In what order would you rank these boxers best to worst?

[Slapper]

Evander Holyfield
Mike Tyson
Riddick Bowe
Lennox Lewis

Mike Tyson
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.
.
.
.
.
Evander Holyfield
Lennox Lewis
Riddick Bowe

[pellius]

Holyfield beat Tyson twice and not an old Tyson.

Not so much having to do with age but rather how both evolve as boxers. Holyfield progressed and improved and Tyson kept declining. If you look at Tyson's early fights compared to his later fights his style completely changed. He was fighting more like a traditional boxer than when he was under Cus D'Amato. D'Amato's peek-a-boo style was tailer made for Tyson. All that bobbing and weavingk, pressing forward, throwing those upper cuts and hooks. Once Cus died, and then Kevin Rooney and the original crew got cut Tyson just slowly got worse and worse both as a boxer and as a human being. Tyson was a child and he so needed someone like D'Amato in his life.

I think when people talk of Tyson they remember that short period when he was just coming up and destroying everyone. They want to remember what was and could have been. I believe Tyson could have been great and WOULD have been better than Holyfield and others in his area.

But he wasn't. Blame it on Don King. Blame it on all his yes men on the Tyson dole. Blame it on the death of D'Amato. Whatever. What could have been never was. But so many still want to believe and imagine. I do, too.

[fredrollon]

Totally inferior to  Wladimir & Vitali Klitschko  

Shame Vitali has a loss to Lennox,despite his total superiority.



For me, at their very best:

Tyson(86-88)
Lewis
Bowe
Holyfield

You could put Holyfield ahead of Bowe, as his temperament was more sound and technically he was a better boxer. But Bowe,despite always being pretty easy to hit, was a pretty spectacular puncher in his prime,both on the outside and-surprisingly for a big man-on  the inside.

I would take the best version of Holyfield over the best version of Tyson in a 15 round fight,but give Tyson the edge in a 12 round fight.

[pellius]

This is Tyson sparring at 17 with a much more experience, bigger and taller full grown adult. Look at Tyson's head and body movement. The way he just kept coming at you bobbing and weaving, slipping those punches so he can use both hands to land those body shots, hooks and upper cuts. It's beautiful and looks unstoppable. Nobody in the HW division were fighting like that. And he's just a kid here though in two years he will be champ. I believe that Tyson at 17 would have beaten Tyson at 30. There just didn't seem anyone that could or would have been willing to train Tyson in this Peek-a-Boo style that I think was made famous by Floyd Patterson though I'm just guessing because Flyd was also under D'Amato.

[pellius]

BTW, this is an interesting documentary (sort of) of Cus and his gym and the environment he created for his boxers. It's incorrectly title as a Tyson/D'Amato documentary. It's not about Tyson but it does show him while he was still a nobody at 16 yo living with Cus and other fighters Cus took in and training in his gym. There's is a short amateur fight with Tyson but it's not about Tyson so only the hard core boxing and D'Amato fans will find this interesting.

Also, I think it gives you a different perspective onTeddy Atlas whom I believe was treated unfairly by D'Amato. You can see Atlas was a good dude and always eager to help aspiring fighters and always made time for them. What would you do if someone like Tyson made an overly aggressive play on your teenage niece? Pull a gun and tell Tyson that the next time you try something like that there's a hollow tip in here with your name on it.

It starts off kind of weird.

[Rami]

all worst

[bigmc]

prime tyson best ever

the other three are very close

i would say lewis was technically the best

holyfield had the biggest heart


and bowe had the most natural ability

[Ronnie Rep]

1.Tyson in prime
2.Lewis
3.Holyfield
4.Bowe

[oldtimer1]

Mike Tyson in his prime before prescription drugs and alcohol got to him.
Lennox Lewis: Ducked no one and had everything
Riddick Bowe: Lazy fighter but rose to the occasion when pressed.
Evander Holyfield: Had a lot of heart for a smaller fighter.

[King Shizzo]

X2

Boxer’s peak and decline at different ages so Shizzo’s point is a moronic one.
Tyson peaked early in his career while Lewis peak in his latter years. FFS, Tyson went on to lose to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride shortly afterwards.

I think Lewis had the best career overall out of the four but he benefitted from the fact that the other three were on the decline by the time he started to hit his prime.
Tyson was the most talented of the bunch while Holyfield had the greatest wins.
Bowe was too inconsistent but was superb when on form.

Therefore he was not the better fighter then.

Shouldnt the guy who can keep his skills longer, be considered the better fighter?

[SuperTed]

Therefore he was not the better fighter then.

Shouldnt the guy who can keep his skills longer, be considered the better fighter?

In which case Bernard Hopkins can be considered the best fighter of all time.

[Thick Nick]

Holyfield is the clear number 1.

Then it's:

Tyson
Bowe
Lewis

Lewis beat Tyson but he had some bad losses in there too. Bowe would be 2 if he fought Tyson or Lewis.

Here's a better list though:


Who is better:

Lenonard
Hagler
Hearns
Duran

How I miss Wide World of Sports.

[oldtimer1]

Marvin Hagler: Tough as they come. Ray Leonard fought him like a coward running and soft punches in bunches. Hagler was the aggressor in that fight from beginning to end.

Roberto Duran: His fight history says it all. He has a couple of notable losses but from what I know from people that knew him he partied way to hard at the top of his fame.

Sugar Ray Leonard: He was outstanding fighter for the ages. I do give him credit even though I hated his defensive style.

Hit man Hearns: Was the hardest puncher of the above listed. He just left himself wide open. It was incredible watching him fight. Hearns vs Hagler might be the greatest fight of all time.

This is when boxing was outstanding. Four guys in the same class that will go down in the hall of fame for being the best.

