Quote Originally Posted by Bomp
One point many people make about Tyson that I dissagree with is this whole 'victim of circumstance' thing, referring to the demise of his abilities due to Cus' death and his personal problems. While I don't deny that his abilities did decline during that time, the way I see it is that the 'prime' Tyson was quite possibly one of the biggest 'beneficiaries' of circumstance in boxing history, being spotted from an early age by the one man that could teach him the perfect technique to compliment his powerful frame and limited reach. Under any other circumstance he would have only ever been the fighter he became post prison, since IMO he lacked the mental strength and determination of the other all time greats.

On the question of being overrated, well that is in the eye of the beholder, every fighter is overrated by their biggest fans, and Tyson in particular has a strong fanbase of people who stick their fingers in their ears and go "na, na, na, NA ,na ,na " when ever his greatrness is questioned.

Personally, based on acheivment, I actually put Tyson comfortably in the top 10 of all time based on achievement alone (despite my negative comments). While the modern system of 3/4 main belts may be confusing, when someone actually claims the lot it is fair to conclude that that guy is THE undisputed champ of that time and that they had actually cleared out the division for the time being. Compared to many other LINEAL champions before him, Tyson actually accomplished more than the likes of Patterson, Walcott, Charles, all champions before Johnson, all champions between Johnson and Louis, in that he did face and beat all top competition in his time, which doesn't actually leave that many champions left to put above him in the top 10 heavies of all time.


CC#72 Well stated