Mike Tyson Ranked Lower than Lennox Lewis do u agree?

[I Feel Fine]

While sticking to my position that Lewis was better; I do think its a bit unfair to classify the Douglas that beat Tyson as a poor fighter. You can be a very talented fighter and just not have the discipline to show it on a consistent basis. That applies to both Douglas and Tyson; both of them had trouble staying disciplined. Douglas had one great night... or morning. On that day he wouldn't have been an easy fight for a lot of great Heavyweights. Tyson's discipline started to fade at that stage, while Douglas on that day was prepared and ready to fight. Douglas had also had something of a winning streak since his loss to Tucker, including a win over Berbick, so he had been looking a bit better.

That's no excuse for Tyson losing, of course. It is a bad loss and does effect his legacy in a major way; but it shouldn't be implied that he lost to a guy who had nothing.

[Ambling Alp]

Douglas did fight a great fight against Tyson. He would have beaten most heavyweight champions that night. When rating Tyson, what should be mentioned is that he himself didn't perform well that fight, except for a few flashes.

Tyson's 2nd fight with Holyfield deserveds a lot of criticism and should be held against him.
His loss to Lewis should be held against (although not as much if they would have fought earlier.)

I actually think fought a good fight against Holyfield in their first fight. It was pretty competitive for the first several rounds. It did show that Holyfield at 80% of his best was better than Tyson at 90%.

The people that love Tyson concentrate on his pre-Douglas career and seem to think that he blew everyone away. This isn't true. He had a lot of trouble with Tillis and Tucker, and wasn't exactly impressive against Smith.

However Tyson did have a lot of wins against good opponents that shouldn't be ignored. Scoring devastating wins over Berbick,Tubbs, Spinks, Bruno (twice) has to count for something. Not to mention wins over Thomas and Ruddock (twice).

Everyone has seen his devastating knockouts. He had great handspeed, a good chin,at times a good defense, great power in both hands. Most of all he had aggressiveness that most fighters lack.

He was in the same league as Lewis and Holyfield. On a given night he could have beaten them. However, if you look at his overall career, he should be rated behind Lewis and Holyfield, though not too far behind them.

[Ezzard]

Tyson does deserve some credit for his early career most definitely. he was so dominant that I remember after the KO of Tubbs one headline joked Tyson comes from behind to score KO.

I do think though Holyfield was a considerably greater fighter than Tyson. Evander had his off nights like Tyson but he could come back from them and take big wins again.

I think the 80% Holyfield beating 90% Tyson line sums it up for me.

[Big Bad John]

Douglas fought a good fight and everything, but let's not get out of hand. He basically threw the same combination all night long, and Tyson kept letting him.

[My2Sense]

Douglas fought a good fight and everything, but let's not get out of hand. He basically threw the same combination all night long, and Tyson kept letting him.

I agree. He showed good all around speed and discipline, but that's basically it. To say he would've beaten most other heavyweight champs is very presumptuous, and unfounded. We all saw what Holyfield did to him just one fight later, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lennox Lewis simply blew through him like he did to Golota.

The way Douglas lost his title was totally inexcusable. When has anyone seen anything even remotely resembling a champion/contender at heavyweight get blown out that quickly and easily by Holyfield? And when has anyone ever been KO'd by just one shot from him? Yes, Douglas was overweight for that fight, but no more than Bowe for his rematch with Holy, but he still managed to put up a fight and ended up losing only by a split decision. Other fighters such as Dokes, Tillis, Thomas, Holmes, Foreman, Moorer, and Czyz were similarly not at their bests when facing Holy (for various reasons), but not one of them was blown out as easily as Douglas was.

[elmersalsa]

Douglas could be knocked out and Mcall could not. Thats why Mcall was Tyson's sparring partner so its safe to say we would have not known what would happen if Tyson would have faced Mcall EVEN IN HIS PRIME. Even a prime Tyson could not knock Mcall off his feet.

Bullshit...one shot by Tyson and that pussycat (McCall) goes to cry in the toilet.

[elmersalsa]

Buster Douglas in Tokyo would have beaten Lennox Lewis in any night too. He looked AWESOME. Let's give him that.

[My2Sense]

Buster Douglas in Tokyo would have beaten Lennox Lewis in any night too. He looked AWESOME.

Based on what? His fight plan in Tokyo was designed for facing an opponent who was considerably shorter and one dimensional. Lewis is the total opposite of that.

An equally motivated Douglas (and in even trimmer shape) fell apart against Tony Tucker, who was similar to Lewis but did not have his power or all around class.

[Big Bad John]

Buster Douglas in Tokyo would have beaten Lennox Lewis in any night too. He looked AWESOME. Let's give him that.

I don't see how. He did well against Tyson by staying outside of Tyson's range. He simply wouldn't be able to do that against Lewis. In fact, he'd be playing into Lewis's gameplan. It would probably be an easy win for Lewis and his straight punches from the outside. If Tyson had relied on combination punching instead of throwing one punch at a time, he would have had an excellent shot at winning the fight, himself. Don't forget that Frans Botha pretty much did the same thing for four straight rounds years later.