I would say easily top 10, till this day nobody moves like that
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He beat every legit contender from like 86-90. That span only looks weak because Tyson beat the fuck out of everyone. Larry Holmes was trying to tie Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record when he fought Spinks, and Spinks beat him. Both were excellent fighters that would have been top tier fighters for a long time if not for Tyson.
Spinks was only 32 years old when he fought Mike, clearly not an old man that was on his way out. Undefeated, never knocked down in his career…and Tyson put him away in about 90 seconds and the motherfucker retired.
All the other “great” fighters of that era are all guys that weren’t legit contenders when Mike was around…he didn’t just trip and fall into a soft era, he made everyone look soft.
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Well said…I keep hearing nerds quoting Teddy Atlas, talking about how Mike is a guy who folded under pressure etc…I don’t agree with any of that. Yeah, when he was losing fights out of his prime, he folded…but so what? So did lots of guys. I’m struggling to name a HWT boxer that was past his prime, and still managed to avoid getting stopped in a bad way a couple times. Maybe Foreman?
Lots of guys punched back, lots of guys fought Mike hard. It’s not like his entire career was first round KO’s.
The Douglas fight impressed me a bit too, if I’m being honest. I know it was his first loss, and viewed as the beginning of the end, but he wasn’t really in that fight mentally…but he kept fighting, and ended up dropping Douglas late. The count was super slow (about 13 seconds from when the ref started the count before Douglas was on his feet) and the count started 2-3 seconds after Douglas hit the mat. Could he have gotten up sooner if the ref was saying 7,8,9 instead of 2,3,4? IDK, probably…but it was a slow count that started late.
In addition to that, Mike was all alone there, man. The corner people didn’t even have a fucking ice pack. His eye was swelling and they filled a rubber glove with water and put it on his eye. It was a joke…and he still did nearly enough to stop him late.
Do I think he’s the best ever? Nah, but his 4 year run as champion is as impressive as anyone I’ve ever seen.
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He quit in the ring against Holefield. He mentally broke and quit. All the people bitching about a little gymnastics girl quitting and they ignore their hero and “baddest man on the world” folded like fresh laundry and bit an ear to get out of the fight. Comparing him to Ali is ridiculous. HE GAVE UP AND QUIT!
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I’d rather get my ear bit than take those headbutts from Holyfield.
And that wasn’t prime Tyson anyway.
Tyson was a different animal before he got all fucked up.
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Prime Tyson. Lol. His prime is when people were intimidated and didnt want to fight him. As soon as someone came to fight and wasnt scared then his prime was gone. Douglas, Holyfield, etc.
The hero worship and delusional excuse making for Tyson is almost as bad as with Bruce Lee. He quit like a bitch.
Agree… and agree about the slow count.
Tyson “trained” for Douglas by doing cocaine and sluts.
He still managed to almost pull that one off, against a man who was possessed and had the fight of his life.
People don’t realize what substance abuse can do to a man.
Enough coke and booze and whatever else, can really change a man. Knock the toughness right out of him.
Tyson never showed that frustration in the ring when he was surrounded by the right people.
Like you said, he did fight people that fought back. He had fights go the distance. He got hit, hard. Yet he still dominated.
He was indeed mentally tough and focused at his best.
Kevin Rooney was the last thing holding Tyson together. Once he was gone, that was the beginning of the end.
The cliche that “Tyson never beat anyone who fought back”, is nothing more than a silly myth.
People like to repeat that shit because they think it makes them sound hip.
And Teddy Atlas is very biased and spent years openly bashing Tyson any time he could sniff a microphone.
I’m not saying he doesn’t have some insight.
But when it comes to Tyson’s abilities, I take Atlas with a grain of salt.
ESPN made a mistake using him for their Tyson career highlight.
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It’s always funny that people want to blame Tyson losing to Douglas on cocaine and not training hard, but when he won doing the same thing he gets credit for being one of the greatest. So coke hurt him against Douglas but not against other fighters? Or are we supposed to believe he started drinking and doing blow just before the Douglas fight? Lol.
He didnt lose to Douglas due to gassing out and having no cardio. He got his ass beat. You cant blame cocaine for that.
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Tyson didn’t start losing when people started fighting back.
That’s a myth.
He started losing when Jim Jacob’s died and he fired Kevin Rooney.
He started losing when his personal life went to shit and he was fucked up on pills and whatever else all the time.
There is a very clear line in Tyson’s career that directly correlates his personal life with his decline in the ring.
Your obvious bias can’t change those realities – and it doesn’t make you sound hip lol.
I’m not defending the guy’s bad choices.
But just because he went to shit, doesn’t mean he was always shit.
There is a middle ground you know…
Between people who think he’s the greatest ever, and people who think he was all hype.
Usually – between the 2 extremes – is where you’ll find people who know what they’re talking about.
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Didn’t Mike live with Cus D’Amato well into his pro career? I’m sure I’m forgetting some of the specifics, but to the dude who keeps acting like Mike was always a drug abuser who didn’t train, that’s completely false. Mike had a strong team around him for many years, and they kept him out of trouble from the time he was about 13.
I remember in interviews people were quoted as saying the reason they kept Mike so busy early in his career is because they always wanted him in the gym with no time to misbehave. Dude had 19 pro fights in his first year as a pro, along with 10 fights in his second year…and a couple of those were title fights.
Even as champ, he stayed busy early on. 5 fights in 11 months, then 3 fights in the first 6 months of 1988 (Holmes, Tubbs and Spinks) and from there he slowed way down and started getting in trouble. He had 8 months between fights heading into the Douglas fight. He was used to taking fights every few weeks early in his career, then every 2 months as champ…then had 8 months of cocaine and girls, and that was after all his longtime advisers and coaches were out of the picture.
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How much of Tyson’s run do you think he was partying and not taking things seriously?
And it’s not just the drugs and partying. That’s a big part of it. It’s a combination of things.
Tyson didn’t train seriously or take the fight seriously, and Douglas was a man possessed after his mom died.
The story around that fight, and Tyson’s life in general around that time, is more complex than a headline.
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Holmes was on the downslide for a while before the Spinks fight. He came out of retirement to fight Tyson. Spinks was basically semi-retired as well and only took the Tyson fight to cash out.
The narrative that these were elite fighters in their prime and it was cut short by Tyson is not even close to accurate.
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We’re gonna cry that the fighter who constantly hit people with elbows had to deal with some head clashes lmao
Awww, poor baby got a little roughed up in the midst of a ferocious fist fight. Boo hoo.
And still that was different Mike
Spinks wasn’t in his prime huh?
Holyfield is a known dirty fighter notorious for headbutts.
And I say that as a big Holyfield fan.
Aside from a couple famous fouls, Tyson was a pretty clean fighter.
He hit so hard he didn’t need to fight dirty.
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You are reaching again bro and it doesn’t work. He was different after jail and anyone with half a fucken brain knows it
Go do three years inside and come out at your prime?
Your shits weak
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His best was at light heavyweight, so obviously Spinks as a semi-retired heavyweight coming off a couple goof fights is not him at his peak. It would be like saying GSP was in his prime when he fought Bisping. Or that Bisping was in his prime against GSP, for that matter. It’s just not a true statement.
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Yeah, ok.
One of the most obvious signs of bias in these conversations, is when people blatantly refuse to give credit where it is due.
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