During his prime was Mike Tyson the most dominant boxer in the history of boxing?

Question

During his prime was Mike Tyson the most dominant boxer in the history of boxing?

Answer 1

Love him or hate him, Ali in his prime would have beat Tyson.  Tyson liked to get inside and Ali would have punished him from a distance.  Douglas proved this in Tokyo.

Answer 2

No, Sugar Ray Robinson was the most dominate boxer of all time along with Henry Armstrong as a strong second

Answer 3

In my opinion yes. More dominient over a certain length of time than any other fighter. Remeber, he was awesome in the mid 80's to 92, went to prison for three years, then was very good from 95 til the early 2000's. Maybe Ali was better over all but they are hard to compare, b/c their styles were so different. I watched that Douglas tyson fight on espn classic tonight and Tyson was off that night and it makes me wonder if someone in his camp such as Don King or whoever his promotor was got to him and told him not to blow Douglas up, just make it interesting, simply b/c Tyson was so Good people were starting to lose interest in anyone facing him which is why that fight was in Japan.

Answer 4

No, I don't think so. He's a well known name mostly because of marketing. He will always be a name that is remembered but I don't think he's the most dominant.

Answer 5

You could say that about any great boxer who was in there prime.

Answer 6

All this 'long count' stuff is B.S.! Douglas just waited on the count to get up. He was watching the ref count, he wasn't KO'ed. Why didn't Tyson finish him after the knockdown? Douglas absolutely DOMINATED that fight and got a little careless and got caught with a good, lucky punch - that's all.

Answer 7

roy jones in his prime barely lost a round let alone a fight

Answer 8

without question !!!

Answer 9

He was dominant because the division was weak at the time.

Answer 10

you not watch very much boxing?  He had about 10 title defenses.  I think Larry Holmes had twice that many and his KOs looked just like mikes.  So in what reality would you have a reason to say that?

Answer 11

I suppose you regard his prime as being when he was KO'ing busdrivers and bell-hops. Face it, Tyson was no better than the 3rd best of his era (more likely 4th after Bowe). He is ranked about #25 all-time.

Answer 12

up to when he lost to douglas i would have to say yes.he was the most feared guy since foreman.he was knocking out everyone.the way he came to the ring.many people thought he would be champ forever.he had 3 of the 4 belts and the only reason he didn't have that one is because the guy wouldn't fight him.if he would have beaten douglas and then beat holyfield which i think he could have when he was younger he would be known as the  greatest.i still think tyson beat buster douglas because tyson put  him down the ref counted normally to 7 then stoped counting looked to the side then started counting but counted slow.....8.............9................... got up and ko'd tyson in the next round.the ref screwed tyson.

Answer 13

Mike Tyson was certainly a sensation in his prime, and was well known through the media. It can be difficult to know how much certain antics inside and outside of the ring hurt Mike.

As mentioned, Roy Jones may have been the most dominant boxer of our time.

From here and into the future, I am looking to see if Kelly Pavlik will be considered utterly dominant at 160+.

Answer 14

It's very hard to be the most dominant boxer in the history of boxing when you are champ for a little over 3 years and you spend 2 of those 3 years DUCKING the number 1 contender Evander Holyfield! Neither Bill Caton or later Don King wanted Tyson to have any part of Evander!

Also when the biggest highlight of a so called PRIME is beating up Leon Spink's frightened little brother Michael in the first round there is a serious problem with your resume!

When you consider that a truly dominant fighter like George Foreman was obliterating GREAT fighters like Smokin Joe Frazier and Ken Norton it makes Tyson's title reign even more embarrasing!

Sonny Liston was also a TERRIFYING force that would be in that George Foreman catagory and his reign of terror actually spanned longer than Foreman's! He was a dreaded and terribly feared contender for quite a while leading up to his destruction of Floyd Patterson.Liston was so dreaded that both President Kennedy and Frank Sinatra begged Patterson not to give him a shot! Patterson though being a true champion and an honorable gentleman did what was right and gave the number 1 contender Liston his shot!

