Boxing's Last Great Hero

http://www.vice.com/read/tyson-fury-boxings-new-folk-hero

"All the best fighters come with their own legend.

From as far back as the early days of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion (who taunted whitey by flagrantly dating his women before knocking out the toughest men he could offer) and Jack Dempsey, the hobo champion who honed his trade fighting mountain men for small change, it's clear that we love some romantic context with our boxers. Think of Ali throwing his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River, Barry McGuigan's dad singing "Danny Boy" at Loftus Road, Marvin Hagler legally prefixing his name with "Marvelous," and basically everything Mike Tyson's ever done. Boxing, it's clear to see, is as much about myth as it is about sport.

It wouldn't be right to say there haven't been any legends in boxing recently—think of Vitali Klitschko facing down Putin's goons at Euromaidan, or, to a lesser extent, Kell Brook getting shanked in Tenerife. But there is a sense that there are those at the top (usually a Klitschko), and then a whole host of mandatory no marks for them to face.

However, there's one fighter who seemed to arrive as a ready-made folk hero, a six-foot-nine traveling boy with a face like an extra from The Departed, fists that could knock through a load-bearing wall and a name that doesn't seem real: Tyson. Fury."


Reading this got me thinking: who was boxing's last hero?

Marcos Maidana was universally celebrated after spanking boxing's newest King Rat in the shape of Adrien Broner. Evander Holyfield was equally trumpeted after vanquishing Mike Tyson in the late 90s.

Who would you put forward as boxing's last great hero?

Buster Douglas was Boxing's last hero...................Broner is unknown out of Boxing circles...

Everyone knew Tyson............People were even saying stupid things like "The guy who beats Tyson is probably just starting school"....."He's the greatest ever".......Unfortunately a lot of the posters on here don't realise what a beast Tyson was thought of.... because they tragically weren't around at the time !!

Everywhere you went you heard "Who do you think you are Tyson "..

Tyson was Boxing's last transcending dragon.............Buster slayed him......

Buster Douglas for me..........

Manny, for the same reasions as McGuigan, but on a bigger scale

I'd probably go with Vitali. Think it is easy to underestimate how risky what he is currently doing in the Ukraine is. He comfortably has enough money to be sat on a beach with a drink in one hand and a supermodel on each arm, to throw himself into something so dangerous is truly admirable.

I agree rowley vitali deserves credit

Yep, one of the big reasons I'm such a huge fan of the guy is because of his sociopolitical life. Vitali isn't sort of a hero. Or at least not one in the sense which most athletes are heroes (ie did something really cool for himself, and we liked it). Genuinely going out on a limb against some not so merry people and duking it out in BLOCK politics is above and beyond