Quote Originally Posted by Nameless View Post
He's underrated if you say he wasn't good in his good old days and overrated if we say he,s one of the greatest heavyweight that ever lived. He was very fast with explosive power, did bring load of aggression but Tyson had 2 big problems, which got debunked over the years:

1) As it has been stated before, a load about him depended about intimidation because.. well, he was damn scary. Many fighters basically lost the fight just by seeing him in the ring but later, to me it got clearly proven that a good slick boxer who didn't get intimidated and who did play movement well against him had their chances to win.

2) Tyson has been all about the 5 rounds rule: Past 5 rules, he did fade significantly. Lack of conditioning or giving it all to blast as fast as possible his opponents? Maybe a bit of both. Still, after 5 rules, he was a lot easier to hit and wasn't throwing as many bombs as in the first couple of rounds.

How good was he? Damn good. But not as much as the great skilled ones.
I don't disagree, but considering all the shit he had to deal with, I still say he was great. Not the best skilled boxer, but I'm speculating his potential greatness based on what he accomplished despite all he went through. . . everyone knows his story, but I really wish we could have seen him at 80% of his potential like most great fighters. I'd say we only saw about 50% of Iron Mike. The great ones that you mention are great because when they first showed potential, they continued to blossom and grow. Fortunately, they experienced the polar opposite of a lot of things that added to Tyson's demise: Only person that ever showed him love died (D'Amato), money and fame had him firing the people that he needed (Rooney), keeping the people he didn't (Rory & crew) and marrying the people that he had no business with (Givens). After listening & watching him over the year-- and most recently in Tyson (documentary) and on Oprah, I give the guy props for just making it this far in life. But like someone said earlier, coulda, woulda, shoulda. I think it's fair to speculate on greatness because we do it all the time for athletes that are cut down in their primes before they get a chance to be great: Ernie Davis, Len Bias, Sean Taylor, etc.

Not saying it's the exact same circumstances, just making the point that we only got a glimpse.