Mike Tyson. Underrated or Overrated?

[salty trunks]

Seems like there are 2 camps when it comes to evaluating Mike Tyson, the ones who thought he was overrated and the ones who thought he was underrated.

I think today he is underated. Not even Lennox Lewis who was the last dominant champion dominated comparable or worse competition better

When your biggest wins are against an 38 year old Holmes, an blown up LHW in Spinks (who beat an 36 year old Holmes and got a gift decision in the 2nd fight), weak contenders/paper champions like Seldon, Bruno, Biggs, Williams, Marvis Frazier, Berbick, then that's a pretty weak resume. He looked spectacular fighting weak contenders and knocking them out.

Your forgetting, Tucker, Smith, Tubbs, Ruddock, and Thomas who were all solid contenders. Add those to the list and you have a pretty solid resume for Tyson.

And 1 funny thing, Mike Tyson fans claim Mike was in his prime in the late 80s, it's really funny that Mike was past his prime when Buster Douglass beats him in 1990. I keep hearing that.

Tyson was a young man. He was certainly still in his prime, although after the Spinks fight, getting away from training and away from the people that made him successful was certainly the beginning of the end for Tyson which ultimately put him behind bars.

So can anyone tell me how can a 23 year old undefeated, supposedly invincible HW champion without that much wear and tear be past his prime in the Douglas fight?

He wasnt, but he wasnt doing the things that made him great anymore.

Yeah he was exciting knocking out tomato cans, bums, old ass Larry Holmes, blown up LHW in Spinks, etc. But put me in the overrated camp.

I think this is a little ridiculous

And no way does he even beat an Ali if both were in their prime. I keep hearing that. Ali would just have made fun of his voice and then proceed to give him a beating in the ring.

He would have given Ali hell at his best and even Ali has acknowledged it.

[salty trunks]

For me personally, Tyson in his prime was a great fighter, and a real handful for any heavyweight in history. His problem was he was born into a weak era. He never had the fights to truly define him, and the moment had well passed when he eventually fought Lewis, to have any real bearing on his legacy, for or against.

For me, he can never be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Louis, Ali, Frazier, Marciano or Larry Holmes. Was he overrated or underrated ? Thats a hard question as it all depends on who your are judging him against. And even if the benchmark is determined, how can you really judge without the defining fights, which were not of his choosing.

I remember Mike for being one the most aggressive, powerful, scary motherfuckers that ever lived, and as exciting as your ever likely to see. And a great fighter.

Were Marciano and Holmes in stronger eras?

[erics44]

tyson was a phenonomon
phenonemon
phenominon
phenomenon

thats it

[eagleskins]

Most overrated fighter of all time. Fought in the weakest era of all time, the late 80's. Only fought two good fighters his entire career and was KTFO by both. Not to mention the numerous tomato cans that knocked him out.

[TheBranMan]

Count me in the overrated camp. While I think he was a good fighter with a very entertaining style, I can't agree that he was great. Tyson fans will be quick to come up with 101 excuses for the Douglas fight, but there are always excuses. The fact is that a young fighter with little wear and tear was beaten by stellar opposition in Douglas - another decent heavyweight, but by no means great.

[generalbulldog]

Count me in the overrated camp. While I think he was a good fighter with a very entertaining style, I can't agree that he was great. Tyson fans will be quick to come up with 101 excuses for the Douglas fight, but there are always excuses. The fact is that a young fighter with little wear and tear was beaten by stellar opposition in Douglas - another decent heavyweight, but by no means great.

Exactly how I feel. You wouldn't believe how many of his defenders come up with excuses for the Buster fight. He undertrained, he was past his prime (at 23), he didn't have Rooney, it was Don King's fault, it was Robin Givens fault, cus damato died too early, his corner didn't have an enswell, oh yeah and I can't forget the long count excuse, etc.

The truth of the matter was it was Mike and Mike alone that failed himself, his best wins were against an 38 year old Holmes, and a blown up LHW in Spinks and countless tomato cans like Tony Tubbs, Pinklon Thomas, Tyrell Biggs, etc. And yet this is the guy that his fans say will KO Ali if they fought prime for prime.

[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.