People resent putting Mike in an all time top ten greaest heavyweight list. Ok, as in "great" up to the point he beat Spinks he was phenomenal but hadnt had a "career" as yet.
He wiped out a division, unified, beat the linear champ and the former great. In that amazingly short space of time he could litterally have done nothing more. If his career had ended abruptly for whatever reason after the Spinks fight Mike would not only be in the top ten but hed be in top three along with or behind Ali and Louis with Marciano right behind him.
Ok the man didnt do great things after but you cant dismiss what he was because he chose to fuck his career up by having yes men and managers fuck him over. On acheivments maybe Tyson isnt in the top ten, thats down to opinion on how much credit you give him for destroying every viable opponent in a space of about 3 years, compared to other fighters of other eras that avoided certain other foes. If it were mythical match ups, then only a hamdfull of fighters would be favoured to hear the final bell let alone beat Mike. When he fought Douglas he wasnt even training but still managed to nigh on knock him out. If Mike had been as fit and not being babied to keep him happy by King, he would have walked through Douglas. Or at the very least, he would have still had something in the tank to finish him off after that knockdown.
Mercer? Mercer got beat by Holmes years after Tyson flattened him! Some people have to reach or scrape the bottom of the barrel to find a reason to downplay what Mike Tyson was. Back then when he beat Spinks, people were saying that Ali now has a contemporary. When Mike was first around and training right, he looked unbeatable, there is a deffinite visable decline starting with the Bruno fight as King and Givens were distracting him.
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