Who rates higher as an all time heavyweight: Evander Holyfield or Mike Tyson?

It would be hard to rate a fighter who went 2-0 below another fighter, one fight a one off, two fightts no.

 

I have Tyson slightly higher because of his greater dominance but it can go either way.
Both of them and Lewis are in the same ballpark really.

 

I rate Tyson higher. True Holyfield beat him - and possibly had his number all along. But I find Tyson's career better overall, mainly that late 80s run of dominance. I've always found Holy too inconsistent to rank in my All time HW top 10, despite his occasional highs. Tyson just sneaks in.

 

I'd say Holyfield without a doubt. He won the world title in 1990 against Douglas and in 2000, 10 years later, he regained it against Ruiz. He lost and regained the world title several times. Until 2000, when Evander was 38, he had only lost to Bowe (twice), Moorer, and Lewis, managing to win once against Moorer and Bowe. Holyfield has better numbers than Tyson in world title fights, has lasted longer at the top, and also has better names among the opponents he's defeated, Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson himself primarily.

 

In my heavyweight rankings i have Tyson at 8 and Holyfield 11

 

Holyfield

Riddick Bowe
Mike Tyson x2
Michael Moorer
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Ray Mercer
Pinklon Thomas
Michael Dokes
Buster Douglas
John Ruiz

10-5 in world title fights.

Pros for Holyfield

Actually beat Tyson in a H2H match.

Beat Douglas for the Heavyweight title who actually beat Tyson.

More memorable fights.

Best single wins over Bowe and Tyson himself.

Tyson

Michael Spinks
Larry Holmes
Tony Tucker
Razor Ruddock x2
Pinklon Thomas
Bonecrusher Smith
Trevor Berbick
Frank Bruno x2
Tyrell Biggs
Carl Williams
Tony Tubbs

12-4 in world title fights.

Pros for Tyson

A much more dominant title reign.

More consistent in world title fights.

 

Holyfield ranks only behind Ali, Louis, and Holmes in my ATG world.

 

Very close. Tysons got everything going for him except H2H.

I will rate Holyfield higher in Holyfields era but Tyson fought in the era before that too and almost cleaned it out.

 

There’s not really a wrong answer here - I have them rounding out my top10 and depending on the day I’d put one over the other.

To Tyson’s credit, he cleaned out a division in the space of 20’months and Holyfield benefitted himself from that by winning the undisputed title from Douglas. Plus, Tyson’s first title reign was much more memorable than Hooyfield’s in terms of dominance and style.

Both came back from defeats and regained a partially unified title but then Holyfield b at Tyson twice and the way he did that makes it hard for me to pick Tyson beating him when they were originally supposed to meet u. 1991.

****, I don’t know - flip a coin.



I

 

I rank Tyson (9th) two spots ahead of Holyfield (11th) on my list, but as I've noted here many times my personal rankings have nothing to do with H2H. I rank him marginally higher because of the two "pros" Dynamic Puncher cited in his favor. But 9th and 11th are so close it's throw a blanket over them time, in all honesty.

 

You forgot Wlad and Rocky

 

Most people don't have Wladimir top 10.

 

Fair enough it's probably closer on here.