Is 2012 Alabama the 1988 Mike Tyson?

By Eric Taylor

If you’re old enough, you remember a time just before pay-per-view television. For the most part of boxing’s heyday  -- late 1970s through the late 1980s – there was a thing called closed circuit television. Although Vince McMahon and what was then known as the WWF were introducing the world to pay-per-view events that could be watched from home, boxing’s cash cow was closed circuit.

Tyson has the same issue when it comes to whether his era of dominance qualifies him as the greatest fighter of all time. The closest anyone ever came to beating Tyson in his height of dominance was when he won the IBF title from Tony Tucker in a 12-round unanimous decision to become the unanimous heavyweight champion. I really can’t remember a Tyson fight getting much past the third round other than that fight.