Tyson was an early bloomer. Tyson at 19 was a monster, and he had the potential to start his career 40-0 with years at the top had he not been interrupted. Buster Douglas did happen though.
I was too young, cried for Tyson and believed him innocent. Haha.
The best fight I ever saw was Tyson vs Holyfield 1. I do not believe Tyson was 100% what he was yet when he was 19, and I think that fight furthered brain damage he never recovered from. He took massive hits repeatedly from a heavy weight. was knocked down several times, and took undefended shots straight to the dome in succession. The ref waited too long to stop it.
On that night, there are not many fighters in all of history who could have stopped the mission that Holyfeild was on. I do believe tyson was in "good" form as he was revitalizing his career and trashing other competition to warm-up. He was a great fighter in that fight, and he met another who somehow peaked himself for that fight. Holyfield was often in great shape, but watch that fight and you will see that as Holyfeilds peak.
The reason he peaked, was because Tyson was a monster, that motivation drove him to become an unstoppable physical and mental force through intense preperation. He even had god on his side that day in his mind. He was fighting for God against a tyrant and a monster in his mind. He becames Gods bully and bullied the bully as a gameplan, using his size to push Tyson around, his fight plan was beautiful, he kept in his head, talked the right trash, only street game, the head butts, could get to Tyson.
Tyson kind of showed he was a street bully there by becoming a victim when confronted. It was an incredible job of Holyfield to get to that physical condition, have the bully plan, push and tie up. Don't let him uppercut, don't let him hook. Grapple grapple fight with length and then bully. Tyson was confused as hell and frustrated as hell and it still took Holyfield 10 rounds to catch him, I believe 11 for the TKO.
Holyfield was a great fighter prone to excesses and was up and down in his condition, which is why he was a 3 or 4 time Heavy weight champion. Unlike Ali who is the only other man besides maybe Foreman?, to do this feat, Ali was stripped once. Meaning he didn't lose it in a fight.
I still think Holyfield possessed some of the greatest fighting traits I have seen. He was a perfect ecto-mesomorph combination body with speed and strength to wear down fighters long into fights.
Because of Tyson's size limitations, I believe other fighters through history could have employed a gameplan to beat him, but I also think Tyson was capable of catching Holyfield that night, and would be capable in his prime, or even at 19, of beating anyone in history also. His power gives him a punchers chance against anyone. No rope-a-dope is going to save you to uppercuts and hooks.
