Who is the greatest HW of the last 25 years?

Lewis was probably the best, but Tyson's career far overshadow's Lewis becuse of the mainstream attention that Tyson's destroyer style attracted.

 

with all due respect you don't know what you're talking about. First, Tyson beat no other ATG, but who on the list other than holyfield has? What great fighters did Lewis beat (old holy is as good as old holmes). Tyson decimated top contenders including: old holmes, spinks, tucker, bruno, ruddock. And did the same to other contenders who despit what you've heard weren't bums and all of them weren't coke heads. Secondly, tyson's skills were heads and shoulders above those of let's say lewis. Tyson's d was awesome, he threw every punch well and with force. You must be one of those guys that thinks all of his opponents didn't fight back and were scared simply out of some type of irrational fear -- that's bs. What other hw mentioned was PfP number 1? What other Hw mentioned was pfp number 1 for 2 years? Gonna be tough to answer those questions. If you don't think Tyson was great and that there's at least an argument he's as 'great' as the others mentioned it ain't worth arguing. As i said earlier the nod as the 'greatest' (which is totally subjective) might go to lewis just for consistency, but there are strong arguments for tyson and holy (as i now watch the moorere fight i realize that holy's wins over bowe, a good tyson, and moorer arguably the strongest wins although holy was clearly juiced up).

 

and what great prime fighter did lewis beat? vitaly and morrison are the only ones that come close. lewis' w's over tua, briggs, mercer, golota and the aforementioned aren't much different than tyson's comp, bro. the only edge is that due to lewis' consistency, he's got a few more solid wins.

 

the klitschkos' in every aspect of the sport; as athletes annd role models

 

Tyson, the man put Heavyweight boxing back on the map. Out of the names that were mentioned, a 100 years from now Tyson will be the one thats most remembered.

 

John Ruiz

 

iron

 

Lennox Lewis

 

So, Arturo Gatti became the youngest HW champ in history and unified his belts one at a time, as well? It's funny you keep ripping Tyson's competition, yet don't bring up that he revitalized the division by destroying the contenders (and Holmes himself) that were around during the latter part of Holmes' title reign. So, we can give Holmes full credit for that and I've seen no mention of his competition in this thread, but Tyson destroying any remnants of that era puts him on par with Gatti?

Double standard much?

As for the others on list, Evander and Lennox are famous as much for beating Tyson as they are for their accomplishments prior to it. In terms of defining greatness, I don't think you can ignore the impact Mike had on boxing- it was near Dempsey-like in terms of igniting the divisions' resurgence.

But it wasn't just the sizzle with Mike. Yes, Gatti-like fighters do this every day:
1)Win the heavyweight title before they can legally buy the champagne to celebrate with.
2)Unify all 3 major belts, one at a time- a feat that is unheralded, but extremely difficult to do, particularly at the HW level.
3)Defended those unified belts 6 times, knocking out every contender...that # of unified defenses happens to be more than any other fighter on that list.

Love him or hate him, Tyson was the glue for that generation of heavyweights. Had they not beaten him, neither Lewis or Holyfield would've gotten as big as they did.

 

Prime Tyson or lewis. Its anyones game!

 

I almost always argue with you regarding your love for Wlad, but this post was pinpoint accurate and very well put, I couldnt of said it any better myself.:good

 

Thanks chief :!:. I may be a Wlad fan, but I don't let that get in the way of me giving other fighters their props, and I'm a big fan of Tyson as well. Truth be told, if it wasn't for Tyson and Roy Jones fighting while I was growing up, I probably wouldn't have gotten in to boxing like I did. Both those guys will probably always be larger than life to me, even though I'm bigger than both lol.

 

Same here, not so much RJJ, but certainly Tyson. While Lewis' resume may be better, Tyson's impact on Boxing was legendary. During the late 80's he put Heavyweight boxing back on the map, like Dempsey did in the late teens and early 20's, or like Ali in the 60's and 70's, these are the fighters that will never be forgotten.

Like or not, Tyson was this era's greatest most popular Heavyweight fight.

 

I have a couple posts to answer...but I will start with this one.

Now, you stated that Mike Tyson was the GREATEST because he generated the most excitement...was the more WORLD RECOGNIZED!!! This was the original reason you stated in your original post.

Here let me quote it for you...

Now as I said...Gatti created excitement and is more world recognized than Pernell was....yet NOONE will argue he was GREATER!!!

Nice try in spinning my words BTW!!!

:good

And yes, I am ripping Tyson's competition. Rightfully so. But it is in no way hate or maliciously intended. I was a HUGE Tyson fan as a kid/teen...he did revitalize the division...but we are talking who should be considered THE GREATEST!!! When we are talking GREATEST, we HAVE to look at competition, we have to look at longevity, we have to look at H2H, we have to look at accomplishments...not just who was more popular.

The posters on this site make me cringe with this ****...seriously. Its like, either you blindly bow to a fighter or you are a hater (ignoring that I consider Tyson one of the top ten HWs of all time BTW).

YES, Tyson was an ATG!
YES, Tyson was the most DOMINANT HW champ of all time!
YES, Tyson was a physical freak of nature...and one of (if not THE) most feared fighters of all time!

BUT NONE OF THAT CHANGES THE FACT THAT....

YES, Tyson's competition was very subpar!
YES, Tyson's reign at the top was VERY short lived!
YES, Tyson lost every time he fought another ATG (0-3)!

Does that make me a hater of a fighter...or a realist?

If his fights were being shown on ESPN Classic right now...I wouldnt be typing this because I would be watching...but again, that also would not make him the greatest ever...or even of the past 25 years.