I've often wondered this myself. I think knocking out Larry Holmes was his greatest triumph.
Printable View
I've often wondered this myself. I think knocking out Larry Holmes was his greatest triumph.
Geepers if KOing a 37 year old Holmes who hadn't fought in 18 months was his biggest win? Doesn't say a lot does it? Not saying you're wrong, just that that's not much of a biggest win when discussing great fighters.
I think most would say Mike Spinks. Yeah he was a blown up 175, but he WAS the lineal heavy champ. Tony Tucker deserves a mention. A fine heavyweight.
Yeh agreed on Tucker. Together with Ruddock was probably the best fighter Tyson fought (and I mean taking all factors, including stage of their careers)Quote:
Originally Posted by marbleheadmaui
Tyrell Biggs was a good win. With hindsight he doesn't look 'all that' but I think Tyson ruined him. Before that fight there was a lot of hype about Biggs and what he may achieve.
Spinks will be the one everybody remembers, but Spinks didn't turn up for that fight, so I don't count it.
I would have to say either Sammy Scaff or Donnie Long , both were close to being ATG'S.
Spinks, destroyed him at his best and last fight with Rooney, all down hill from there. Married to a money grabber who fakes pregnancies and a mother in law from hell, sucked in by King who gets rid of Rooney and brings in people who know very little about Boxing and who massaged Tyson's ego. not that I am bitter or anything, for ruining a potentially great heavyweight champion.
Rooney actually said that Mike made alot of mistakes in that fight but obviously Spinks was never going to be able to capitalise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
Steve Lott says the best he saw of Mike was in a charity exhibition with James Tillis. He said he was relaxed and showed more of the form he did in the gym.
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
Funny, I recently rewatched the Holmes fight. I recall there being very little hype for that fight and few gave Holmes a shot.
But looking back, I wonder why that is. I mean, obviously Holmes was past his prime but he was not terriably so. A lot of people thought he won his last fight against Spinks so he had never been defeated in a convincing manner.
So we are left with an aging, somewhat past his prime HOFer with top-level HW boxing skills vs a young KO artist. I would've thought there would be more than a few thinking Larry could pull one out.
But Tyson's rep at the time was off the charts unbeatable. And dominate he did. Larry had maybe 30 seconds of dancing and outjabbing Tyson. The rest was all Mike.
Tyson's career ended badly but people forget how dominant he was. Well, we do remember but often we qualify that with the notion that he no competition. No Hearns to his Hagler. But maybe he did have competion, namely a HOFer Holmes and and an undefeated Spinks. He was just so good we assumed they were worse at the time than they were.
A lot of mistakes in 93 seconds. Yes he probably did but it was his best victory and if it went further the cracks may have appeared but his life was unravelling and Rooney said he did not turn up for training some days. Just imagine if everything stayed the same, Tyson could have been the greatest or at least one of the greatest ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by rossRooney actually said that Mike made alot of mistakes in that fight but obviously Spinks was never going to be able to capitalise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
Steve Lott says the best he saw of Mike was in a charity exhibition with James Tillis. He said he was relaxed and showed more of the form he did in the gym.
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
Gotta be Trevor berbick for me.
Lets face it Tyson was around when the division was a sham but he cleaned the mess up with a menace and hunger which will be remembered forever
best win was against Berbick
job biscuit (tyson was like a flame but burnt out)!!!
eh eh!!!
So was Dempsey, Marciano, Liston, Holmes and The Klits.Quote:
Originally Posted by Otley
Spinks - but took me a while to decide betwen that and Mcneeley
I've not read this thread yet, but to be honest it's got to be winning the title off berbick. I no he probably wasnt ths strongest opponent tyson faced, but has got to be the best win in his carreef surely
Berbick was quite dominant himself, he had that belt for ages.
At the end of the day regardless of the lack of competition in Tyson era but he did crush everyone and busts Douglas fought his heart out due to his 11 year old son being ringside and his wife dying a week before hand so he had something to fight for.
The klitschkos are crushing everyone and up and coming prospects.
Tony Tucker - who was a big (6'6") athletic and skilled fighter - a bit of a prototype Lewis/Klitschko if you ask me. This was the fight where Tyson became the undisputed champ, and showed stamina, patience, a concrete chin and a good amount of underrated boxing skill.
