Yes this question has been done 1000 times, but ive never seen a poll about it, so in their prime who would win this'?
I think Prime Lewis. When that guy was on, he was ****ing on. I'm not sure if Tyson could get past that jab and avoid the right no matter how great his head movement was.
A prime Mike would be a lot harder for Lewis to dispatch, but I think he'd still pull it off. That is - if his chin held up. No matter which way you look at it, prime Tyson just wasn't the monster he usually was against guys who stood up to him. A couple of guys who were nowhere near the level of a prime Lewis took Tyson the distance, so what do you think Lewis would do?
I picked Lewis, but I wouldn't bet a lot of money of who would win this bout - too close to call. But I do think Lewis had the formula on how to beat Tyson, and even though Tyson was shot when they actually fought, the style in which Lewis won, namely to imposs his strength and power on Tyson would give any version of Tyson fits. That said, Tyson could also cause Lewis tons of problems if Lewis can't deal effectively with his speed and mid range fighting. Lewis' upper cut could well be the deciding punch that makes Tyson hesitate about going toe to toe with him.
Lewis' chin was plenty reliable. He got by Tua, Vitali, Ruddock and of course Tyson himself. All big bangers.
Tough call as others have said, but my money would be on Tyson. Lewis is not the best starter and has shown in the past to get hurt early in fights. Against Bruno, Briggs, McCall, Mercer, Vitali and even Mirovic to a lesser extent. Tyson is leaps and bounds better than those opponent and only Briggs has more knockouts in the first 3 rounds. Though if Lewis is able to utilize the jab early in the fight, he may be able to keep Tyson at bay long enough to take control of the fight in the later rounds
Add Briggs, Mercer, Morrison and Bruno to that list. Thats the biggest misconception going. Lewis had a damn good chin, and has proved it on many occasions. His heart was even more impressive, they didn't call him the lion for nothing.
Tyson KO. he'd be tough but not enough. it would be a great fight, that's for sure. The fact is Tyson would hit him (not like in their actual fight when he got in maybe 2 or 3 good shots) and there you have it. Prime Lennox ain't surviving. I rank him higher than Tyson, just for the record, but prime for prime ... I see only Foreman destroying Tyson and Ali beating him in a rematch.
tyson would destroy lewis if they met at their respective 'primes'...and i dont use the word destroy lightly, he was all wrong for lewis.
Thing is Lewis wouldn't approach Tyson the way he did McCall, i.e wide open going for the ko. For a start Steward would be in his corner and he'd have Lewis tying Tyson up and using his weight on the smaller man, keeping the fight at range the whole time. The Rahman fight doesn't count. Lewis prepared 2 weeks for a fight at 5000ft. This fight goes one of 2 ways, Tyson early ko or Lewis pts/late stoppage and due to the reasons listed above I pick Lewis late.
Yeah i agree 100% its a real toss up and i wont be suprised if it goes either of the 2 ways you stated! Its also why the poll is very very close
its really hard to say...Lewis was so damn tall and had a crazy reach not to mention a masterful boxer...but the Mike who fought Lewis in '02 knew he wasn't going to win...he gave up after the second round...a prime Mike had no fear and no intentions of losing no matter what...it could go either way