Who is the Boxing HW GOAT?

^ How's that work? Prime Vitali was defeated by overweight, past-his-prime 37 year old Lennox Lewis, Vitali's face all torn to ribbons by Lennox' punches.
The fight only went 6 rds. Winning a few early rds does not constitute winning a 12 rd Championship Fight.

Lennox also never quit in his corner against a blown-up 169 pounder the way the 6′7
 
i'd have to go with Mike or Ali. But i think if prime Ali or Prime anybody fought prime Mike Tyson they wouldn't have one
 
How about a Prime Tyson vs a Prime Buster Douglas
 
It doesn't matter Lazy, if the question had been, "Who is the Boxing GOAT?" you'd still have people picking Tyson
 
Ali was the greatest

If Lennox would beat Vitali clearly, then I would say Lennox.


and LOL @Tyson, he shouldn
 
1. Dempsey
2. Louis
3. Ali
4. Marciano
5. Johnson
6. Frazier
7. Lewis
8. Foreman
9. Holmes
10. Liston


/thread
 
MysticNinjaJay said:
Tyson is Top 10 for sure just not in the conversation for #1 IMO.

I think he was closer to his prime against Holyfield but the prison sentence didn't help him.

Ali lost when he came back to fight Frazier and then beat him in the rematches.

Tyson looked terrible against Botha and then fought inferior competition until his match with Lewis. I think he was past his prime and ill-prepared for Lewis.

If the Tyson of the 80s fought Holyfield and Lewis in their primes I think Tyson would win. But those would still be tough fights.

IMO GOAT is all about accomplishments not who could beat who.
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finally someone who gets it! btw I would love to have seen when Mike and Lewis were young pups sparring against each other that one time they did. Or even when Holyfield would acknowledge Mike at the Olympic trials
 
enswell said:
The Ring Magazine is the Bible of Boxing no longer.

For any young fight-fans who may not know, Promoter De La Hoya bought it, and we can all see what's going to happen regarding rankings with Golden Boy fighters there.
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GBP bought the RING in 2007. In my opinion the magazine's ratings have stayed very neutral and I agree with Kid McCoy that making them biased hurts the long-term success of the magazine as people will choose to ignore the ratings and the magazine, the same way boxing fans largely ignore the alphabet titles and the rankings made by the commissions.

Look at the Ring's ratings for the Jr.WW division. Manny is still their champ in spite of the fact that he is probably never fighting at that weight again. Their number one fighter is Bradley, and their number two is Alexander. Amir Khan is number three and he earned the spot by beating Paulie Malignaggi. Also, Mayweather did not pass Pacquiao in their P4P ratings when he beat Mosley in May even though he did in the rankings of other sites/magazines.
 
It obviously seems like excuses, but despite Tyson not taking Douglas seriously, he still should've won the fight. I was only 9 years old at the time mind you, but I remember watching it and getting pissed off at the slow count when Tyson got the knockdown. The image of Tyson trying to pick up his gumshield and wanting to fight on will always stick with me as one of the heartbreaking moments in boxing.

Tyson post prison became a bit of a headhunter and lost most of his movement in which he clearly wasn't the same fighter. Holyfield opened up some horrible cuts with his headbutts in both fights and was leading with his head repeatedly.

It doesn't change the fact that Tyson lost, but there were reasons that contributed to that significantly that should not have been the case (illegal headbutts and slow count).

It just really isn't fair to hold those losses against him. Lennox Lewis is quality but his defence wasn't amazing (look at Briggs, Klitchko, Rahman, Mcall fights) and a prime Tyson with speed and movement would've comfortably knocked him out imo (and I'm british).

Tyson on his day can beat anyone (which is an argument for him being the best), and that's not even including the achievements which would make him easily top ten.

Comparing Tyson to someone like Ali or Louis etc is a little like comparing Agassi to Sampras in Tennis.

One has all the achievements and consistency and probably the greatest (before Federer) whereas the other was on his day the best ever.
 
PJ_Benn said:
It obviously seems like excuses, but despite Tyson not taking Douglas seriously, he still should've won the fight. I was only 9 years old at the time mind you, but I remember watching it and getting pissed off at the slow count when Tyson got the knockdown. The image of Tyson trying to pick up his gumshield and wanting to fight on will always stick with me as one of the heartbreaking moments in boxing.

Tyson post prison became a bit of a headhunter and lost most of his movement in which he clearly wasn't the same fighter. Holyfield opened up some horrible cuts with his headbutts in both fights and was leading with his head repeatedly.

It doesn't change the fact that Tyson lost, but there were reasons that contributed to that significantly that should not have been the case (illegal headbutts and slow count).

It just really isn't fair to hold those losses against him. Lennox Lewis is quality but his defence wasn't amazing (look at Briggs, Klitchko, Rahman, Mcall fights) and a prime Tyson with speed and movement would've comfortably knocked him out imo (and I'm british).

Tyson on his day can beat anyone (which is an argument for him being the best), and that's not even including the achievements which would make him easily top ten.

Comparing Tyson to someone like Ali or Louis etc is a little like comparing Agassi to Sampras in Tennis.

One has all the achievements and consistency and probably the greatest (before Federer) whereas the other was on his day the best ever.
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That's not a bad argument.

I was a Tyson fan myself. Watching him fight as a kid got me into combat sports.

I do think that in his prime he could have beaten any HW including fellow greats.

I honestly believe he COULD have been the greatest. What ultimately defeated Tyson was not superior Boxers but his unstable personality. After marrying Robin Givens and getting involved with Don King he just went off the deep end and that contributed to the Douglas loss.

I do have to give Buster Douglas some credit though. He brought his A game. The count was slow however Douglas probably would have beaten it anyway. He hesitated to get up focusing on the referee's count to make sure he was completely recovered. If the referee's count was correct he would have probably gotten up earlier. Tyson was getting his ass kicked in that fight and Douglas did come back after the knockdown to win the fight.

Holyfield did headbutt Tyson in both fights. That played a factor although you have to give Holyfield credit their two for his masterful Boxing.

Tyson was a shell of his former self when he fought Lewis and never reached prime form after that.

Who was the best Boxing HW when in in their prime is arguable but as for as accomplishment is concerned there are several fighters I would put ahead of Tyson.
 
People keeping talking about Tyson could have beat anybody when he is in his prime and because of that he should be The GOAT HW. What about Bowe then, on his best day in his prime could give Joe Louis,Ali and anybody else the fight of their life, but does that mean he should be consider too.

Hell NO!!!!
 
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