Larry Holmes. You might said him to be old and washed up, but you're wrong. Holmes arguably won against Spinks in their last fight, but got robbed by the judges. And even an older Holmes still goes to distance with Holyfield a few years later. This shows how dominant Iron Mike Tyson was in his prime, he knocked Holmes out in 4 rounds, something which Holyfield can't do.
After that, you have Michael Spinks. Spinks is known as then greatest Light Heavyweight. No matter what anyone say, everyone then believed Spinks would be Tyson's toughest challenge and they might be right. But, Tyson destroyed him in just 91 short seconds.
Later, Razor Ruddock twice. One via TKO, and one via UD 12 Rounds via wide margins. The TKO win was controversial, but I can see why the fight got stopped, Ruddock was struggling very badly and he could be hurt bad if the referee didn't stop it. Ruddock was a great boxer and he was then ranked as No 2 contender of World Heavyweight Title.
Also Frank Bruno twice. One in 1989 when he was in his prime and one more after he was released from prison in 1996. Tyson beat Bruno both times. Even in 1996 when many said he had past his prime, Tyson still managed to hurt Bruno very bad, cut him, and forced the referee to end the fight and regained World Heavyweight Title.
These four are great boxers. They might not belong to Top 10 Greatest Boxers Of All Time, but they are definitely Boxing Hall Of Famers Worthy. Michael Spinks deserves more credit for everything he had accomplished, it's too bad people just remember his 91 seconds embrassing KO loss to Tyson.
Even though a lot of the fighters Tyson beat in his prime weren't hall of fame fighters, they were the best around at the time. The golden era of the heavyweight division had just ended, and it was about a decade before the likes of Lewis, Holyfield, and Bowe became top notch fighters. Of course he did end up fighting them near the end of his career, except for Bowe.
Like I said, not all the fighters he beat weren't hall of famers, but champions. Trevor Berbick had won the WBC title after beating Pinklon Thomas and had also ended the career of Ali. James Bonecrusher Smith was WBA champion. Tony Tucker was IBF champion. Michael Spinks was undefeated, an all time great light heavyweight, and a fairly good heavyweight beating Gerry Cooney and upsetting Holmes twice. He was also the Ring heavyweight champ.
Larry Holmes had a bit of ring rust and obviously wasn't at his best, but Holmes around 50 years old went 10 rounds with Butterbean and won, so he wasn't terrible against Tyson.
Although Tyson's opposition wasn't Ali type opposition, it was the best at his time. It's sort of like questioning the Klitschko's resume. There is probably only one all time great they fought, which was Vitali fighting and losing to Lennox Lewis. It isn't there fault it was a weak era of heavyweights, but they dominated it.
Tyson beat all the belt holders, and unified the heavyweight title. He also became the youngest heavyweight champ. He might be a bit overrated, but still very good.
From the time Mike Tyson turned pro ,he didn't just win ,he destroyed his opponents with a combination of tremendous power and speed that put fear into his opponents hearts.
From 1985 to 1996 is when he dominated and was a huge draw ,in 1997 is when he had a mental breakdown and bit Evander Holyfields ear miltiple times in their second fight ,as a result he lost his boxing license ,that was the begining of his downward spiral as a boxer.
Mike Tyson got his boxing license back in 1999 (3 years later) and that's probably the Tyson that you got to know which was not the same Tyson that had fought 3 years prior do to the mental condidtion that he developed.
The real Tyson when he was a humble kid:
True, Larry was old and washed up by then, but he fought for nearly fifteen years after that and no one else ever knocked him out. Holmes put up a repsactable distance bout (12 rounds) against Holyfield four years after losing to Tyson, and Holmes reportedly had a major problem in one of his eyes before and during that fight that he failed to disclose lest the fight be cancelled. So my point is, Tyson deserves some credit for the way he destroyed Holmes--no one else ever did that during the many preceeding years that Holmes fought or in the many that followed.
Also, Tyson destroyed the previously undefeated Michael Spinks in one of the shortest heavyweight championship bouts ever, although, granted, Michael Spinks wasn't one of the greatest heavyweights ever (although he was certainly one of the greatest light-heavyweights ever).
..that's a question worth asking of any heavyweight champion of the past 30years, which definitely is not at risk of contention of being the golden, silver, bronze or even copper age of boxing. ask the same of holyfield, bowe, or lewis and their rankings among all-time greatness is somewhat lacking. holyfield, granted, can be considered great and he would likely have been competitive in any era. however, bowe owned holyfield, stylistically, but then all fighters have maybe one or two opponents who have their number, whom they cannot truly "dominate"(for ali it was norton; for leonard it was hearns...). however, holyfield's bid as a heavyweight is suspect as none of his other opponents would offer any of the all-time greats much cause for concern and he was stretched to the limit by holmes and foreman, for goodness sakes. lewis, sorry, I just think is one of the five most over-hyped fighters. he was big, strong and a good jab but had a glass jaw(like holmes). manny steward made the most of lewis, but when you get demolished by one shot from the likes of mccall and rachman, your rooster can't crow so loud...even if you avenge both defeats. bowe had his finest hours against holyfield but was not too significant elsewhere.
