Who could beat Mike Tyson in his prime?

If you can decipher whats happening in Carpentier vs Dempsey then I bow my head to you and admit your eye is sharper than mine, because the footage quality is so bad that I cannot understand it

 

I thought it was fine tbh, I will say one thing. If a chinny LHW can pull Dempsey around and land consistently on the inside, I'd pray for him against Tyson.

 

I am very sure the following would beat Mike Tyson in his prime:

Mohammad Ali
Lennox Lewis
Rocky Marciano
Evander Holyfield
Sonny Liston
Joe Louis
Vitali Klitschko

 

Very sure?

 

92 Bowe and the best version of Ali are only guys i think could pull it off.

Mike Tyson could track Ali down and leather him with left hooks like Frazier did. Frazier had a better work rate , but Mike takes more out of Ali during the first 6-8 rounds than Frazier did , imo.
Maybe over 15 rounds Ali could win but he'd have to box like Paul Heaton sings.

 

Very sure

 

Douglas beat a Mike Tyson who thought he could phone it in and win. He had a poor trainer and a mickey mouse corner who treated to him rubber balloons.
He caught Mike like Rahmam caught Lewis. 8/10 Tyson beat Douglas.

 

Yep. No need to make things much more difficult than they need to be.

Even if we're talking the very best version of Tyson, the best versions of Douglas and Holy should be favourites to beat him (I'd have a Holy as a quite clear favourite). And that does open the floodgates somewhat. Even though I do think Tyson looked fantastic against many a good opponent during a span of almost 15 years.

 

Rahman beat Lewis with one punch, and Lewis duly returned the favour. Douglas outclassed Mike. There was nothing remotely flukey about it. He was on top for almost every second during the 10 rds it lasted. It was a beat down, during which Mike had one good moment. Lewis never lost like that.

 

It's almost empirically accepted that Tyson was far from his best shape and nor did he have his best corner in Tokyo.

It's perfectly fine to pick Douglas if you believe he still would have beaten Tyson from the Rooney period but thrusting Douglas forth as a mandatory choice is disingenuous for mine.

 

You misunderstood my point.

Lewis was not switched on and took Rahman lightly. He was distracted in Africa. Mike was distracted in Japan where he was partying like there was no tomorrow.

When a more focused Lewis took Rahman very seriously it ended with Rahman layed out cold.

Douglas had to beat on a husk and vacant version of Mike round after round to get rid of him , yet he was still a whisker away from being stopped himself.

The full version of Tyson under Rooney gets to Buster earlier and takes him out.

 

Tbf, it's only empirically accepted after the fact. At the time no one thought Mike was far from his best, as I can remember.

My personal guess is that he wasn't at his best, but not nearly as far from it as is now near consensus. He wasn't over weight and didn't show a particularly poor gas tank either. He was physically and mentally sharp enough to catch Douglas with a strong counter after taking a beating over 8 rounds. That doesn't square with a terrible shape for me.

 

Sounds like a guy who’s never watched Marciano fight. Marciano rarely got hit with combos and big punches because of his defense and unorthodox styles. And Holyfield was a march forward type and he did fine because he controlled the distance. Can Marciano? Sure. Can Tyson get him out early? Maybe but lesser fighters lasted iron mike Tyson so I’m not sure.

 

No, I don't misunderstand you. I just think it's a big difference between losing because of one moments lapse of concentration and losing because you get the **** beat out of you for 10 rds.

The fact that Douglas had to beat on Mike "round after round to get rid of him" as you say shows me that Mike's shape can't have been that bad.

 

Yes but the facts came out. I've seen your numerous posts about Tyson not being that much different post Rooney and i would even agree it does get exaggerated. However i fully believe that under Rooney he did train better, particularly just after winning the title and i have zero doubts Rooney gave him much better corner advice than others and also knew far better how to deal with his mental "tendencies".

Tyson was young and had plenty of natural stamina. I'm not sure him catching Douglas with that uppercut late shows him to be in anything like as good a shape as he was in earlier career.

Even after that shellacking Tyson would have been strongly favored in the rematch even if Douglas turned up in great shape and weighing what he should have.

As i said i fully accept someone saying they saw enough in their encounter to favor Douglas in a rematch, absolutely. There's no chance in the world for me that Douglas should be an automatic mandatory choice for all concerned over the best of Tyson however. Not a snowballs chance in hell.