When it comes to fighters people like, why can't they just be objective? I mean, I have my biases but I try, to a fault, not to let them get the better of me when I'm trying to be intellectually honest. Case and point: Every loss Mike Tyson has, virtually every Tyson fan says "He was not in his prime". Not to mention, after winning the next fight, "he's right back where he needs to be". The last time I heard, a fighter only has one prime; you can't have it both ways. I was just watching Chavez/Whitaker, and you can read some of the posts some of the spectators left after watching. Just because the Chavez fans did not get the desired result, Chavez was said to be on the decline. One genius even tried to rationalize his thought process by stating it's not the age of a fighter, but the fights he's had; which is true, to an extent, in this case. Although Chavez did have a lot of fights prior to Whitaker, let's not forget how many Mexican waiters and cab drivers were in the mix. If you leave it to the Chavez fans, they would lead you to believe that all of the fights were balls to the wall, all out barn burners against elite competition! This leads me back to Tyson. I am one of the biggest Tyson fans ever, but while using my objectivity, I can't see how anyone, with good conscience and knowledge, call him one of the greatest of all time. As far as talent, there is an argument to be made and even then, he had some of the poorest balance/footwork of any elite fighter I remember seeing i.e. Squaring up and getting pushed off-balance, and even knocked down by Holyfield because of squaring up; throwing from the conventional stance and ending up southpaw (granted, he had the power to follow up, but the techinique was severly flawed). By the way he never came back against a fighter that beat him (unless you include Henry Tillman as an amateur). I never did remember him coming from behind to steal victory from the jaws of defeat (Ruddock was a tough fight but Mike was in control in both; moreso in the first than the second). I just feel that, especially with Tyson, the degenerates, and even some of the some-what knowledgeable boxing fans keep rating him amongst the greats and by virtue of that, it takes away from their knowledge.
