I think old Foreman would be a worse match up for Tyson than a young Foreman. He was bigger ,stronger, better chin, knew how to pace himself, better jab, better defense... Young Foreman has an advantage in speed - hand and feet, and putting his punches together, and probably punched harder due to being faster. But young Foreman was only like 220-225 lbs and old Foreman was a smart, more polished strong 260 lbs mofo.
Who was as slow as molasses and couldn’t stop the likes of Alex Stewart Axel Schulz and Tommy Morrison from tattooing his face Foreman had Better defense in 90s? Than why did he get out pointed, outboxed by men he would have thrashed in 1-2 rounds in his prime?
But why is the less dangerous version of Foreman, who will hit Tyson with less speed and less force and beeing less mobile the harder fight for Tyson? I think this is exactly the problem of this thread: 90s Foreman was not the dangerous hitting bloke anymore, he was built to win fights on points too. Yet he hit good enough to crack some medium chins. But this Foreman is not gonna kill Frazier or Norton in 2. True, isn´t it? I see some parallels to Bonecrusher Smith here. Hard hitting, but ponderous fighter with the better chin. A 80/90s Foreman vs Tyson might turn out in a very disgusting grab-fest with both fighters respecting the power of each other. I might be wrong here and 90s Foreman was just a less dangerous hitting (than Bruno and Ruddock) slow moving target to Tyson (with more whiskers than those two). But he was NOT the 70s Killer-Puncher anymore, keep that style in mind with 90s Foreman fighting Tyson.
Couple of things. George Foreman could still hit and Mike Tyson wasn't Wille Pep. If Big George connects on Tyson walking in Mike is gonna wish Boneclutcher was there to hug him. To suggest that Foreman can't rock him is going off the deep end. Tyson may indeed win as long as nothing negative happens for him. In reality both of these guys can put you to sleep if they hit the sweet spot.
Disagree. All I know is Tyson lost by this point and Ruddock was one of the feared contenders at the time and there is more evidence to prove Razor wasn't petrified. It looked to me like he wasn't intimidated by Tyson's usual tactics of intimidation, he held up very well in the pre fight shenanigans. If anything it was Tyson acting weird, looking like he was the one with doubts. The point is Ruddock, went in there he pounded on Tyson, he wasn't scared to throw and even getting knocked down didn't seem to phase him that much, he got up and tried taking Mikes head off again. This to me isn't the fear you are talking about, opponents too scared so they just fall over. Ruddock was a live confident opponent but this gets over looked by detractors as it doesn't fall in line with the old "Tyson loses if anyone stands up to him". I cant take those unbalanced theories seriously.
Ray Mercer got "sonned" by a 42 year old Larry Holmes. Oh and by a fat, almost washed up Jesse Ferguson. Do people here know WTF they're even talking about?
Tyson got “sonned” by Danny Williams and Kevin McBride of all ppl. Holmes outboxed Mercer. Not sure Mike “I’m known to bite, if the fight’s not going right” Tyson could do the same. IF Mercer’s chin could hold up to Tyson’s early bombs, I’m not convinced that Tyson doesn’t begin to psychologically fall apart. Will Tyson resort to trying to dislocate Mercer’s arm, when he refuses to enter into one of those “silent arrangements” that Teddy Atlas accuses Tyson of entering? Also, Mercer did much better against Tyson’s parents (Evander and Lennox) than Tyson did.