A similar thread was done on Larry Holmes about a month ago. Now it's Tyson's turn. Take the prime Tyson of 1986-1988 and put him into the 1973-1975 timestream. How would he have fared ? I can see something like this - He would have lost to Ali by late tko. Knocked out Norton and Frazier. He would have lost to Foreman by ko in a see-saw battle. I rank Frazier above Tyson,overall but it would be a style thing.
Frazier - TKO2 Norton - KO1 Foreman - TKO5 Ali - tossup, i'd favor Tyson. Lyle - TKO4 Quarry - TKO6 Reasons: Frazier's focus was not on boxing in '73 and he was declining badly as well as overweight. The Tyson of the Berbick fight would obliterate him like Foreman did. Norton? He always folded against punchers. Many people will pick Foreman, but to me Tyson is more proven against 210+lbs opponents who can punch. The only puncher who landed on Foreman is Lyle and he nearly had him out of there. As for Ali, he still had a good bit of ability left pre-74, and matches up well with Tyson, so it's basically 50/50. But if forced to choose, i'd go with Tyson by hard fought decision.
I don't think Frazier or Norton have much of a chance, I'd pick Tyson over this Ali, Foreman/Tyson I think is the tricky one.
tyson of 86-88 against ali of 73-75 would be a guess probably ali lost to much speed to beat tyson. on the other hand ali was very ringsmart and a true ring general maybe he'd come up with something i don't know. quarry, lyle and norton wil loose against mike. also frazier will loose. the frazier of 69 to 71 will not i think. and foreman of 73/75 probably will beat mike. i know tyson is fast and very strong and has good defense but george is stronger and has a big reach advantage. and i believe george can take a punch as well..
Foreman of 73 KO's Tyson. Ali has a live chance at pulling another rumble in the jungle like performance/upset from 73-75 with Tyson. The rest of the fighters stand little to no chance against Tyson.
Agreed, I think Tyson pretty much cleans the house. I don't think Ali between 73-75 is a toss up, I think Tyson batters that version in a systematic breakdown. Frazier, Norton, Quarry, Lyle, Shavers all fall victim. Foreman would be an exciting fight but I give the edge to Mike for reasons that I've stated many times in different Tyson/Foreman threads. I'd say its safe to say that Tyson dominates that era until he runs into Larry Holmes where biggest challenge would be. There is the 50/50 shot.
No problem. :good What do you think of the picks and reasoning? I'd pick Holmes to beat Tyson in '78, and beat him badly. Basically, if '73-'75 is his 86-88 run, then by '78, he'd be in the messed up state he was in during 1990/1991. While Douglas boxed a brilliant, all time great performance that night, i don't doubt that a peak Holmes couldn't reproduce that. He'd be coming by at exactly the right time. There would be great demand for a rematch somewhere down the line, but it's questionable whether Holmes takes it, since he never granted Norton/Weaver/Williams/Witherspoon rematches, and those were closer fights then i expect the Tyson-Holmes one to be in '78. It's also possible that Young dethrones him in a spoiler of a fight around the same time (78), but that i would consider closer. Douglas, at 6'4" 235lbs was a lot stronger than Young (who was 6'2 200-210lbs) and needed that strength to keep pushing Tyson on the backfoot. And this was an essential ingredient to the strategy. I think Young's style would be less efficient against even a rusty Tyson, but more suited for the slower sluggers like Foreman and Liston.
i always was worried about foremans physical power in pushing mike backwards and offsetting his rythym but i think at his best tysons speed would probably overcome it. all the rest i agree with includiding the ali one which i believe is a tossup.
