To the poster above, please don't compare past it Cooney to prime Tyson ever again Foreman survives a bludgeoning early to wear out Tyson and stop him late.
My memories hazy but if this is the immovable Foreman that fought Evander I can see him upsetting the odds, he has all the tools expect speed... He didn t gas against Holyfield due to his slow workrate so theoretically he has all 12 rounds to KO Tyson whilst hiding behind his cross arm and diamond whiskers. I give Foreman a 40% chance of winning that's a lot considering Tysons handspeed, power and elusive style but I believe Tyson wont be able to budge George nor want seconds after he tastes some of Foremans legendary power! a cautious Tyson wins a UD though... hmm I'll need to think on this.
Prime Tyson in two, maybe three, and it wouldn't be pretty. Don't compare prime Tyson to fat, out of shape Joe Frazier and think George is Kryptonite for all heavyweights under 6 foot. Even 70s George does not have it all his own way with a healthy, conditioned two-fisted destroyer like Tyson was back then. If 80s George tries that two handed push off on a fighter with the upper body movement of prime Tyson at the slow motion speed he did it, he would be in horrible trouble. Think about the times that Holyfield had a better version of George than 80s version reeling with combinations and imagine what that would have been like if Evander had carried much more power. Prime Tyson was considered to be potentially the greatest of all heavyweights. 80s George was seen as a fat joke. There were very valid reasons for both widely held opinions albeit each turned out to be proven wrong. Who exactly did 80s George beat that makes anyone think he had the stuff to hang with and beat Tyson? Bobby Crabtree? Steve Zouski? Ken Lakusta? A fat man in the process of shaking off ten years of ring rust would be in too deep, even George. If anyone can point to any performance in his comeback that suggests I might be wrong, I'd be interested to see it.
Holyfield moved him considerably and prime Tyson hit much harder than Evander did in 91, and was just as quick.
When he fought Foreman, recovering alcoholic and coke addict Gerry Cooney had had one fight in four years which he'd lost by knockout to a man who had been fighting at light heavyweight two years previously. A man who, incidentally, prime Tyson required 90 seconds to blow away. I know prime Tyson was overrated and that this is why people overcompensate and make him out to be some fly by night. He reigned as long as Marciano did and made as many defences as 60s Ali. He was special while it lasted albeit nowhere near as special as the initial hyperbole suggested he was. Similarly, people who saw the 2nd coming of Foreman as a fat joke had that opinion shoved back with his showing against Holyfield. But again, it's gone too far. He became a very respectable name in a division stacked with talent at the time, talent which George, for the most part, had the good sense to avoid. He stepped up the competition when there was the chance to fight for a title and, but for a punch on the chin of an overweight, chinny former light heavyweight, he came up short. That's the reality pf what we're dealing with in this hypothetical match up. I don't think Tyson was scared of George because of what d'Amato had said about swarmers' chances against him. Tyson, who was generally quite deferential to older fighters, said he wanted to fight Foreman 'before he dies of rigor mortis'. Tyson would not have been fazed by George's size when he was in his prime. George's only advantage here is size and a lot of younger, quicker Tyson opponents had that same advantage in the 80s and it didn't help them much.
NO fighter in their late 30's or early 40's is ever gonna beat a prime Tyson.....it will never happen, pure fantasy......same as Prime Foreman would not loose to any Oldtimers either.......................Tyson dispatched aged Holmes with ease.........a Holmes who beat top contender Mercer and ran prime Holyfield and Mccall close to the wire.......the same old holmes who would box circles around old foreman and make him look stupid.....old Holmes would literally white wash old Foreman............and facin prime Tyson Foreman would not see the distance,a one sided beating the Mummy would receive.
I'm aware of this, Holyfield made that fight into a war it was his own doing indeed but unlike Mike he knew when to backaway and use his latreal movement aswell as clinch game to stop the onslaught especially in those last few rounds. Tyson was a mid distance counter puncher with aggressive tendencies and no back foot or clinch game Tyson just went limp in the clinch Foreman more often then not would push you back or fight out of it with sheer brute force George feasted on these sort of come forward fighters as we all know. Holyfields chin was also a league above Tysons own and he was rattled with a jab! George's power will be foreign to Mike, George has on the other hand tasted Greater then what Tyson could offer and reacted we'll enough. I still make Mike the favorite but Old George has an almost unfair strength over Kid dynamite a style advantge, one of the greatest punches of all time and was knocked out once almost entirely resting on fatigue.
A bold statement ALOT wrose fighters then George saw the final bell against Tyson in his mythical prime that was ended by Tokyo Douglas or was it Rooney leaving? Maybe his heart out of the game? Lol Don't be ridiculous my man.