Impossible though it may be, I'd like to see a round robin tourney involving the greatest heavyweights in history at their respective primes: Jeffries, Johnson, Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Clay, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Tyson, and Holyfield. .....each fighting every other fighter in the field twice. It would be interesting to see who came out of that field with the best record, but I suspect it would be the fighter with the most dimensions to his game, both physically and mentally. .....and Johnson would be up there. Tyson would probably be at or near the bottom.
I'd put my money on Marciano, Johnson and Ali for top three.
What about you?
This was actually done in the late 1960's using computer sims and films of mock fights between the contestants. The result was Marciano knocking out Ali in the final bout. Ali, himself, after filming the mock fights told of how frightening Marciano was in the ring.
What happened was that the mock punches started getting serious, and Marciano hit Ali on his arm. Ali couldn't lift that arm for days.
I think Tyson in his prime would have done well in that simulation. The problem with him was that his mental attitude cut that prime very short.
Back in the mid-sixties, computerized heavyweight boxing tournament was held. Data was fed into an NCR mainframe computer. From the calculated results, scripts were written and broadcast by radio as actual boxing matches, supplemented with interviews of then living former champions.
The tournament was a 16 man elimination tournament. I don't remember all the participants, but I do believe that they included Sullivan, Corbett, Fitzsimmons, Johnson, Dempsey, Tunney, Schmeling, Sharkey, Baer, Louis, and Marciano. Some of the results: Baer beat Johnson, Dempsey beat Louis. Marciano beat Dempsey in the finale. Needless to say, the results were highly disputed by boxing fans.
This led to a computer fight with tournament winner Marciano and Ali. However, this was not a radio script but a TV script, with the real Marciano and Ali participating. They both got into shape. The sequences were filmed as an actual fight with Marciano winning via a 13th round KO. Marciano died in an airplane crash a few weeks after the "fight" in 1969.
The film was shown months later, nationally, via paid closed circuit TV. Here is an account of that fight.
Frankly, I wish someone other than a "Liberal" with the need to make a social commentary, had used much of the same material about Johnson's own life and boxing. The boxing material was fascinating. The social commentary bordering on the outrageous.
Pretending that one can flaunt the social mores of a community and not expect others to take offense, is the sort of material Leftist politics are made of. But what a sad distraction, the producer offered, from one who truly had extraordinary boxing skills. I had always heard that Johnson had better honed defensive skills that any other Heavyweight, and I frankly marveled at the fluidity of his defensive moves.
What an exciting moment, in Reno, when he met Jeffries. What a shame that they didn't meet a few years earlier, when Jeffries had not been out of the ring for so long. I wish, still, that they had shown the whole fight, not just excerpts, and also some of the fights to which they only alluded. But PBS had to offer a message. Very sad. Their obvious bias, as I say, was a distraction. And in recalling the offensive side of Johnson's life, in order to make that statement, they diminished the stature of their subject.
William Flax
I doubt Tyson would be as far down the list as you think. He was masterfully prepped for his early bouts. I would be he'd be more successful against some of the earlier boxers than you think.