Thread: ESPN on Tyson

ESPN has an article on their website where they had a panel of boxing experts and they gave their opinions on how Mike Tyson would be remembered for. Some thought he was great, some thought other-wise.

How does everyone else here feel? We could have a panel of Saddo members discuss this the same way.

Originally Posted by caleoh12

ESPN has an article on their website where they had a panel of boxing experts and they gave their opinions on how Mike Tyson would be remembered for. Some thought he was great, some thought other-wise.

How does everyone else here feel? We could have a panel of Saddo members discuss this the same way.

How can anyone not think Mike Tyson was great, he won the belt at the age of 20, unified them at 22, lost them spent three years in jail and won the belt again. He is one of the sports biggest attractions in history, whoever say's he is not an ATG is simply bias

Tyson is an ATG with no doubt...Of course there is the looming "What If" that surrounds him and always will...

The biggest thing that really detracted for Tyson was the fact he became who he was too young, If Mike was more mentally mature he would not have been jerked around by the supposed "Supporters"...EG Rory, Robin and the rest that went with them...His ego would also may not have been so easily stoked into making him think he was indestructable...So with or without Rooney, Cus etc he would have known enough to stay with the program...

The "Bad Guy" image and controversy that surround his life is what adds to the aura of Tyson and adds to the "What If" Persona....Just as it did with Liston and those who handled him...

Sadly enough Tyson could have still been the "Baddest" Man on the Planet without the turmoil in his personal life....But then again he may not have been so awed

If you evaluate his ring accomplishments and take his personal life out of the picture, he was a great fighter..for a few years Tyson of the 80 was an ATG heavyweight. 90-00s Tyson was to par with a Hahman or someone on that level who I dont rate anywhere near an all time great heavyweight but he was still decent in the 90s. People say he was overrated looking at his career now that hes retired but if Tyson retired 44-1 after beating Seldon. If that happened people would be arguing that he was a top 3 heavyweight of all time. Unfortunately he tayed in the game too long. The Douglas fight didnt really do the damage to his legacy imo. He lost a fight, it happens to almost evry fighter, but it was Holyfield and everything after that that did the damage cause his skills were so diminished.

Originally Posted by BoomBoom

If you evaluate his ring accomplishments and take his personal life out of the picture, he was a great fighter..for a few years Tyson of the 80 was an ATG heavyweight. 90-00s Tyson was to par with a Hahman or someone on that level who I dont rate anywhere near an all time great heavyweight but he was still decent in the 90s. People say he was overrated looking at his career now that hes retired but if Tyson retired 44-1 after beating Seldon. If that happened people would be arguing that he was a top 3 heavyweight of all time. Unfortunately he tayed in the game too long. The Douglas fight didnt really do the damage to his legacy imo. He lost a fight, it happens to almost evry fighter, but it was Holyfield and everything after that that did the damage cause his skills were so diminished.

TBH it was not even really a case of Tysons skills being diminshed rather then more of a case of Tyson not caring enough to stay on point...He decided to rely on power alone and not box....

People tend to forget (Mainly due to his habit of crushing his opp) that Tyson was a tremendous boxer...Mike really did not need to go for the KO...It was hard to outbox Mike if he did choose to box....Any time Tyson used the jab he was a dangerous fighter all around

Now that some people have put their input in, I'll add my own.

Personally, if he had kept his focus, he might have been the greatest heavyweight of all time. He had tremendous speed, a great chin, good head movement, an underrated jab, and I don't even have to mention his power because that was an OBVIOUS given. Arguably the hardest hitter of all time. The fear he instilled in his opponents were like no other and compared to all other fighters than may have done that before or will do in the future, no one could do it better than Tyson.

But because of his losses to Douglas, Holyfield, and Lewis I viewed him as the personification of "the school bully." The case where the school bully had thier way with anyone they targeted. But eventually, someone stands up to the bully. And when someone does that, everyone witnessing is in awe with their mouth gaped wide open, which is exactly how people watched when Tyson got knocked out.

In summation, I see Tyson as an ATG heavyweight, but COULD'VE been the greatest.

Originally Posted by caleoh12

Now that some people have put their input in, I'll add my own.

Personally, if he had kept his focus, he might have been the greatest heavyweight of all time. He had tremendous speed, a great chin, good head movement, an underrated jab, and I don't even have to mention his power because that was an OBVIOUS given. Arguably the hardest hitter of all time. The fear he instilled in his opponents were like no other and compared to all other fighters than may have done that before or will do in the future, no one could do it better than Tyson.

But because of his losses to Douglas, Holyfield, and Lewis I viewed him as the personification of "the school bully." The case where the school bully had thier way with anyone they targeted. But eventually, someone stands up to the bully. And when someone does that, everyone witnessing is in awe with their mouth gaped wide open, which is exactly how people watched when Tyson got knocked out.

In summation, I see Tyson as an ATG heavyweight, but COULD'VE been the greatest.

spot on, it was almost as if after the holyfield fights people finally woke up to the fact that the dragon could indeed be slayed and tyson himself was never the same animal that we knew and adored in the mid to late 80s.

The feeling you used to get around a tyson fight was undescribable and has still not been seen since, it was almost as if you were throwing some poor fella into a tigers cage, surrounding it with 18,000 fans and then watching the chaos unfold.

Tyson was an entity, it didnt matter whether you loved boxing or had no interest in the sport you still watched what unfolded because of that blood thirsty impact we as humans are programmed to have.

All time great - maybe
legend - probably not

but for pure entertainment tyson is way out ahead of everyone else!!

Woulda, Coulda and Shoulda been an ATG but he never made it.

There has not been a how good or how bad Tyson was debate on this site for a while.


Apart from winning the HW championship at a very young age what other great things did Tyson do?


He was the most exciting fighter IMO who ever put the gloves on but that does not qualify him to be an ATG.


Can sombody tell what Tyson acheved or did to make him an all time great in there opinion?

There are many ways to look at it. You can look at his early title winning form and say he could have been a legend if he'd kept his head and if certain people and circumstances hadn't got in his way. But you could also easily argue that perhaps his early great form was the anomaly, and it was the cummulation of good fortune that landed him with the perfect trainer to teach the perfect technique for a guy of Tyson's stature, and without that good fortune he may never have been anybetter than the unreliable power puncher he became later in his career.

As for his achievements, I personally believe his wins in the 80s grant him a place in the top 10 in history. He did genuinely clear out the division in those brief years and was a truly undisputed champion for a short period of time. Not many fighters can claim to have done that, Patterson, Liston, Foreman, Frazier never achievd this, and neither did the majority of the champions pre-Louis who pulled the race card to avoid fights (including Dempsey). I'd still rate some of those guys above Tyson as you can give them a pass due to the quality of the division at certain times, but IMO top 10 or 15 ever heavyweight fighter qualifieshim for the tag od ATG.