If mods could make a poll that’d be great. There was a thread in the Mayberry basically about Lennox Lewis calling Mike Tyson a manlet and somewhere along the way The Ring’s 2002 80 Greatest Boxers of All-Time list was brought up. A certain poster said “LOL Marciano over Tyson really? He was reliant on punching power only” in reference to Marciano being ranked considerably higher. Surely this is an opinion held by the vast minority right?
Tyson More title defenses, youngest heavyweight champion in history, better resume, transcended the sport of boxing. ... And oh: Joe Louis was 137 years old when Rocky beat him!
I know you got this from Coming To America haha but the best name on Tyson’s resume was “flabby and sick” to quote 2Pac.
Well since you wanna be a smartass Marciano has more wins over HOFers than Tyson. Better resume what?
A concept a lot of people don't understand is that just because you're ranked higher than someone all time, that doesn't mean you beat everyone below you. Ranking is based on accomplishment. If people rate Marciano higher than Tyson, it's because they believe his achievements outrank Tyson. Because I can tell you now in no uncertain terms, there is no known universe where Rocky Marciano beats Tyson. If someone tells you they got Rocky Marciano over Tyson, that's someone who has no clue about boxing.
What Seano said. Its pretty hard to rate an undefeated guy lower than a guy who lost so many over close to the same number of fights. Rocky didn’t know how to lose. Mike found ways to fail.
On accomplishments, I'll take Marciano I guess because of where Joe Louis falls in history. Counting the win because Holmes counts in Tyson's case. Spinks, and how he put Spinks away is a pretty damn good win for Tyson too, but then how Tyson's legacy went down with all the losses. Ezzard Charles was a good name that bolsters Rocky's name for me as well.
I always felt like Marciano was underrated by boxing fans. Even though Louis, Charles, Moore, and Walcott were old, the fact is that he faced those guys multiple times and never lost. Only Joe Louis was so far past it when he fought Rocky that I can see why people disregard that. All of that on top of Rocky being a small HW anyways with his T-Rex arms. When he fought Charles and Moore, you couldn’t easily tell who was moving up from LHW if you didn’t already know.
Rocky. Rock didn't fired good coaches. Rock didn't shit talks. Rock retired not too late. This requires strong self critical mind and willpower.
Okay he still lost like three fights afterwards. To act like Holmes was in his prime for that fight is being facetious and you know it. Hell he was coming off two straight losses when he fought Tyson.
Of course he wasnt in his prime but its Larry Holmes, top 5 HW AT. Nobody had an easy night. And the Spinks losses were so close, they in no way showed Larry being shot. Mike took care of Spinks in historical style anyway.
Holmes was pretty decent post Tyson, almost took title off McCall and humiliated Mercer. Tyson destroyed him before that.
It depends on how they're being ranked. If it's head-to-head then I would expect Mike (peak form) to handily win that hypothetical match-up and be ranked higher on the list. Stylistically he's a bad match-up for Rocky (much faster starter, much faster hands & feet, power in both hands, more accurate, much better defensively, better combination & counterpunching). If it's their overall careers being compared and ranked then Rocky rates higher all-time. He's a consensus Top 10 ATG with many credible sources even rating him in the bottom Top 5. I just posted The Ring's All-Time Heavyweight rankings maybe a week ago. They polled 30 people considered to be experts and then averaged the results. Rocky landed the No. 4 spot and Mike came in at No. 9.
Seriously. We're talking resume, so it has to be edge to Rock, but I feel dirty picking against Tyson because when he was at his best and on the eye test alone, something fans use to rate the P4P "no 1" in Loma (no, it's Canelo, but you get gist), then Tyson looks like damn near best HW I ever saw. Unstoppable before he lost sight of what got him there.