It's historical revisionism to suggest that a large part of Tyson's success didn't have to do with the fact that he came around when the heavyweight division lacked dedicated fighters.
Pinklon Thomas was on the slide and hadn't beaten a ranked contender in 2 years.
Tyrell Briggs had only 16 fights as a pro and barely managed to beat David Bey.
Holmes was several years past his prime, hadn't fought in almost 2 years, and hadn't convincingly beaten a ranked contender in almost 3 years. Yeah he beat Mercer, but Jesse Ferguson also beat Mercer.
Tubbs hadn't beaten a ranked contender in 3 years.
Spinks was inactive for a year, and hadn't genuinely beaten a top heavyweight in nearly 3 years.
Bruno failed to collect a belt 3 times before finally beating the mediocre Oliver McCall.
The fact that some of these fighters were at the top just reflects on the poor state of the division at the time.I give Tyson credit for beating most of the best fighters available, but his opposition really wasn't that great.
Ray is a Racist, White, MORON!!!
Tyson fought plenty of big time guys....he wasnt fighting bums like some of the haters say...
he did however benefit from some preferable matchmaking
i am s huge Tyson fan, but just to play devil advocate to that list you made, here are some names that are missing off Tyson's resume....most of these guys woulda matched up pretty close to prime v prime:
Riddick Bowe
George Foreman
Ray Mercer
Michael Moorer
David Tua
Tommy Morisson
Bert Cooper
Tyson fought paper champions. He never defeated a universally recognized heavyweight champion. In fact; he had to unify belts to become the universally recognized champion. To do this he had to defeat paper champion Trevor Berbick, paper champion James Smith and the only decent paper champion being Tony Tucker [none are legends, none were ever universally recognized world champions].
Tyson did beat a former universally recognized champion in Larry Holmes but Holmes was way past it, inactive and undertrained in the Tyson fight [unlike the Mercer fight].
Tysons best win was against an inactive Spinks who was scared and didn't want to fight before fight day came.
Tyson was the universally recognized heavyweight champion and had more defenses of that title then most greats including Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, among several others.
Still; Marciano, Frazier and Foreman had to beat a universally recognized champion to get their title, Tyson just fought a bunch of paper champions to get it.
I would like to add to what Uncle Jr. said....because I agree on all points.
Not only that, arguably what became the most competitive point of the heavyweights EVER, was what followed Tyson's incarceration. Heavyweight belts changed hands like it was a hot potato. Mike Tyson was in his early twenties and EASILY avoided alot of fighters, because by his own admission he was more interested in getting high.
I would have loved to see him fight it out with Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, an older but viable George Foreman or Michael Moore.
But he didnt want these fights. He opted out and played....
...and honestly if you saw those fights he got on the road to champion, you could see those guys, even James Smith, checked out early. They hadnt fought competitively in awhile.
the thing about tyson is.even ppl that don't know sh!t about boxing know about tyson and his ko's cause he was a media fav and the media hyped him up.ppl all around the world know him,and think that he is the greatest boxer.
on the other side "some" hardcore boxing fans under rate him,while casual boxing fans,(or the general public) over rate him..(i think evry white woman's dream's asked a question on this sentence)
i think he is somewhere in between.or a bit above btween(if u understand wht i mean).like u said he fought evryone available.
He should have fought lennox lewis sooner, there would have been a chance that lewis didn't see and copy buster douglas and holyfield keys to victory. Which is the right uppercut and the clinche.
Mike Tyson was pretty darned good, but he was overrated. I notice you forgot to mention Tyson's fight against James "Buster" Douglas, who beat Tyson with a TKO. NO ONE expected Douglas to win that fight...
tyson was the youngest undisputed heavyweight champ....
he beat tough competition just to get there, and yeah, w/ ease...
now regarding his 1st lost to douglas, only the fans knows the story behind that lost, what mike had been through.... haters wil say differently...
Tysonian for life
one thing that winds me up a little is that some say tyson fought bums but in fact tyson never ducked anyone and fought the best fighters out there ,now i'm not saying tyson fought any top 5 heavies ever like say Ali did but his resume is better than many try to make out .
here's some of tyson opponents..
trevor berbick...wbc heavy weight champ at the time ko'd in 2
james bone crusher smith ......WBA champ......tyson win points
pinklon thomas.............former WBC champ...tyson ko 6
tony tucker ......IBF champ.....tyson win points
tyrell biggs .......olympic gold medallist when winning a gold meant you would be a good pro
larry holmes ..one of the greatest heavies ever but past his best ,,yet holmes went on to beat ray mercer after and almost won the belt back 8 years later from oliver mccall only to lose by a round
tony tubbs former WBA champ......ko 2
michael spinks undefeated light heavy weight champ and undefeated heavy weight champ ...crushed in 91 seconds
frank bruno who went on to win the WBC belt after fighting tyson .tyson ko 3
carl the truth williams ..USBA champ ...ko'd 1st rd
donovan "razor" ruddock most avoided heavy weight at the time ko 7
bruce selsdon WBA champ ....tyson ko 1st
now if you match this list of fighters only Muhammad Ali beat a better calibre of fighters than tyson ,
now i'm not saying tyson was the best heavy weight ever rather that his achievements have been played down over the years ,
I will say this...youngest heavyweight champ. He unified the 3 mJor belts...he is a 2011 inductee in the ibhof... He has a better resume after 27 fights than Golovkin.
