If tyson and Ali were to face the other s opponents, who would they lose to first?

Ali

Ali beats everyone. Seriously, his biggest challenges would be a 37 year old Larry Holmes and a shopworn Holyfield. Once he starts getting old and parkinsins kicks in, assuming his career moves along at the same rate in the same order, he would definitely take a loss to Lennox Lewis as a 35 year old with dimished reflexes and slower footwork.

So Ali goes 57-1-0 against Tysons opponents fighting them in the same order and assuming his parkinsons kicks in. He may have 1 or 2 additional losses if he gets lazy and out of shape like he did post Zaire relying on his chin, lazy flurries and ring generalship to steal round+rely on the benefit of the doubt from judges. I could see a motivated Tony Tucker or buster douglass pulling off an upset in that case (Ali struggled with guys who could move and jab) but he wins the rematches.

Tyson

Beats everyone till he gets to Sonny Liston. Sonny would look at the highlight reels and take the bout very seriously going into training camp. Sonny with his pummeling jab, vicious hooks, long reach, and killer instinct would be a fight for the ages and...idk if iron mike wins.

According to the rules of the thread he has to fight him twice. Even if he wins the first fight, taking on liston again would be a daunting, painful task. It would be like the two back to back ruddock fights but even worse. A fight like this might prematurely age mike as a fighter.

He crushes patterson then theres chuvalo. He wins, but it would be interesting seeing how mike would approach a fighter who refuses to go down. How would he go about outboxing him? Also, very few people hit mike to the body and chuvalo was a dedicated body puncher.

He beats ernie terrel by decision in a very frustrating fight similar to the james smith fight. He crushes everyone till he gets to prime frazier. I dont care if you think tyson was the greatest h2h fighter ever, this would not be easy. Frazier from the fotc was one of the most well conditioned champions of all time and he absolutely would not be denied. At 29 Mike will not be as sharp and explosive as his younger self and if he doesnt stop frazier in the first 5 rounds, he loses. Period.

He beats bugner, norton twice, and then fights frazier again. This time tyson is 32 and even more shopworn with even worse stamina. Sorry but outside of a punchers chance he loses. Then theres a prime 25 year old undefeated george foreman...against a 32 year old tyson who lacks head movement, stamina, defense, timing, and discipline. This would be a difficult fight even if they were in their primes so needless to say, he gets brutally stopped within 6 rounds.

He racks up a few wins then gets his ass kicked by frazier in manilla. Jimmy young boxes circles around him and either gets robbed or gets a SD win. Shavers is 50/50. He stops spinks twice then gets stopped by a prime larry holmes.

So Tyson finishes with 57-4-0 or 54-7-0 depending on if you think liston and/or young beat him.

 

Tyson wouldnt lose.......

And Ali would have head aches with Mitch Green!

YEA!

 

Tyson beats everyone though Ali's second last opponent, a prime Larry Holmes would have the best chance of ruining the perfect winning run.

Ali would do well until he runs into Trevor Berbick again.

 

So zombie Ali nearly beat Berbick yet the one that challenged Liston would lose, I'll have some of what you're smoking please......

 

Me too

 

Outstanding post.

 

I think we need to be a bit careful here. When Ali, or Cassius Clay, had been pro for three years he got badly dropped by the much smaller Henry Cooper. You could make a very strong case for saying that if that had happened a minute earlier, Ali does not survive that round. Not long before that bout he struggled against Doug Jones who was a light heavyweight, albeit an excellent one. There were very valid reasons he was a 7-1 underdog against Liston and not just because Sonny was so highly thought of.

To get through the first three years of Tyson's career unbeaten he would need to negotiate the likes of Tillis, Ribalta, Berbick, Bonecrusher, Pinklon, Tucker, Biggs, old Larry and Mike Spinks. Given the world of trouble he had with Cooper and Jones, it's not a stretch to think one of these guys could have put it all together and done the job.

I think Tyson gets through the first few years of Ali's career with a lot fewer problems than Ali had. Possible exception Liston but we'll never really know how good Sonny was and there aren't a lot of names on his record who were as big as Tyson, nor as quick.

I think I'm saying that from turning pro, Mike had a career trajectory that was way faster then Ali's and Ali would not have been able to match him at that age. Facing Tyson's early opposition, he may have struggled with opponents Mike brushed aside while Mike crushes opponents Ali had problems with. Can anyone see the likes of Henry Cooper or Doug Jones troubling a 20 year old Tyson?

If Ali gets through the first three or four years, he's home and hosed. His was a physique that kept developing through his 20s whereas Mike was fully developed at 19 and Ali grew mentally stronger with each passing year while Mike unravelled. There'll be no Buster Douglas moment for Ali. He coped with the three year layoff at 25 far better than Tyson did and in facing Mike's post jail opposition, he has a much easier ride than Tyson has with his post exile rivals.

So I think Ali may have lost first but went on to be far the greater fighter. If anyone is still reading.

 

Mike Tyson couldn't beat Sonny Liston with a gun

 

Maybe he turns out to be Ali's Ken Norton of the 80s.

 

I think Liston Tyson would be 50/50. If Tyson manages to win he will lose to Frazier who was tougher and had much more a warrior spirit. If somehow Tyson manages to beat these two he will get destroyed by Foreman.