A common hypothetical sports argument over the last quarter century is who would have won between a prime Mike Tyson and a prime Muhammad Ali. I always found this argument frustrating.
Ali came out the best of the greatest heavyweight era in boxing history. He is arguably the best heavyweight of all time, and we here at TSS ranked him as such.
Tyson on the other hand can be ranked no higher than third in the next best and probably most underrated era of big men. It’s like comparing Jack Nicholas to Vee Jay Singh instead of Tiger Woods in golf.
Before I get into why he is not an all-time top 10 heavyweight let me just say that my purpose here is not to hate on Tyson. I just don’t worship him the way many of my fellow Generation Xers do.
Mike Tyson had a prolific career which put him rightfully in the hall-of-fame. He was arguably the most physically gifted heavyweight of all time.
He had lights out power in both hands. He had possibly the best head movement a heavyweight could dream of.
His most important physical gift was probably his explosive quickness. His most underrated attributes were his jab, footwork and ring IQ.
Watching Tyson early in his career against all the right opponents, some of whom were good fighters covered up all his shortcomings making him look indestructible. What were his shortcomings?
1-He was very short for a heavyweight of his time. He would always be vulnerable to a long power puncher with a good jab who could control distance. Listed at 5’11 he’s probably more like 5’9; maybe even 5’8. But his head movement could compensate for his size.
2-Conditioning. Tyson trained hard when he was in the gym but that fullback physique requires a lot of oxygen and he just wasn’t the same fighter after 5 rounds.
3-Chin. By no means did Iron Mike have a glass jaw but he didn’t have a Foreman/Marciano type beard either.
4-Mental makeup. This was Tyson’s greatest weakness. He masked it well by selling himself at times as some type of uncontrollable maniac. But the reality was that he was more of a bully frontrunner who had the ability to semi-crumble when the opponent didn’t capitulate to that bully persona.
Teddy Atlas states in his book (Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring) that #4 was always there. He was always fragile mentally.
Atlas even mentions an amateur bout against some willing tough guy who was nowhere near Tyson’s class. Tyson was destroying this guy but unlike most opponents who just wanted to get the hell out of the ring, this guy was tough/dumb enough to keep fighting.
Tyson was coming back to the corner exhausted acting like he was losing. It was actually Tyson who wanted to quit even though he was far ahead.
Atlas screamed Tyson into barely hanging on (not against the opponent, but against exhaustion) to get out with the win. Tyson thanked Atlas after the fight and apologized. Atlas knew right then that this may always be a problem; he wasn’t wrong.
Tyson’s signature wins are not all-time classics or domination of prime all-time heavyweights. He beat a good-not-great Trevor Berbick, good-not-great James “Bonecrusher” Smith and a good-not-great Tony Tucker to unify the alphabet titles (the first making him the youngest heavyweight champ in history).
His best win as far as a name was Larry Holmes but Holmes was 38, retired and disgusted with the game after being screwed against Michael Spinks. It took $3 million from Don King to buy Holmes back into the ring to get stopped in 4.
At the peak of his powers Tyson destroyed lineal champ Michael Spinks in under 2 minutes. It’s his signature moment and Spinks is a HOFer but more for his work at light heavyweight than at heavyweight.
I always thought his two best wins came against Donovan “Razor” Rudduck. Rudduck was a damn good heavyweight who came not just to survive, but to win. Tyson took whatever Rudduck had to give before defeating the Canadian.
Frank Bruno, Andrew Golota and Mitch Green were also quality wins but none of them are going to the hall-of-fame without paying the entrance fee.
Tyson’s first loss to James “Buster” Douglas does not keep him out of my top 10. Most champions in history have had a bad night against an underrated opponent on his night when all the stars align for an upset.
Tyson actually behaved like a warrior in that fight. He never quit, even reaching for his mouthpiece on the canvas in a failed attempt to beat the count. Tyson even said on Centerstage With Michael Kay that this is his favorite fight because of that.
I also don’t hold the last couple losses against him. Many greats lose fights late in their career to guys who would not belong in their ring at another point-in-time (Ali-Berbick).
It’s the fights against the two best of his era that keep him off the list. Evander Holyfield, as a 40-1 underdog at one point dominated Mike Tyson in November of 1996 to claim the 2 straps that Tyson took back upon his release from prison. Tyson apologists will point to Tyson’s incarceration to imply this would not have happened beforehand.
I don’t buy that. Tyson may have lost a little head movement but he was still ferocious and dominant upon his release. Holyfield on the other hand was older, had lost his second title reign to Michael Moorer, temporarily retired with a heart condition, was stopped in a rubber-match with Riddick Bowe and looked shot in a win over Bobby Czyz.
Nobody gave Holyfield a shot (many were concerned for his safety) accept Holyfield and Emmanuel Stewart who trained Holyfield for his second fight with Bowe. Stewart knew what Holyfield knew.
You see there was a sparring session at the Olympic training center (Bite Fight by George Willis) when both were amateurs. The session got so nasty they had to stop it after one round; this was at a time when Tyson had a really hard time finding willing sparring partners.
Holyfield knew, and more importantly Tyson knew the Real Deal could take all Tyson could dish out.
Many couldn’t believe Holyfield’s relaxed confidence during fight week as such a huge underdog. He behaved as if he had already won. We didn’t know it then, but he had. After surviving Tyson’s early assault, Holyfield became the bully to the bully.
In the rematch, Holyfield was having his way again. Tyson then changed boxing’s prominence in the sports hierarchy forever by biting part of Holyfield’s ear off to get disqualified; it was his way out of a fight that wasn’t going to go his way.
He was masking his fear and inadequacy with rage and chaos. Teddy Atlas actually predicted before the fight that Tyson would get himself disqualified.
Tyson later got a crack at Lennox Lewis who had unified the title beating Holyfield. That night Tyson looked like many of his opponents who showed up for a beating and a payday with little belief they could win.
Lewis was also older than Tyson. Yes, Tyson was further from his prime then, but he like the rest of the division never seemed in a rush to get in the ring with Lewis until it was necessary.
An Ali-Tyson fight along with some others on my top-10 list would have been over after the press conference or the fifth round due to Iron Mike’s weak psyche and/or conditioning.
Granted his physical gifts would make him VERY dangerous to anyone. But how would Tyson fair if Frazier, Foreman or Marciano (who all had granite chins) were still standing there after 5?
So while Iron Mike Tyson is a deserved hall-of-famer, arguably the most fun to watch and the feature of one of the only videogames I ever gave a s**t about, he’s just not a top-10 all time heavyweight here at TSS. Talk soon.
-Marksman