Why has Mike Tyson become so underrated?

I stand by my statement that he gets dinged more than most for something that happened on one night.. You can't even start a conversation about the man's favorite color without someone butting in out of nowhere and saying TOKYO DOUGLAS !!! And you know I'm right. Let's put it to the test. Go start a thread about any mike Tyson topic you choose. His amateur career.. His being raised by Cus D'Amato.. His marriage to Robyn Givens.. Anything you want.. I can almost guarantee that within just a few posts, someone is going to drag the Douglas loss in there and talk about how bad it hurts his legacy... I'm not a gambling man but if I were THAT might be a bet I'd feel comfortable taking.

 

Tyson had already established his legacy well before the Holyfield and Lewis fights.

You know you're a great fighter when your peers make it their mission to cement their legacy by beating you.

Holyfield, on numerous documentaries made it clear Tyson was the man to beat.

Lewis admitted numerous times that he needed to beat Tyson to cement his legacy.

Holmes came back to challenge Tyson.

Foreman wanted Tyson (although that was mainly for financial reasons).

Vitali was ****ed with Danny Williams for preventing him from cementing his name by beating Tyson.

All these guys knew, beating Tyson meant something.

Larry Holmes was great, guys like Tucker, Ruddock and Bruno were very good.

Tyson is/was the best at blowing out most of his opposition. At heavyweight nobody comes close. Except maybe Louis and Foreman.

We've been through this numerous times.

Why would Tyson fight Spoon when Tyson took the title off the guy who knocked Spoon out in 1 round.

Tyson had trouble with very good and great fighters?

Id like to know who doesn't.

How many people actually made it into the late rounds vs Tyson?

Not many. Out of the 44 fights he won, only 5 men made the distance.

Lewis never got up off the floor to win a fight either.

And there's a whole lot more.

Tysons resume is one of the best at heavyweight.

Only Ali, Louis and Holyfield have clearly better resumes.

Lewis edges it with his wins over Vitali, Holyfield and avenging his losses. And obviously the victory over Tyson himself. Otherwise the gap isn't that far between them.

Tysons resume is better than Dempseys, Bowes, Vitalis, Listons, and Marcianos and Fraziers.

Holmes is debatable.

 

Lol at you trying to sneak in Frazier. People will try anything, I guess. :-(

 

Fraziers resume is better than Bowes.

And Bowes is pretty poor.

 

I think they're both pretty close.. Bowe was never stopped and only beaten once by an ATG whom he beat twice.

 

:huh

 

Absolutely. It was very highly anticipated. One of the best fights that should have happened.

 

I feel Frazier really cleaned out the best of his division at the time and then putting the cherry on the cake with the Ali win.

Bowe didn't really do that.

I also feel guys like Chuvalo and Bonavena, Eliis etc were better than Dokes and Ferguson.

 

True. Bowe dumping the WBC title in the trash rather than to face Lewis puts a pretty big dent in his legacy. And Frazier DOES have more top raters in his win column.

 

Imagine if Frazier dumped the belt in the bin instead of facing Foreman.

He'd have two less losses and like Bowe would have only lost to the man he beat.

 

Yeah Bowe missed out on some big fights in the early to mid 90's. Fighting Michael Dokes and Jess Ferguson ( who granted was a last minute replacement for Mercer ) was a big sham on the public and a disservice to the heavyweight title.

 

And you think in a thread about Floyd Patterson the subject of his weak chin and KO losses wouldn't come up pretty soon ??

Or a thread about anything to do Dempsey wouldn't mention the color line in the first page ? And KO loss to Jim Flynn wouldn't be far behind.

Start any topic about Holyfield, and he'd be labelled "inconsistent" sooner or later for losses, he'd be branded a cheat and a headbutter, and the subject of PEDs would be mentioned too.

Anything about Lennox Lewis. His losses to McCall and Rahman. They would come up.

Rocky Marciano - who didn't even LOSE a fight - draws all sorts of flak for his winning record.

A Joe Frazier thread wouldn't last long without someone mentioning him being splattered by George Foreman, and someone implying that he couldn't take a punch !

Thing is, when it comes to actually RATING these fighters, it's 100% fair and proper than we DO talk about these losses or weaknesses.

That's what I believe anyway.

 

While his bully mentality and front runner issues hurt him all time it's also very true he was a very lethal hwt. Many/most would not last the first few rounds vs the best Tyson.