Liston as feared destroyed Paterson within 2 minutes! He duplicated that destruction in their rematch. Sonny also demolished twice a VERY DANGEROUS contender in Cleveland BIG CAT Williams! Sonny was quite simply the early and mid 60's equivalent of Godzilla and the heavyweight division was Tokyo!

By far the most dominant heavyweight EVER was Joe Louis. Just think about these INCREDIBLE Joe Louis facts!

His title reign was astonishing! The Brown Bomber held the most coveted title in all of sport for an UNBELIEVABLE span of nearly 12 years!!!!!!!

That makes me tired just thinking about it!

He also posted an astonishing 25 title defenses! He essentially dominated the better part of TWO DECADES!!!

Tyson was merely very fortunate to come along in a heavyweight starved era. In that era he was fed with a silver spoon by multi millionaire sugar daddy Cus D AMATO. Jim Jacobs  Bill Caton and later Don King all continued the shameless coddling. Even when Tyson would would later lose there would ALWAYS be excuses. Drones of delusional Tyson followers would always find a way of NOT accepting defeat.

When he got hammerd by Douglas Tyson drones all said that Mike was caught up in life's distractions.

When he was viciously thrashed by Holyfield in the first fight the drones said that Mike took Evander too lightly

Tyson tried to get out of the rematch just weeks before fight by staging a breakdown. It only temporarily though gave him a stay of execution. The bout was moved back 8 weeks and Tyson could not even look Evander in the eye at the weigh in.

Teddy Atlas the man who pehaps knew Tyson's psyche best then made the errie prediction that Tyson would try SOMETHING to get out of the fight. Something where he could quit but still look like a tough guy.

Of course the rematch was the same thing as the first fight. Evander dominating the smaller frightened Tyson manhandling him from pillar to post. In both fights it often looked as if Evander were an abusive father beating up his little boy in the basement. To avoid getting knocked out again Tyson did just what Teddy Atlas said he would do and got himself disqualified. This time the excuse of  Tyson and his drones were that Evander was cheating with his head!

In 96 Tyson actually preferred being stripped of his WBC belt rather than fight number one contender Lennox Lewis.

In 2002 of course Lewis absolutely obliterated Tyson

It did not even matter that referee Eddie Cotton was himself a Tyson drone trying everything in his power to help the small terrified fighter.

Even after Lewis smashed Tyson to kingdom come there was STILL an excuse.

Tyson and his mindless drones unbelievably said that Mike needed a few more warm up fights!

AGAIN THERE ALWAYS WAS A LAME EXCUSE!!!!!! ALWAYS!!!!!!!

The media would never question their new cash cow even when he and his management refused to fight the number 1 contender for 2 years of a 3 year paper reign! Later on in the 90's Tyson drones wouldn't question him even when he preferrd to be stripped of the belt rather than face his executioner in Lennox Lewis!

So in the end his so called prime if you want to call it that was spent ducking Holyfield and later on in his comeback he spent just as much time ducking Lewis. When all is said and done the only thing Tyson truly dominated was the COWARD LIST!

Joe Louis was without question the heavyweight division's most impressively dominant fighter! Sonny Liston and George Foreman would follow Louis in that order.

Answer 15

Absolutly, no question, this is not even an opinion question. This is a fact question. Look at any heavyweight boxer, none have the Ko percentage Tyson had in his early career, no other Heavyweight blew through guys like they were heavybags, even legitimate fighters didnt offer any resistance. Tyson also had that vibe of fear around him, guys would be terrified to even put their guard down a bit, Tyson beat them mentally before they even entered the ring.

No heavyweight has ever climbed the ranks like Tyson did. No question he is the most dominant heavyweight of all time.

Is he the most dominant boxer Pound for Pound.... No, but its arguable.

That honor would probubly go to Sugar Ray Robinson but id have to think on it a while.

Roy Jones Jr would be right up there too, certainly the most dominant boxer of our generation.