palooka wrote:The Tyson that did for Marvis Frazier and Trevor Berbeck was ruthless, powerful, fast, intimidating and was pretty much a missile. I agree with the poster that said that when he got the title he slumped or at least stopped improving and he did not condition himself like he had before. He wasn't the same.
This is also true of every other single HW from the 1980s and 1990s not called Lennox, Evander or Larry.
And to be honest Evander was inconsistent... And Lennox sometimes took his eye of the ball too.
It's true of most champions in any era. They usually stop improving. Some maintain roughly the same level for a while, some don't. Tyson was still at his best vs Biggs, Bruno, Spinks, Thomas, Williams, Holmes. Was a bit off vs Tucker and Smith.
Worth mentioning that Tyson wasn't exactly awesome against Tillis, Ribalta, and Ferguson before winning the title.
Probably from late 1986 to about the Spinks fight of 1988. He was still ferocious all the way up to his prison sentence but His skills were the most polished in the late 80's.
From being involved in boxing from around 1974 to present day, and with watching fight films from before that I would say the Mike Tyson that chinned Pinklon Thomas, Berbick and spinks was as near the perfect fighting machine I have seen. Pure destructive malevolence unleashed. I dont care what anyone says that Mike Tyson beats everyone from any era at any time.
