As much I respect Vladimir , if anyone had a glass jaw it was him . He was put down by some laughably soft punches by sanders and Brewster .
Like i say, you can pick holes in any heavyweight fighters record if you want. To say Tyson was not an all time great would be laughable. He KOd Holmes, Spinks, Berbick, unified the titles against the top ranked at the time, was youngest champ ever, pretty average resume wouldn't you say? Outside of Douglas he only lost when past his best to other greats like Lewis and Holyfield. Forget Williams and the Irish chap as even they don't think they beat "Tyson" a bit like Spinks beating the ancient Ali.
He was a ferocious opponent who could stiff guys like no other. He put the fear of God into fellas. He was highly explosive and could finish inferior opponents in next to no time. He didn't stay at the top for too long though, another undeniable fact. So, no, he wasn't an all time great IN MY OPINION The record books back this up. When he met someone not scared, he was beaten. He'd be on a similar level to Evandar Holyfield but below Lennox Lewis, who was a more clever and measured boxer. The fact was Lewis give him a clinic, a beautiful night in boxing that was
Obviously just my opinion that's a lot of what boxing is about. We will never know. We will never know who the greatest of all time was. We will never know who the best pound for pound of all time was (although that's probably easier to answer). The facts are that Lewis fought Tyson almost 15 years after his prime, like I've said before Tyson wasn't at the top for long and that's probably a big negative against him. It's a bit similar to George Best at football. He rarely gets mentioned up there with the likes of Pele and Maradona but he should be, but the fact he wasn't at the top for long does him no favours. Obviously a lot of this discussion is opinions and if you look at all time lists put together by so called experts they vary quite a bit outside the top 2 (most agree Ali and Louis are the top 2). A few have Lewis above Tyson AND Holyfield others have Lewis below both. You talk about Lewis giving him a schooling and a beating so by that rationale, does that make Larry Holmes better than Ali or Marciano better than Louis, or Danny Williams and Kevin McBride better than Tyson aswell? It's one of the things I love about the sport it sparks such fierce debate amongst people as its so subjective
He did you're right mate and there's **** all wrong with that although he was losing to Vitali when it was stopped due to the cut. But Wladmir Klitschko is beating everyone put in front of him and has done so for a long time but he still gets little credit for it.
"Weren't bad" so he never even beat a good fighter. So Lewis was decent at best summarising that. Klitschko was a great, his shear size would of give any fighter trouble and Lewis wanted no part of a rematch despite crying for rematches himself in the past. Though Lewis was on the slide by then himself and knew he would not win that one. Holyfield was a great, Lewis drew one (which he won) and then won one (which was probably a draw) though Holyfield was past his best by this time, the Bowe fights took too many miles out of him. The shame is that Tyson, Lewis, Holyfield and Bowe we all around the same age, though all matured and dominated the division at slightly different times, if it was not for various reasons we could of had a real decade of fighting there. IMO Tyson hardest fight would be Holyfield, Lewis would be Bowe, Holyfield would be Bowe and Bowe would be Tyson. Styles make fights One thing is sure is that they were all elite level fighters and all 4 of them greats.
If you beat the fighters around and dominated your era like Ali, like Holmes, like Tyson, like Lewis, did then you are a great. There have been around 12 heavyweights in this class. The unfortunate part is that greats do not usually cross paths at their best. That is why the Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Hearns, Duran, Hagler, Leonard eras are revered. Instead we get Marciano v Louis, Tyson v Lewis, Ali v Holmes, when one great loses to another being way past their primes.
So okay we have agreed that Lennox Lewis is número uno and the rest nowhere So where do we place Hearns, Hagler, Duran and Leonard? Personally I have the " Marvellous " one at 1. Followed closely by Leonard, Hearns and Duran .
Leonard had too many " dubious" and favourable decisions to be number one. That said , he was truly incredible. But not quite incredible enough
There will never be another era like it again. Four all time great boxers around at the same time, and actually fighting each other on a seemingly annual basis !! God I miss those times , thank The Lord for youtube !
Too much politics involved nowadays. Different promoters with different TV networks. we very rarely see the top fighters of the same weight division fighting each other let alone 3 or 4 in the same division. That doesn't mean there aren't still great fights
