Would Mike Tyson have become the greatest heavyweight of all time without prison and his demons?

Not a bunk point at all.

In fact, you’ve perfectly illustrated the heavily biased, duality of treatment when it comes to Tyson.

It really goes beyond the pale.

IF Tyson’s overconfidence cost him - there you go, a weakness in his mental armoury. Does that not equate to = mentality not there? Of course it does.

And, that’s IF.

But then there’s the external distractions being claimed also, and Rooney not in his corner, so on and so forth.

So many lines of defence. When one excuse is duly toppled over, there is always another excuse waiting behind it. The overall and general claim has been: Mike just wasn’t properly trained and wasn’t there mentality.

Should we ONLY break Mike down to his molecular structure and then rebuild him to best possible advantage also?

Spinks (and let’s also say a blown up LH) was NOT there mentally. Period. Whatever his chances, they were impaired by his own fear before opening bell, NOT by anything Tyson did to him before the bell rang.

What about another absolute prime, poster fight for Mike - vs 38 yo, out of shape, ill prepared Larry Holmes?

Care to go there or, when we’re talking up credit for Mike, was that simply ALL about Tyson also - nothing to do with the sub par nature of his opposition? C’mon.

Tokyo Tyson was mentally there enough to come in at the right weight, last 10 rounds of a beat down and pull off a hard KD in round 8.

We got to see what happens when 1) Mike didn’t get the 91 sec KO, the 2 round KO, etc. and 2) just as importantly , we also got to see what happened when it was Mike on the receiving end of punishment from first gong.

Reality bites.

 

The potential was arguably there. I don't think anyone else has come come as close to replicating Ali's greatness as Mike. Considering how he went on to become a cultural phenomenon in spite of fate having it's own plans, I think it's reasonable to say it was a real possibility at the time.

 

Louis and Lewis come to mind immediately.

 

Fair point. There's definitely an argument to be made for Louis and Lewis too, although I'd still be apt to give Tyson the edge, only because I'd wager to his name is probably more synonymous with boxing overall (or at-least that's how it seems to me anyway.)

 

Short answer is No