I posted my reasoning on the MA board awhile back on while I feel that Tyson coulda easily gone down in history as the best fighter to ever live if he would've kept his head on straight.
Another thing that has always made me wonder is to think about the genetic potential the guy's body had. Look at him in the old clips when he's only 15-17 years old. He looks damn near the same he did in his early 20's. He weighed 185lbs when he was 15!! His diet wasn't probably anything that great. His training involved lots of distance running and probably minimal, basic, weightlifting. And rather or not he did gear later in his career (which I seriously doubt he's ever done), I doubt few would suggest he was touching the stuff early in his career, and in spite all of that.... he still looked like an amateur bodybuilder. Now imagine if he had started lifting when he was 16 years old. Had learned about proper nutrition and eating to be a BB. Had learned everything he could about training to be a BB and put it all to work. Then if he had started doing cycles along with that. It's frustrating to even think about the possibilities. He could've probably contended for the Mr.O eventually. I mean, look at his body in one of his early fights and think about that foundation and think about it after a few years of perfect dieting, training and AAS usage. I'd love to know what his strength numbers were back in his early years. I'm sure they were ridiculous even though he probably never lifted heavy, ate right, nor did AAS. Hell, it wouldn't suprise me if he had the potential to be a world-class powerlifter.
In my opinion, one of the most physically gifted human beings the world has ever seen... and he has nothing to show for it other than a few videos from the first 4 years of his career being played on ESPN classic, and a bunch of soundbytes and quotes to cause people to laugh and shake their heads at him over and over. Even though we never saw what his real prime would've been like, he still generated more money than damn near any athlete ever. To show for that he's bankrupt and now forced to make a public circus of himself in an attempt to just muster up enough money so that his children might have a little something put back for them when he dies. He could've literally retired a billionaire, and instead he's so broke that he can't retire. Sad. Pisses me off even thinking about it......