ↑

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.
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The question has to be asked which great Heavy Weight do the likes of Lewis and Holyfield have on their resume who weren't shot?

Another question that has to be asked is if we put the 90's fighters and swap them with the list of fighters Tyson faced in the 80's, would the result be any different?

Foxy 01 · May 19, 2015

Savak said: ↑

The question has to be asked which great Heavy Weight do the likes of Lewis and Holyfield have on their resume who weren't shot?

Another question that has to be asked is if we put the 90's fighters and swap them with the list of fighters Tyson faced in the 80's, would the result be any different?
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As far as Holyfield is concerned, do you just want the ones that beat Tyson, or all of them?

Kokid83 · May 19, 2015

Foxy 01 said: ↑

As far as Holyfield is concerned, do you just want the ones that beat Tyson, or all of them?
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Im very interested in what you think, who are the great heavyweights Lewis/Holyfield beat? not saying they didn't but im curious who you would classify as great?

15thRound · May 20, 2015

Savak said: ↑

The question has to be asked which great Heavy Weight do the likes of Lewis and Holyfield have on their resume who weren't shot?

Another question that has to be asked is if we put the 90's fighters and swap them with the list of fighters Tyson faced in the 80's, would the result be any different?
Click to expand...

The closest thing Lewis beat to a great fighter was a shop-worn 37 year-old Holyfield

I rate Holyfield's wins over Tyson quite high though. the Tyson of 96-97 wasn't prime Tyson, but I still think he was nowhere close to being shot or washed up. He probably would've beaten anyone except Holyfield at that time.

Also, the 1993 version of Rid**** Bowe was quite formidable.

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

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

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