[Darren Avey]

Mike Tyson in his prime before prescription drugs and alcohol got to him.
Lennox Lewis: Ducked no one and had everything - EVERYTHING!? DIDNT HAVE A FUCKIN CHIN!!!!!
Riddick Bowe: Lazy fighter but rose to the occasion when pressed.
Evander Holyfield: Had a lot of heart for a smaller fighter.

[Darren Avey]

Leonard
Halger
Duran
Hearns

[mame09]

Evander Holyfield
Mike Tyson
Riddick Bowe
Lennox Lewis

they all suck



holyfield: a blown up lightheavy with a good chin. he relied alot on his athleticism and when it left you seen what kind of fighter he really was a forward walking boxer. he is lucky he went this far at his age if he was in any other era he would of been blasted out of the ring by many heavyweights.


tyson: for a very well educated boxer he was very dumb. a mid range fighter with no inside punching skills unless his opponent stood there like
a punching bag. larry holmes exposed this fraud in the beginning and tyson was lucky he came off a 3 year layoff with 6 weeks to prepare for him. that KO of holmes doesnt mean shit. fighting cans your entire career doesnt make you great just ask joe louis     and to top it all off he had no HEART and without HEART you dont last in the heavyweight game. once again any other era this t rex would be blasted out of the ring by most heavyweights


bowe: good chin and for a big guy could fight on the inside cant really do much besides the over hand right which was neutralized twice by straight punching of galota and was very lucky he is crazy and low blowed him 100 times . no notable wins in his career. went to hell and back with holyfield 3 times which really gives more credit to evander than bowe. for an eddie futch fighter he is arguably the worst heavyweight he ever trained who became champion.


lewis: average chin and good power. used his reach well but was exposed when he fought mercer when he was flustered alot by him walking lewis down and not being able to put him away. when he fought oliver mc call his trainers knew lewis loves the jab and straight which was his bread and butter oliver got around those 2 punches and KO his ass. if you can get around those 2 punches and with good power u can put him away everytime and in anyother era they would of capitalized on it greatly

[Darren Avey]

I expect youd destroy them all "Meme09" 

[disco_stu]

boxing insider top 10 all time heavyweights...not getbig hacks who dont know shit.

1. ali
2. louis
3. holmes
4. johnson
5. marciano
6. foreman
7. lewis
8. dempsey
9. holyfield
10. frazier


note- no tyson.

but both lewis and holyfield in the list.


boxrec.com in 1998.

Muhammad Ali
Joe Louis
Evander Holyfield
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Rocky Marciano
Sonny Liston
Joe Frazier
Jack Johnson
Jack Dempsey
Ezzard Charles
Jim Jeffries
Jersey Joe Walcott
Mike Tyson

[GraniteCityDon]

If you look at Boxing.com's all time top 10 HW's, Tyson is 10th & Lewis 4th. Holyfield is 11th. Its always subjective no matter what anyone says. Some experts will look at certain fighter stats and base their decisions on them whereas others will base their opinion on another series of stats.

Im no Bert Sugar, i grew up in the Tyson era so thats whats prominent to me. His style, his speed, his skills, his brute power and relentness pursuit of a violent stoppage are a better combination than anything ive seen after. What came before is up for debate, nobody will ever know how Marciano, Ali, Liston, Johnson etc would have matched up.

Its always subjective.

[pellius]

they all suck



holyfield: a blown up lightheavy with a good chin. he relied alot on his athleticism and when it left you seen what kind of fighter he really was a forward walking boxer. he is lucky he went this far at his age if he was in any other era he would of been blasted out of the ring by many heavyweights.


tyson: for a very well educated boxer he was very dumb. a mid range fighter with no inside punching skills unless his opponent stood there like
a punching bag. larry holmes exposed this fraud in the beginning and tyson was lucky he came off a 3 year layoff with 6 weeks to prepare for him. that KO of holmes doesnt mean shit. fighting cans your entire career doesnt make you great just ask joe louis     and to top it all off he had no HEART and without HEART you dont last in the heavyweight game. once again any other era this t rex would be blasted out of the ring by most heavyweights


bowe: good chin and for a big guy could fight on the inside cant really do much besides the over hand right which was neutralized twice by straight punching of galota and was very lucky he is crazy and low blowed him 100 times . no notable wins in his career. went to hell and back with holyfield 3 times which really gives more credit to evander than bowe. for an eddie futch fighter he is arguably the worst heavyweight he ever trained who became champion.


lewis: average chin and good power. used his reach well but was exposed when he fought mercer when he was flustered alot by him walking lewis down and not being able to put him away. when he fought oliver mc call his trainers knew lewis loves the jab and straight which was his bread and butter oliver got around those 2 punches and KO his ass. if you can get around those 2 punches and with good power u can put him away everytime and in anyother era they would of capitalized on it greatly

lol@ Tyson had no inside punching skills. The shortest HW in his time who relied on getting in close and "inside punching".

[King Shizzo]

lol@ Tyson had no inside punching skills. The shortest HW in his time who relied on getting in close and "inside punching".

x2. That was Tyson's best skill, was getting inside of his opponent for hooks and uppercuts.

[che]

Any of you boxing fans remember this guy ?





vs Hearns , Roldan down  in 1st and 2nd  round , Tommy hurt in 1st ,3rd and 4th round

vs Hagler ,Roldan was winning the fight until he got poked in the eye

Now , holy shit 

[polychronopolous]

Leonard
Halger
Duran
Hearns

P4P Duran is first.

He was bulletproof at lightweight. Probably the best ever at that classification.

[wes]

Holyfield
Tyson
Lewis
Bowe

[Wiggs]

Oh yeah since I'm OP,here my list in order.

Lewis
Bowe
Holyfield
Tyson