Somehow Larry Holmes who was washed when Tyson beat him went 13-1 after that on route to fighting for the strap 7 years later.
Lot of people have Holmes in the HW top 5.
Holmes first title win was 78, his last was 85. 7 years
Mike first title win 86.. last 96 10 years (9 years 10mo)
Feel free to give me a list of champs who won major HW titles ten years apart. I'm guessing it is approximately Joe Louis and Ali, maybe Wlad pretty damn esteemed company.
... George Formen.
He gets graded on a curve because of his popularity.
When he beats Spinks Spinks is small but Mike was 5'10 218 in his first run.
If Spinks is undersized and doesn't count as a heavyweight than Mike was beating guys who had huge physical advantages over him his whole career. Pick one. You can't have it both ways.
If Holmes is a worthy contender when he went 13-1 AFTER Mike then he is a legit win when Mike beat him before that streak only 18 months after Holmes went to a SD for the title.
The truth is Mike forgot half of what made him great and still unified 2 of the 3 major belts, he only lost to all time greats Lennox (top 3 imo) and Holyfield (4x HW champ) in his first 56 fights and dropped a fight he should have won but didn't train and stayed up all night smashing groupies.
He was probably the 2nd most famous person in the world to Michael Jackson and went off the rails. His father figure died and he went from a broke ass kid mugging strangers to the most famous athlete in the world relatively overnight. Youngest HW champ ever and he still is 37 years later.
Mike is appropriately ranked at somewhere between #6-8 all time HW imo. And if you look up the most important metrics that is where you will find him, give or take. Most title fight wins, most champs defeated, duration between first and last title wins, lo gest consecutive title reign, wins as unified champ, etc.
