Prime Mike Tyson (88) vs Prime Muhammad Ali (66)

I think that sums it up, thanks my friend.

 

Ruddock was a one punch KO artist and caught Tyson flush, look at AAli`s punches v Cooper in their rematch, slaps they would have no effect on Tyson, Douglas was really putting some mustard in those shots and Mike was a sitting duck all night.

 

Douglas and Hoylfield were not elite power punchers at all. If they could beat the crap out of Tyson and finish him off, Ali could certainly hurt Tyson. I'm not saying Ali would win by KO, but to suggest Tyson would just walk through Ali's punches when he got stopped by Hoylfield and KOd by Douglas is nonsense.

Ali wasn't even dropped let alone KOd by Shavers who some regard as the #1 hitter of all time. So by your logic Tyson has zero chance of hurting Ali who was an old zombie against Shavers.

 

I don`t think Tyson could KO Ali but I feel he could have stopped him by TKO.

 

Disagree Mark but to each his own.

I scored the fight a little while back, I had Ali winning round 4 IIRC.

During that round, Dunphy commented on the big lead Ali was building and the battering Joe was taking in the process - adding that lesser men would’ve hit the deck by then.

Throughout the broadcast Burt Lancaster also observed the tremendous amount of punishment Joe was absorbing - stating several times at different points that Joe couldn’t continue to take the shots that he was taking.

Many observations re the FOTC seem fixated only on what Frazier was doing - Joe arguably being the more liked and favoured contestant going in.

It was certainly shocking to see Ali being hit more often than he ever was altogether in his first career - but that’s still a relative impression - in absolute terms was Ali getting hit more than he was hitting Joe? no, not at all imo.

The way Joe was getting hit but still coming forward due to his fierce spirit and determination was commented on favourably - which is fine in due proportion and perspective.

Basically, as the FOTC progressed, you became conditioned to seeing Joe constantly getting hit - to the point where I think some actually ignored Ali’s tremendous work and instead chose to praise Frazier for his inhuman resilience.

It was like a win-win for Joe perception wise. When he scored he garnered greater reaction from the audience - even when Joe scored just one punch after Ali had hit him with 5-6 hard shots in a row.

When Ali hit Joe, Joe was constantly receiving accolades for his durability -but the fact was, he was getting scored against frequently and heavily.

Suffice to say, I have the FOTC a lot closer than most. An incredible fight.

 

Ali, easily.

 

Well done!!

 

I dunno. Tyson prepared harder for Seldon than he did for the first Holyfield fight. Rematch is a different story.

 

Ali was hurt and on the ropes at the end of round 3 with punches that weren`t as hard as Tyson`s.

 

Seldon quit and pretended to be hurt, not much happened in that fight, Seldon had no intention of putting up a fight at all.

 

Tyson was better than most fighters Ali struggled with and better than any fighter that floored Ali and far better than any fighter Ali beat easily during his career.

 

Ali was better than every fighter Tyson struggled with and better than any fighter that floored Tyson. Ali was far better than any fighter Tyson beat easily during his career.

 

I completely agree, and would be interested to see arguments against this.

 

Cus knew what it took to beat Ali. He knew which style would cause problems.

From Mike Tyson's inception, all he did was face fighters with Ali's style. In the late 70's and early 80's there was a wave of Ali imitators that some like to call Ali's children who fashioned their style to emulate their hero. The heavyweight scene was FLOODED with this type of fighter: tall, mobile and swift on their toes.

So what did Cus do? He went searching for a certain type of fighter to emulate the peek-a-boo. A fighter he could mould into a swarming juggernaut that needed the right amount of speed and power to chase down the Ali imitators.

 

Tysn improved after winning his world title for the first time, he was very young when he fought Tillis and Green, Tyson was improving all the time under Rooney, Ali didn`t punch harder than any of the fighters that floored Tyson, McBride and Williams stopped Tyson at the end of his career.