Who really was the best fighter Tyson fought while Champion

tubbs, thomas, williams were all under the age of 30 and at/near their primes. all were very talented. Tubbs, Thomas were two top alpha champs that holmes never fought and can be accused of avoiding(especially thomas) who at one point in early 85 by ring magazine was rated # 1 heavyweight in the world ahead of holmes.

 

Yes there was definitely some solid talent there. Louis's era also has its hiden depths.

I think Louis's era was better because it was much longer and took in champions from Max Schmeling in the early 30s to Joe Walcott in the early 50s.

 

Make that an astonishing 11 or 50% right now. To me it was between Thomas and Holmes. Holmes was old but i thought he beat Spinks and he did prepare for the fight for months. He beat Mercer 5 years later. However, i voted for Thomas because he was more active and outside of Berbick had beaten a lot of worthy 80's contenders as well as good style (jab, great durability) to beat Tyson.

 

Holmes would have been unranked when he fought Tyson since he was coming off two losses and had not scored a win since 1985.

If we rate fighters based on wins over rated foes than Holmes is not even a candidate.

 

True (one of the reasons i voted for Thomas over Holmes), but you have to consider that Holmes, in an objective scoring, probably won the Spinks fight and that he never lost before that either, with a massive championship reign (compared to Tucker, Spinks, Tubbs etc). In addition to that, he went on to beat a top contender years later and he was preparing for this fight for months.

 

Larry Holmes. Most everyone believes he won his rematch with Spinks, thus rising above him. Was good enough to compete with, and beat some, of the '90s top heavyweights while above the age of 40.

He really wasn't doing that bad against Mike. Ok, he got the **** knocked out of him; but go back and look at his performance. He was putting up a decent fight. Had he been just a little younger, and made it past the 5th round, Mike may have been in a bit of trouble. Tyson has a lot of fast twitch muscle fibers. Those are the kind to go first. I don't think he hits like Chris Byrd after 5 rounds, but the steam isn't what it is in the first few rounds. Holmes did not weaken as much as fights go on.

 

Not voted yet and not sure if he should be in the poll (Tyson wasn't champ) but i am summing up Berbick right now. He came to fight and was not scared one bit. Didn't back off either. Tyson at this point was a slightly unknown commodity vs top 5 heavies and Berbick really did look like he thought he could take him. Nice fight actually. I just can't get myself to vote him just yet. Without hindsight Spinks was the one given the most chance, had some good support believe it or not.

 

I voted for Thomas too. People are obviously just judging on who went the distance and who didn't. I thought Thomas came to win far more than Tucker did. He had a real good go for 6 rounds, Tucker 'Bugnered' his way to a points loss.

 

Despite Tyson being a little unexperienced in that fight, i thought he never looked better (except vs Spinks) than he did against Berbick. Re-watched it last week, a great short fight. Berbick comes out aggressively, probably planning to expose the Tyson hype, mixes it up and 15 seconds later he's holding on for dear life. What caught my attention that fight is Tyson's combinations. He literally threw 4-5 punch combo's that night. Maybe because Berbick came at him, but still, he seemed to throw more of them than during most of his other fights as champ.

 

I agree with everything MDWC said about Tucker.

I took the "while champion" bit literally, so I haven't considered Berbick.

Spinks, Thomas, Holmes or Berbick. Perhaps Buster Douglas ?

 

It was a top little stouch. What made it absolutely brilliant for me was that the friend and i had been on the Tyson hype machine for ages and had been waiting for him to make that big step up so we could all see if he was the real deal. There were still a few minor doubts going in, but boy did he prove himself this night. You're maybe right, in many ways he may never have been better.

 

That's why i haven't voted. It's a damn tight call isn't it lol. Holmes is not in the running for me, he was so damn slow this night and was never at any point dangerous at all. At least a few others had small moments. I think i might names his sparring partner, Super Greg Page, at least he dropped him!

 

Tyson had no great competition in the late 80s. Holmes was past it. Spinks lost before the fight started - he was completely shitting it - mentally gone. Pinklon Thomas had drug problems. Bruno froze even after hurting Tyson in the first. Ali came back to win against many greats in the 70s. Tyson didn't in the 90s. I don't count Bruno as a great. Bruno always froze against Tyson. Just a shame that he didn't fight Bowe or Lewis around the same time as Holyfield to get a better picture on how good he was. But he was at his best in late 80s like Ali was in late 60s only the competition was not the best at their peak years.

 

Tony Tucker was the best he faced, shame he didn't develop.

 

I've always said that Tyson's 80s was better than Ali's 60s but Ali's 70s was better than Tyson's 90s.

Incidentally the 70s and 90s were the HW division's strongest eras.