Quote Originally Posted by ross View Post
Mike Tyson on all time lists can be rated for a few different things. Some say its down to career achievements but then why would Foreman be rated higher? He only made 2 successful defences. If its impact on the sport then only Ali rates higher and Mikes impact was all positive until he ran in to King, he was spokesperson for the FBI, the New York police dept, he had his own computer game, he advertised pepsi etc whereas Ali gained his by refusing to be drafted to Vietnam.

If its on an actual who beats who then no way could you have the likes of Marciano who was getting dropped by old light heavies or Frazier, Norton, Holmes and probably a fair few more ahead of Mike. Mike gets rated down because its not cool to have him high or you just look like you know nothing about boxing because "Mike Tyson was just a bully brawler with no technique" which is the usual crap spouted by wannabe experts.
Excellent post

These so called "experts" and "pundits" will just claim that he was a bully who would intimidate people and when that failed he collapsed and lost. Complete CRAP.

Tyson was groomed to be the greatest heavyweight champion ever. D'Amato told him everything he knew in the sport and he sucked it all up like a sponge. His socio-economic impact alone puts him in the top 10. Only Ali ever had the same kind of impact he had on a global scale.

And if we evaluate him as a fighter then there is no one in the history of heavyweight boxing who had the same combination of power, speed, punch resistance, and skill. NOBODY. Take a list of the commonly accepted top 10 heavyweights and you'll see that Tyson stands out alone as the one boxer who had top tier power, speed, skill, and punch resistance.

Head to head he is a freak. I'd only favor a few fighters in history to last with him.