so, on to Tyson. simply put, he did what great heavyweights do. he cleaned out the division, twice, and was the only bright spark on a faded landscape. spinks was considered the legitimate linear champion until Tyson knocked him cold in 91 seconds. true, he may have been just a blown up light heavyweight but this was not seriously considered/truly exposed/universally agreed upon until that bodyshot from Tyson put him down for the first time in his career. Tyson simply showed the world that none of the other heavyweights of his era belonged in the same ring w/him and that's where his greatness comes from - he didn't struggle against sub-par opposition like the others did, putting us to sleep. as I've said here many times, Tyson was notable more for his promise/potential than his actual accomplishments(and, I am a huge Tyson fan). he was "the one" that was supposed to save boxing and reign for 15 years, or more, which he probably would have, had his team stayed intact. now, i'm not gonna bellyache about D'Amato's death like so many others but just think how much different heavyweight history could/would have been had cus and kevin rooney stayed around. or, just think if manny steward had been Tyson's trainer - man, now I would love to have seen THAT Tyson - he'd probably still be champ, hahahah. think how many more classic matchups we would have witnessed w/holyfield, bowe, lewis; and, he would have cleaned out moorer, mercer, morrison, the klitchkos, tua, and all the others. having said all this, he did nullify pretty much everyone he faced from spinks to holmes(I SO enjoyed seeing holmes get the butt-whupping he so long-deserved) and finally brought the titles back onto one head for the first time since ali was champ. add to that what a great story he was, what a great style he had(no frills, no jazz), his explosive power, quickness and body attacks, and his string of victories and that is why he was considered great!
I give Tyson credit for his dominance, but most of his competition wasn't that impressive.
Pinklon Thomas was on the slide and hadn't beaten a ranked contender in 2 years.
Tyrell Briggs had only 16 fights as a pro and barely managed to beat David Bey.
Holmes was several years past his prime, hadn't fought in almost 2 years, and hadn't convincingly beaten a ranked contender in almost 3 years.
Tubbs hadn't beaten a ranked contender in 3 years.
Spinks was inactive for a year, and hadn't genuinely beaten a top heavyweight in nearly 3 years.
Bruno failed to collect a belt 3 times before finally beating the mediocre Oliver McCall.
The fact that these guys were some of the best in the division, reflects on the poor state of the division.
It's not his fault that he was left and faced with the type of opposition he had in his first prime coming (1985-90 ). He emerged in a so-called interregnum ( a period without an emperor ) in boxing following the close of the Larry Holmes championship era ( 1978-85 ) which saw the unsightly sight of the alternate ascension to the WBA, WBC and IBF thrones of such leftovers as Tony Tubbs, Pinklon Thomas and Trevor Berbick, Greg Page, Tim Witherspoon and James Bonecrusher Smith and Tony Tucker, respectively.
Comparatively speaking, both Holmes and Tyson's rise paled to Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay's who earned his cracks and cemented his initial championship claim by beating legitimate contenders, ex champions and reigning champions who were already household names with solid reputations such as Doug Jones, Henry Cooper, Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, Thad Spencer, George Chuvalo, Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston.
But Tyson did better than Holmes who only had Ernie Shavers as a notable foe before beating Ken Norton for the vacant WBC title in 1978.
Tyson indeed fought and beat a slew of fringe contenders but he also fought and beat a lot of rated contenders and ex champions and still viable reigning champions in his first prime as James Quick Tillis, Jesse Ferguson, Marvis Frazier, Alonzo Ratliff, Berbick, Smith, Thomas, Tucker,Tyrell Biggs, Tubbs, Spinks, Carl Williams and Holmes.
It's inaccurate to say that the Holmes fight was his best performance during this period because Holmes would later on beat some top rated contenders to become a serious title challenger. Note that when Holmes faced Tyson in 1988, he was coming back after almost two years of semi-retirement following back-to-back controversial title losses to Mike Spinks. In fairness, Holmes had yet to get back to a measure of his prime capabilities when he challenged Tyson.
To me, the Spinks demolition job was also a given notwithstanding the hype and the odds.
I think Tyson earned his deserved place in the roll of heavyweight greats by his sheer explosiveness and single-mindedness to destroy whoever was in front of him in establishing himself as the most powerful heavyweight KO artist ever.
Calminopalmero is right. Beating Holmes was a nice name for the resume, but destroying undefeated 31-0 IBF champ, and former Olympic Gold Medalist was a greater win. Spinks beat Holmes first.
For me, Tyson being the youngest champ...at 20...was all time great stuff. And yes, there are more belts...but Tyson won all of them to prove he was the true champ...IBF, WBC, and WBA...recognize.
Thing was in his early career he beat all the title holders!He didn't just get a win he got lots of them with first round knockouts.Not ducking anybody and at the time I doubt anyone could have even come close to his ablity
Razor Ruddock twice Frank Bruno twice, Tony Tucker, Tony Tubbs, Tyrell Biggs, Michael Spinks I am just mentioning people he fought and beat there are many many more
...to be recognised as one of the best boxers of all time? His best win seems to be an old, washed up Larry Holmes.
Mike was sowing terror to all opponents in his younger days. No doubt he's one of the greatest boxers of all time. There is no argument to that.
tyson is the youngest undisputed heavyweight champ, it means he beat 3 world champs at a very young age, he actually cleaned up the entire heavyweight division for that... not to mention spinks and holmes on his resume...
man you dont know anythin!!!!
he beat better quality fighters than Vitali and Vlad have beat FACT In his prime he would of quickly kod them both i dont care how tall they are they are terrible fighters
He beat everyone to get to the top, that's all that matters
You obviously don't know much about boxing.