Mate, do you just make things up for fun? He won the belt in the same year that he fought Tyson, it was his first defence. Even the titlle winning performance wasn't 'dominant' he won a razor thin decision against Pinlon Thomas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dropanuke
P.S Haven't heard the one about his wife dying before the fight :confused: His mum died a month before the fight
Well technically the two best opponents he beat were Holmes, Spinks. But i always liked his fights vs Razor Ruddock, because Razor Ruddock was a feared Heavyweight at the time. And no one wanted to fight him at that time, and Mike Tyson showed heart and a good chin in both fights.
I know people say he wasn't in his prime in both fights, but i disagree i thought he looked very good in both fights. Especially his bodywork which made me wince just watching it.
I say Frank Bruno and Donovan Ruddock, 2 of the most dangerous fighters that Tyson ever beat and they were in their respective primes as well. They weren't easy fights for him either, Bruno rocked him really good.
Wikipedia clearly doesn't have enough on trevs wife.
Shot ya down
You really are brain dead :rolleyes: Check your own post that I was referring to. Who said anything about Trevor Berbwick's wife dying? You said Buster Douglas' wife died.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dropanuke
If you are now changing your bullshit story to Berbwick's wife dying, it makes no sense in the contect of your post and even less sense considering she was at his funeral
I texted that out wrong fool,
Clearly. Done
I was thinking Tony Tucker. Big guy with some skill.
Name , notoriety or passing of the torch....Spinks or Holmes. Beating a current viable threat, Ruddock...Tucker...Bruno 1. :dontknow:
Agreed. Although I think Bruno 2 was a better fighter than Bruno 1, he just shit his pants and didn't perform. That fight was there for him to win at that stage of Tyson's career!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Spicoli
Much of the reason novbody gave Holmes as chance was the way Holmes himself talked before the fight. He hadn't fought in 18 months and he said things like "I'll know how to stay on my stool."Quote:
Originally Posted by Manju
You really think Zora Folley and Eddie Machen weren't high quality fighters?Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG HSo was Dempsey, Marciano, Liston, Holmes and The Klits.Quote:
Originally Posted by Otley
We always disagree about this one. Yes this is the fight I have watched more than any other fight ever but Tyson was very poor. Gone was the head movement, punches in bunches and being elusive. It was I hit you, you hit me and see which one stays up. Tyson was all but finished and wanted to get hit and hurt. Made it a great fight but poor by the old Tyson standards. Prime Tyson would make Rudduck miss a lot more and smashed him across the ring like a rag doll.Quote:
Originally Posted by ICB
I think everyone remembers holmes always carried an attitude into the ring and especially with Ken norton but where was the attitude when Tyson was hitting him?? Didn't show any aggression!! Why?????
Did anyone notice that holmes right hand got caught behind the rope whilst loading up??
Holmes was flustered, hed never been put under that kind of pressure before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dropanuke
18 months aint that long to be out the ring. Mayweather came back after 2 and fought and beat up the fighter that most people think beat Pacquiao (but yet Mayweather is apparently scared of Manny!). Vitali came back after 4 years and smashed up a top opponent.
Holmes has too much of an ego to not put his best effort in. The reason he took the fight is he believed he could beat Mike.
18 months is FOREVER to be out of the ring. There are only a handful of exceptions who have thrived in history after a break that long.Quote:
Originally Posted by rossHolmes was flustered, hed never been put under that kind of pressure before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dropanuke
18 months aint that long to be out the ring. Mayweather came back after 2 and fought and beat up the fighter that most people think beat Pacquiao (but yet Mayweather is apparently scared of Manny!). Vitali came back after 4 years and smashed up a top opponent.
Holmes has too much of an ego to not put his best effort in. The reason he took the fight is he believed he could beat Mike.
Razor back to back fights for me. I don't consider Spinks that big a win. Somebody should have just handed Spinks a diaper or just thrown in the towel before the bell rang.
I'm surprised the overwhelming majority of people picked Spinks. I mean Spinks was a blown up Light Heavyweight who was scared shitless and put up no opposition what so ever.
Larry Holmes was a top 10 HW of all time, who got robbed against Spinks, and had never been soundly beaten. Not to mention years AFTER Tyson destroyed Larry, he still went on to compete against Holyfield for the title, McCall, and to dominate Ray Mercer.
