Where Mike Tyson falls in Anthony Joshua’s list of greatest heavyweights

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Two-time world champion Anthony Joshua has revealed who his five greatest heavyweights are. Mike Tyson’s place among them is neither in the third nor fourth positions.

Anthony Joshua famously claimed to have studied the history of boxing and matters surrounding it. One of his special abilities is discovering his opponents’ weaknesses through studying their past and present, but he lost his three belts not very long ago to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk in a two-time bout that each ended with his defeat.

In fifth place among Anthony Joshua’s greatest boxers of all time is none other than Evander Holyfield. The former heavyweight and cruiserweight champion beat greats like Larry Holmes, George Foreman, and even Mike Tyson back in the day. There is yet to be a heavyweight champion with an identical package of exploits in the ring.

Joshua rated Lennox Lewis as his fourth-greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Lewis is the only undefeated heavyweight in the history of boxing and is still alive. It is not a small thing to face great boxers in the days when a good number of the deadliest punchers still walked the ring and beat all your opponents. He is also the most-recent undisputed heavyweight champion, a record expected to be broken by either Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk on February 17.

Larry Holmes made third place on Anthony Joshua’s list, probably for one reason: this is the only pound-for-pounder that ever knocked down the mighty Muhammad Ali. Those conversant with the history of boxing know that if there were boxers skilled at taking blows to the point that their opponents got tired and scared, Ali was at the top of the list. To beat such a boxer is really a great fit.

Leaving Muhammad Ali in the first place, Joshua mentioned that Mike Tyson was his number two greatest heavyweight ever. Tyson became a heavyweight champion at the age of 20—the youngest ever. He is also known for facing some of the toughest pugilists in the history of pugilism and stopping a good number of them.

Francis Ngannou once said that Mike Tyson was the greatest boxer ever, but Tyson immediately pointed out that Muhammad Ali deserved that respect. To Mike Tyson, Ali is the greatest boxer ever.