What made Mike Tyson a great boxer?

Well, just to start off, some of these posts are totally ridiculous. Blogbaba2 in particular made zero sense. Saying Jerry Quarry would have knocked out Mike Tyson is just absurd.

It's totally fair to argue and dispute Tyson's record and abilities, but saying that his fights were fixed, before meeting up with Don King, is a joke. There is zero evidence to support that (and you provided none), and from most accounts Jimmy Jacobs, Bill Cayton and Kevin Rooney were upstanding guys. And the rape trial was HARDLY conclusive.

There was zero physical evidence that he raped her. That isn't me defending rapists, that's something I don't do at all, but anyone who reviews the facts (facts, not circumstances and hearsay) can see that that trial was a farce. Tyson was an idiot, yes, and he did a lot of dumb things.

But I don't think he raped anyone. Do I think Tyson is the greatest of all time? If you weigh his entire career, I don't think so, no.

I've seen every professional fight Mike Tyson has ever had. Personally, inside the ring, I find him to be the most entertaining fighter ever, but overall, there were better. Ali was one.

I don't think Tyson would have matched up particularly well against George Foreman either. I think for a specific time frame in the 80's, Tyson was the best in the world, no question, and one of the best ever. I think at that time, he would have crushed Holyfield.

The problem with Mike, as we saw later on, was that he had almost no mental fortitude. Holyfield got into his head both times they faught, and Tyson couldn't handle it. Hell, he was winning that infamous second fight when he lost his mind and bit Holyfield's ear.

The argument can be made that he lost a step out of prison, absolutely, but history if filled with what if's and what-could-have-been's. I've seen Tyson-Douglas at least four times and have read a few books about it. The story of that fight is fascinating (and if you're a fan of boxing history, or just a fan of Tyson, I'd highly recommend "The Last Great Fight" by Joe Laydon.

Amazing book on Tyson/Douglas), and you're right, essentially. Tyson coasted in the training, and at the end of the day, that's his fault. But Tyson was never the brightest and by that point in his career he'd dropped everyone who brought him to the dance and kept him there and replaced them with talentless yes-men.

Douglas had a reputation of being a soft trainer who quit when the going got tough. But then his Mom died a few weeks prior to the fight and he swore a vow on her grave to give the fight of his life against Tyson. He then went out and trained like a demon while Tyson sat in his hotel and watched movies.

Even with that taken into account, Tyson still should have won that fight, if anyone with a brain had been in his corner. Douglas was hammering Tyson in the middle rounds, and he opened a cut above Tyson's eye. Aaron Snowell, in one of the most stunning cases of ineptitude in championship boxing history, had forgotten to pack a freaking end-swell and instead used a water-filled rubber glove, which of course did absolutely nothing and Tyson wasn't able to recover.

Even with THAT level of incompetence, Tyson still scored a knockdown when Douglas got lazy in the eighth round. Now, I hate Don King, hate him, but I've seen that count ten times or more, and to me at least, it looked like a long count, and that Tyson should have won. Purely opinion, I know, but that's just how I feel about it.

BQ: Nope, Tyson's downfall was getting rid of Kevin Rooney after the Michael Spinks fight, the death of Jimmy Jacobs and firing Billy Cayton because King poisoned Tyson's mind into thinking that only black people would take care of him. That was complete crap. Those guys knew Tyson, knew what worked to keep him effective in the ring and manageable outside it.

They kept Tyson fighting every two or three months to keep him busy, so he wouldn't muck himself up, and it worked. But when King got in there, and turned Tyson against those guys, that was the beginning of the end. You think if Rooney was there against Douglas he wouldn't have been prepared?

No chance. After that, Tyson started fighting only once or twice a year and collapsed into himself. Ultimately, Tyson himself bears the responsibility for that.

He should have been smart enough to realize that Rooney and Cayton had his best interests at heart, and to have seen what Don King was. But even so, how his career was handled from Douglas onwards was a disgrace.

Ok, first off, Mike Tyson isn't even in the top 5 of all-time Heavyweights, let alone all the boxers in every division. Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Ali, Joe Louis, Marciano, Gene Tunney, Lennox Lewis... All better boxers than Tyson, in my opinion. I could go on for hours talking about boxers in other weight classes better than Tyson.

Sugar Ray Robinson and Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Duran, Aaron Pryor, Arguello, Chavez, etc. etc. etc. Tyson was dominant at the time he came up and he did knock out a lot of mediocre challengers. Your question sounds like you are trying to talk yourself into believing he was the best, but pick up a book about boxing and learn about the guys that deserve more recognition than a thug rapist.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.