Why do some people rate Frazier above Tyson?

No he was more than that. He cleaned out the division of the pretenders like Pinklon Thomas and Bonecrusher Smith and Tyrell Biggs and Tony Tubbs. Guys who would have kept exchanging championships. No solid champion before Mike and after Larry.

 

You have a good point. Tyson did clean up the division, but it was a very weak division at the time. The other thing Tyson did was create a lot of new boxing fans, and that was good for the sport.

I actually enjoyed watching Tyson fight, but he is very over rated by the fans who grew up watching him. A fighter who is very good, can still be extremely over rated. A recent example is Abraham. We saw how highly rated he was, and how badly he got his ass kicked when he started fighting other highly rated guys.

In my honest opinion, if Iron Mike would have been around in the Ali/Frazier/ Foreman era, we would remember him in the same light as we now remember guys like Quarry, Bonavena, and Chuvalo. An exciting and legit contender who never held a world title.

 

No, Tyson beat two HOF fighters. Frazier beat two, but one was a joke at heavyweight (Foster).

 

Frazier's a true All Time Great
Tyson is not.

Tyson is a "could have been".
He was amazing for a 20 year-old, 21 year-old fighter, and the best fighter in the world for a short time. But he was finished by 24, getting his ass kicked by Buster Douglas, a nobody.

Tyson could have been great.
Frazier WAS great.

 

I got no gripes with the rest of your post, but Buster Douglas was absolutely superb that night. It doesn't matter what he done before or after because on that night he would have beaten a lot of men. He ain't a nobody has he was undisputed champion, even if it was for a short time, and he beat a dominant, ferocious champion to become that. He beat him soundly.

 

He was a decent challenger who fought the fight of his life. Yes he fought a SUPERB challenge.
But I think true ATGs are supposed to overcome those sort of challengers. Tyson didn't even make it to the final bell.

 

Crazy stupid comparisons...Will agree though, no one was good enough to clean out the division back then...If anyone was good enough, those 10, 15, 20 loss guys might not look so good...

 

Accepted. But i stand by the fact Buster would of beaten a lot of men that night. ATGs included.

 

Joe is as one dimensional as it gets.

 

Marciano must be #1 on your list...

 

I don't know about #1 but he'd be a hell of a lot higher than Tyson.

 

joe frazier had killer hooks and won over Ali once dont see how Tyson can top Ali

 

Absolutely, he should be the only one on your list...

 

H2H I think Frazier stands a damn good chance against the post prison Tyson (around Holy 1).

If he survived the early onslaught I think he would rough that version of Tyson up on the inside, and possibly score a late stoppage.

 

I agree, but lots of heavyweight eras are pretty weak. I mean it's the "glamour" division, but how often is it really that stacked with talent?

Besides the 70s and 90s, how often do you look at a heavyweight era and go "damn, that was a strong era".