One could argue Trevor Berbick was Tyson's greatest win as well, seein as it made him the youngest heavyweight champion ever.
Floyd Patterson is still the youngest HW champion. When Tyson beat Berbick, Spinks was still the universally recognized champ, lineal champ that is. So Tyson in actuality never became HW champ until he beat the man, and that was Spinks.
Lineal title>ABC alphabet title.
So I go with Spinks as Tyson's greatest win to become the 2nd youngest HW champ in 1st round ko.
Tyson is the youngest heavyweight champion ever in my mind and in most people's minds.Quote:
Originally Posted by generalbulldog
Both Bruno and Ruddock could box a fair bit but they were also sluggers whose power could match Tyson's (though their handspeed and chins couldn't). Those are the 2 most dangerous fighters (and prime fighters) Tyson beat.
Tucker broke his hand in their fight (so I've heard). Holmes didn't have time to fully prepare. Spinks was scared. The only other fighter I could think of is Smith but he was scared too, but once he let his hands go he hurt Mike.
Looking at who Tyson beat and who he actually did well against I think its actually a very tough sell to say he'd beat a Klitschko much less walk through one seeing how both have the style to destroy him. But that's another argument for another day.
I really do think at certain points: Foreman, Mercer, Morrison, Rahman, Briggs, Bowe, and MAYBE Moorer could have all beaten Tyson.
Tyson's prime was so short...but that's the way pressure fighters are. If Ruddock had more discipline he could have really done damage...too bad he didn't have "it".
Yeah yeah yeah, just like Wlad on paper can beat guys like Brewster, Sanders, but we all know what happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong
And just like Vitali at his absolute prime and on paper should beat an old, fat, inactive, 38 year old, past his prime Lennox Lewis, who was fighting Vitali on short notice, but we all know what happened. I'm pretty sure if Lewis didn't fight Vitali you would probably say Vitali runs through Lewis and makes him look like a bum in some hypothetical matchup. But hey that's another discussion.;)
Ya know man can def see that yeh. Bruno had a run going with activity, finally winning strap as opposed to year + layoff going into 1st meet. Tyson had next to nothing in 4 pure shake off the rust rounds going into 2nd.Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG HAgreed. Although I think Bruno 2 was a better fighter than Bruno 1, he just shit his pants and didn't perform. That fight was there for him to win at that stage of Tyson's career!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Spicoli
Doesn't mean it's true. Boxing is a man who beat the man who beat the man sport. Alphabet gangs don't change that. Tyson wasn't champ until he had beaten Spinks who beat Holmes who won it beating Norton after Ali retired who had beaten Leon who had beaten Ali who had beaten Foreman who had beaten Frazier who had beaten Ali who had beaten Liston.Quote:
Originally Posted by HulkTyson is the youngest heavyweight champion ever in my mind and in most people's minds.Quote:
Originally Posted by generalbulldog
Just because some corrupt organization strips a still active champion doesn't make the new guy a champion if the word is to mean anything. See Darius M being stripped and belts being given to Jones as a classic example.
The only "youngest" title Tyson really has is the youngest heavy ever to lose the crown.
Consensus is that he is the youngest my friend.Quote:
Originally Posted by marbleheadmauiDoesn't mean it's true. Boxing is a man who beat the man who beat the man sport. Alphabet gangs don't change that. Tyson wasn't champ until he had beaten Spinks who beat Holmes who won it beating Norton after Ali retired who had beaten Leon who had beaten Ali who had beaten Foreman who had beaten Frazier who had beaten Ali who had beaten Liston.Quote:
Originally Posted by HulkTyson is the youngest heavyweight champion ever in my mind and in most people's minds.Quote:
Originally Posted by generalbulldog
Just because some corrupt organization strips a still active champion doesn't make the new guy a champion if the word is to mean anything. See Darius M being stripped and belts being given to Jones as a classic example.
The only "youngest" title Tyson really has is the youngest heavy ever to lose the crown.
We can play semantics all day with him winning a world title but not the lineal title, but perception is everything.
And it is a moot point, as Spinks proved to be no threat what so ever. Hardly worthy of denying Tyson from being the youngest hw champ ever.
Regardless, who do you think was his best victory ?