Mike Tyson. Underrated or Overrated?

[Chrislfc17]

It's a difficult one to call regarding Mike Tyson. There's no doubt that those first 5 years where impressive. I don't think I've ever seen a HW fight with the aggression and ferocity that Mike did. I always feel that longevity plays a big part when looking back on someone's career though and sadly, for whatever reasons, be it the death of Cus, Don King, or maybe just Mike not being able to handle all the attention and pressure that comes with being the youngest HW ever, he derailed.

Personally I would put Lewis ahead of Tyson in the all time greats purely for his longevity. Tyson just pushed the self destruction button and he pushed it fairly early into his career. For me its a question of what might have been. Once he lost that aura of invincibility he just became another HW.

[Master]

Mike Tyson is just glad to be rated with the greats. In the short space of time he achieved a lot, unified title, youngest champ and biggest fighter since Ali.

[Zilla]

I don't think Mike is really either. He was what we were looking at. It wasn't his fault that he came to prominence when the rest of the division was weak. Who can you say he ducked? Who can you say he was afraid of? The Holyfield fight was a done deal if it hadn't been for Mike getting into that car accident and then going to prison. He wasn't past his physical prime when he fought Douglas, but he was past his mental prime. He stopped doing the things he needed to do to be ready for fights. He surrounded himself with the wrong people. He trusted the wrong people. Had he been able to maintain focus then he would have fought the Holyfields, Lewises and Bowes of the division. Or at least, it wouldn't have been because of any lacking on his part that those fights didn't materialize.

I'm a huge Tyson fan, but I'm not in that camp that would claim Mike could beat anyone. I doubt Mike could have beaten Ali because guys who played keepaway gave him trouble. Mike did the best against guys who didn't move around a lot and Ali would have had him jogging to keep up. I do think he would have killed Joe Frazier, though.

[Cressa121]

Its difficult to say really. I'm a huge Tyson fan, but he tends to be overrated somewhat. I disagree with those that say he was past his prime when he lost to Douglas, he didn't take the fight seriously and barely trained for it. I think he would steam through any of today's heavyweights when he was at his best, because although his opposition wasn't the strongest, he was the closest i've seen to an invincible fighter, it just didn't seemlike it was possible to beat him to me. In terms of achievement i wouldn't say he's one of the best ever, but he was an animal in those early years.

[DaxxKahn]

Its difficult to say really. I'm a huge Tyson fan, but he tends to be overrated somewhat. I disagree with those that say he was past his prime when he lost to Douglas, he didn't take the fight seriously and barely trained for it. I think he would steam through any of today's heavyweights when he was at his best, because although his opposition wasn't the strongest, he was the closest i've seen to an invincible fighter, it just didn't seemlike it was possible to beat him to me. In terms of achievement i wouldn't say he's one of the best ever, but he was an animal in those early years.

I agree totally about the Douglas comments

Mike was not past his prime when he fought Douglas he was under trained over confident and believed in his power too much to think Douglas had a remote chance at beating him....Foolishness cost him...

Kind of Like Lennox Lewis losing to Rahman...he took Rahman the same as Tyson took Douglas and it cost him

[Andre]

Its difficult to say really. I'm a huge Tyson fan, but he tends to be overrated somewhat. I disagree with those that say he was past his prime when he lost to Douglas, he didn't take the fight seriously and barely trained for it. I think he would steam through any of today's heavyweights when he was at his best, because although his opposition wasn't the strongest, he was the closest i've seen to an invincible fighter, it just didn't seemlike it was possible to beat him to me. In terms of achievement i wouldn't say he's one of the best ever, but he was an animal in those early years.

I agree totally about the Douglas comments

Mike was not past his prime when he fought Douglas he was under trained over confident and believed in his power too much to think Douglas had a remote chance at beating him....Foolishness cost him...

Kind of Like Lennox Lewis losing to Rahman...he took Rahman the same as Tyson took Douglas and it cost him

Douglas also got saved by the bell and after feeling the worse of what Mike could hand out, went back out there ,upped it another gear and said lets give it our all. It was a good fight then.


Mentally Mike was overrated by other fighters.

[Andre]

Funny thing mentioning Spinks Holmes 2 .

I just watched it yesterday and counted the clean blows and had Spinks winning it in a real close fight.

The 14th is what had the public stirred,that and Spinks fighting fighting off the backfoot and countering not taking the initiative as the Champ.

In the 14th I had Spinks ahead by 7 clear shots until he got caught. But it wasnt a knock down,he did not get counted so his glove or knee couldnt of touched as he took off; he got wobbled and got hit hard and clean again after that, but Michael even got Larry with more shots than Larry hit him with between the wobble and the final bell .

But everyone emotionally gave that round to Larry.maybe rightly I dont know. Not on clear shots though.

Now days if Spinks had touched canvas and got counted and we were forced to give a 10/8 round ,it would have been LArrys fight, thats how close I had it anyway. I think punch stat ended up 40% Holmes 43% Spinks.