Most overrated athletes

**Diets17** · June 15th, 2006, 05:36 PM

Coming to America...haha

**1inStripes** · June 15th, 2006, 05:47 PM

Yep, Arsenio, and Eddie done a great job. Maybe we can hook mega, and you up with those twins at the bar. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

**Diets17** · June 15th, 2006, 06:12 PM

[img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Those girls were freaks.

**imported_biggamesjames** · June 15th, 2006, 06:58 PM

"You really have no clue do you? Tyson could take a punch better than any heavy I ever seen. His fight against those great heavweights were fights he never really trained for. It was a payday and that is all it was for him. Win or lose so what he just watched the millions come in."

Are you serious? You must not have seen alot of heavyweights then. Tyson is not in the top 50 of fighters I can think of that could take a punch.

**imported_blue52** · June 15th, 2006, 07:35 PM

I rank them that way because I think Shaq plays against better competition than Chamberlain or Russel.

**Diets17** · June 15th, 2006, 07:36 PM

Tyson actually did have an outstanding chin, if you beat Tyson, you seriously had to beat the hell out of him. The guy never went down from one punch.

**imported_biggamesjames** · June 15th, 2006, 07:38 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The 70's Era of Heavyweights are overrated, predicated on the fact that Ali, Norton, Frazier and Foreman most legendary fights all came against each other. Wheres the measuring stick for them? Foreman lost to Jimmy Young after Ali beat him. Young basicly retired Foreman until he made his comeback in the 80's. Who was Jimmy Young, a guy who lost 15 or more career matches. Though when the "best" fight each other over and over, you really cant see how well they do against the "B" fighters of the generation. Though when they did, they lost or were majorly challenged. Thats why they are overrated. The 80's generation is nothing to write home about, yet Tyson does hold wins over fighters who holds wins over Ali.

Which brings me to another underrated. Larry Holmes.

[/ QUOTE ]

With all due respect its not much of an argument to say that Tyson holds wins over fighters who beat Ali. What if you make that argument against Tyson? Think of all the fighters who have beaten Peter McBride? Danny Williams? Buster Douglas?...lol, I mean you could go on for days. Tyson lost to all three of them. Evander Holyfield also has quite a few losses in his career but was 2-0 against Tyson. Tyson should have never even tried to fight Lennox Lewis because it was one of the biggest mismatches in heavyweight history...his manager should have been sentenced to prison for abuse just for letting him fight. Everybody says Tyson was washed up when he fault Lewis, well he was but sad thing is Lewis was the older fighter of the two. Speaking of underrated how about Lennox?

I agree Larry Holmes was also underrated but while I do agree Ali was overrated it must be noted that Ali's best years were not in the 70's. While he is often connected with that decade it is plain to see to most boxing aficionados that the fighter known as Cassius Clay was in his prime during the mid 60's. At the end of the 70's Ali was STILL heavyweight champ and was about the same age that Tyson is right now in 2006. Tyson couldn't even be ranked in the top 100 heavyweights in the world at this time if he was still trying to fight. Ali/Clay was a great fighter...the only reason I said he was overrated was because he is often considered the greatest athlete of all time in all sports while it is not even clear that he was the greatest athlete of all time in his own sport. Its debatable that he was the greatest heavyweight of all time but certainly not a given considering the fact that he did lose several times and guys like Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano were more dominant over their entire career than was Clay(his momma call him Clay i call him Clay). The comparison just really isn't realistic...Tyson had nothing close to the career of Clay. More fair comparisons would be Tyson-Holyfield, Tyson-Liston or Tyson-Bauer.

The reason Tyson's career is so outrageously overrated is because its really tough to even consider him one of the top 10 heavyweights of all time if you sit down and think about it. I'm not really sure I could rank him ahead of such fighters as Lennox Lewis, George Foreman, Joe Frasier or Holyfield...much less Larry Holmes, Jack Johnson, Cassius Clay, Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano.

**89bluedevil** · June 15th, 2006, 08:02 PM

It really is hard to make comparisons because the game was so different during those two eras. That being said, you can maybe only compare stats. Jabbar scored over 30,000 points, Chamberlain averaged outrageous numbers both scoring and rebounding, and Russell has eight or nine championships.

Shaq probably had to play against more good 7 footers than Chamberlain ever did. It seems as though the game is now geared towards forwards and shooting guards with few centers with the skills of Olajuwon, Ewing, and Robinson.

**imported_biggamesjames** · June 15th, 2006, 08:11 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Tyson actually did have an outstanding chin, if you beat Tyson, you seriously had to beat the hell out of him. The guy never went down from one punch.

[/ QUOTE ]

Compared to Ali Tyson couldn't take a punch at all. Tyson was KO'd by the opposing fighter in 5 of his 56 career fights. Ali was never KO'd by an opposing fighter in 61 career fights...including one in which his jaw was broken during the fight(Ken Norton). There was one point in Ali's late 30's that his career record stood at 55-2 with one of his losses coming by split decision(against Norton when he broke his jaw) and the other in a close decision against Joe Frasier in their first fight. He would later beat both fighters twice each. He also beat Leon Spinks after a split decision loss. That leaves Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick as the only fighters to beat Ali and not lose to him...both only fought him once and they were the last two fights of his career after he had retired earlier and came back to fight just shy of age 40. Tyson just isn't in his class whether Ali is overrated or not.

**imported_blue52** · June 15th, 2006, 08:45 PM

I agree it is hard to compare so I guess it all just comes down to opinions. Ewing may be the best shooting true center ever, his range was out to about 17 feet or so I'd say. Robinson is very underrated as well.