Could prime Tyson handle Prime Foreman?

Yes but Holyfield was bigger and stronger than in his prime, hit harder and improved his defense and just all around fought smarter. Yes obviously he slowed down but he made adjustments to his style that kept him effective. Tyson was basically a diminished version of himself. That doesnt diminish Holyfields win but both tyson and holyfield were different fighters than they were in their primes. And you cant use it as evidence of how a foreman fight would go with both in their primes just like you cant combine Old and young foremans best attributes to create some kind of H2H monster

 

Are you ****ing mad?

He took every punch in the book from Douglas and survived for 10 whole rounds being a punching bag when he hadn't trained, was not well conditioned, gave a career poor performance and even then he was up on his feet when he got up by 10.

That doesn't mean he had a bad chin. His stamina had diminished for long fights, he only trained for like 10-14 days for Holyfield 1 and had severely under estimated him and fell into the media, public and expert view point that Holyfield was shot. But he stayed on his feet till the end.

The same Holyfield has floored Mercer (The guy with among the best chins of all time), the same Holyfield has dropped Bowe.

Ruddock's power is not over rated at all. Tyson still to date states that Ruddock hit him the hardest in his whole career. Ruddock had impressive KO stats before the Tyson fights and had killed Dokes badly. Ruddock after their wars publically commented that he could not believe that Tyson took his shots like a boss knowing full well how hard he hits and he publically saluted Tyson as being the best heavy weight in the world.

No disrespect to Zeljko Mavrovic, i thought being a 217 lb guy, he showed a sexy granite chin against Lewis. But Tyson by the time he fought Lewis was absolutely shot to fight and incapable of fighting beyond 2 rounds. He was breathing very heavily after the end of the first round and had shot his load already on top of Lenni further sapping his energy with his holding tactics.

Mavrovic had trained for almost a whole year for the Lewis fight. The Lewis fight was his only loss in his career and he was well known for having a rock solid chin.

Now Lewis who is a very cocky full of himself individuals, it takes a lot out of him to say anything remotely positive about his opponent. After the Mercer fight he was like "Yeah everyone knows Mercer has a good chin", After the Tucker fight he was like "Yeah, he has a good chin". After the Tua fight he was like "He was taking my shots well, okay why dont you try and eat some more". But for Tyson, this is what he said "My word, i was hitting him with some really powerful shots, i was just shocked at how he was taking them, he can take a heck of a punch"

You can decide which statement is more impactful

His chin was among the all time best. 4 stoppages occurred primarily due to conditioning and stamina issues and 1 stoppage occurred due to a knee injury. He was never ever knocked down early or even in the middle of a fight just because of one big shot to the face.

His head movement, defense in his prime is legendary, he was impossible to hit with more than one punch and even when he got hit, you will not get him out of there with one punch for sure.

Oh puleez, if Ron Lyle can take Foreman into deep waters, a finisher like Tyson will finish Foreman the moment he gets into a spot of bother. Prime Foreman was not the unstoppable beast everyone makes him out to be.

 

So many excuses in such a short paragraph. Holyfield owned him, certainly at this time. He was on his way to a whooping in the rematch too, all (supposing he wasn't first fight lolz)trained up and serious.

 

I am firmly in the Foreman stoppage camp. Tyson needs to be coming forward at any career stage and imo he has no chance of that against Foreman. Unforgiven has given a very good summation.

 

NO< Foreman wins everytime, anytime!

 

30 years old is past prime for a heavyweight

 

No

 

It was for Tyson. Why can't anybody accept it? It's on fukcin film!!! Tyson started eroding when he fired Rooney. Geezus.

 

Ill take a prime Foreman

 

It would be more like a Foreman/Frazier Type affair.

 

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"I'm not phiting that animal! If you love Phoreman phat much you phukin fight him..........

Old Mikey Boy would rather see Don King get in the ring with Foreman than do it himself.....

 

Safe to say Tyson was petrified.....

 

I'd also like to see Don King in the ring with Foreman

 

Foreman wins.

Tyson had the skillset to offset Foreman's advantages but not the mentality.