August 2, 200421 yr Remember this guy, the old 'Iron' Mike Tyson Yes Begs , despite what people may think these days , Tyson DOES belong in the Boxing Hall of Fame. As a youngster ( 19 ) he ripped apart the stale Heavyweight division , renewde the publics interest in that fading division. Not a great boxer , however he was a great student of the art of pugilism. His style was adapted to fighting those guys with a massive reach advantage. Myself at 5ft 8 , boxed as an amateur , in the Middleweight division can understand his tactics. Fighting against much taller/rangier opponents you have to rely on a strength/bombing approach , you cannot outbox those with a huge reach. For those who doubted his skills , I advise them to try a "boxing" approach if they ever find themselves in such a quandary. A <deleted> out of the ring , nevertheless , still the Baddest man to enter the heavyweight boxing ring , the only other boxer with the same vicousness would be one Roberto Duran(Manos de Piedras) , who adopted a similar ethos.
August 2, 200421 yr No, for my money the best Caucasian boxer over the last 40+ years was none other than Joe Bugner. I'll go along with that. As I said, it was remiss of me not to include him in my original selection.
August 2, 200421 yr Author Mike Tyson is still a crowd puller and headline maker, and Boxing needs another huge personality like him. Barry Sheene did it for Motorcycling, Eric Bristow for Darts, Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins for snooker, their personalities made their respective sports very marketable and Lucrative for the guys at the top of these sports. Even after Ali had long gone and Larry Holmes had been Champ for a long time, and he was a good champion, if you asked the housewife in the street "who is the World heavyweight Champ", 99% would have said Ali, and would never had heard of Larry Holmes. Best weight division fighters at one time could be : Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran.............remember some of them Fights? Sugar Ray Leonard must be one of the greatest ever Boxers.
August 2, 200421 yr Author This is how i would remember the old 'Iron' Mike Tyson. I think in his early career he had won most of his fights before the opening Bell, totally intimidating.
August 2, 200421 yr Tyson was a great fighter, but his mind got to him. He is one of those guys that finally figures out how life works, but then it's too late. My favorite boxer other than Ali is George Foreman. The man has his S$$$ together even after all these years of getting his head pummeled; he still has a baby face.
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