[Kid McCoy]

Flexwave is right in the sense that Tyson bashers are out in force.

This might have allot to do with his personality, his rap sheet, but mostly, I think it’s backlash resulting from so many young pre-fans calling him the greatest ever because they have no frame of reference.
When I was 5 and my Dad took me downtown, I thought where I lived was perhaps the biggest city on the world.
…….Because I hadn’t seen any others yet.

Tyson had a tremendous run.
His failures against Holyfield and later, Lennox Lewis shoot mammoth holes in the legacy, by he was dominant in Boxing’s heavyweight division for a time and that’s something every fighter from every fightsport must envy.

Cus’ highlight tape on VHS made the rounds back in 85’ and people sat up to take notice.

A winner over James “Buster” Douglas in ESPN’s Eastern Heavyweight tourney, Jessie Furguson was a contender at the time. “I tried to drive his nose bone up into his brain” was an early indicator of the true nature of the man-child-killer’s inner demons, and of course, we all loved it.

The Tillis fight was a bore, and showed some immaturity, or what we though at the time could be that.

The Marvis fight was terrifying, but we knew already that well schooled Marvis could be felled if you could get at that pesky pinched nerve in his neck, and gee whiz, Tyson got at it.

Nino Ribalta and Alonzo Ratliff were both pretty good at the time, and added to the KO highlight reel.

Berbick trying to stand up in an earthquake will always make for good watching, and yes, Thomas was good, not long before thought to be the heir apparent to Larry Holmes (“Think Pink”).

Ty Biggs was a groomed commodity with serious amateur credentials, and Tyson stomped him before he could fulfill all of that.
Biggs might not seem like much of a cap feather today, but back then, many thought his class would tell against Tyson and he’d take the win.

The Larry Holmes of 88’ was not the Larry Holmes of 78’ or 82’ as he was a guy who got a late start anyway, and came out of retirement for the fight ill-prepped, but in retrospect, it would be a full 4 years later that he’s be making a monkey out of Ray Mercer and giving prime Holyfield everything he could handle.

Bonecrusher crushed only the ribs of anyone unlucky enough to be caught in his loving embrace the night he ‘fought’ Tyson, but as with Tillis, Tyson wasn’t able to pick that lock.

The Tubbs fight was a near perfect demolition job and the Spinks fight, for the real title, was a perfect one.
Had a heavyweight title ever changed hands so one sidedly ?

Carl Williams and Alex Stewart were way better that their highlights against Tyson might indicate, and indeed two of the best of their respective eras – Ask Holmes and Foreman.
Bruno can be remembered now at a staple in the division and Tyson ripped him up too.

The Ruddock fights were sweet, just like Ruddock’s big lips, according to Mike.

After that the old form was hard to come by, but there were still some big, fast wins over quality opponents even if Tyson never fully regained the grove, and Buster Jr., amateur nemesis Tillman, Bruno, Savarese, Golota, and even Botha, Seldon and Etienne where good wins over good fighters.