1988 Mike Tyson vs Anthony Joshua

AJ will be badly intimidated, he will look away at the staredown

 

Had to pop in the thread cos I'm sure I seen someone comparing ruiz to tyson..

And I did...

Just lol

 

Holmes landed hardly anything ahainst Mike and look how Mike countered his jab with the right hand, Mike was the greatest fighter in history at slipping and countering the jab.

 

Love AJ but he has no chance. Tyson is a billionaire man's version of Ruiz.

 

Lol. Nice

 

Tyson is most overrated champ ever. He was more of a myth than a great fighter. I think he knocks Joshua down. But athletically Joshua is so much better than the Tubbs Spinks and Thomas’s he fought back then.

Tyson wouldn’t give in easy but I think he couldn’t take Joshua’s power. I’m not even a big AJ fan either.

 

The poll result seems a bit one-sided.

Tyson didn't face great competition, and he lost to the best he faced.

His legend is just a tad exaggerated, IMO.

That said, the best AJ has faced was a faded Wlad, and that could have gone either way.

I think it's a bit early to evaluate AJ...he's a work in progress.


If I had to put money down, I would bet on Mike.

But it would be a nervous bet.

 

Now I would be foolish to mention Joshua's jab in the same space as that of Holmes in his prime.

But let's be real about the version of Holmes that turned up to fight Tyson; tempted out of retirement and off the couch by a bag of money and had next to no time to train in a shrinking window before the fight.

 

Exactly this.

Joshua is 198cm and fights around 145lbs.

The reality is Tyson wasn't blowing away the taller super heavyweights. Tyson whilst a shorter fighter still often outweighed a lot his opponents. But he would be at a severe disadvantage against Joshua.

So which tall fighters did "prime" Tyson face?

'86 Tyson KOs 198cm David Jaco. Jaco was a talented young fighter, but was a 210lb beanpole and had been KO'd in his two previous fights.

'86 Tyson UDs 196cm Mitch Green. Green was 225lbs and outweighed Tyson. Green clearly wasn't intimidated, but fought on the back foot with a slapping fast hand style. Neither man was ever really in trouble.

'86 Tyson "KO"s 195cm Ribalta. Tyson outweighed the 211lb Cuban. It was actually a terrible stoppage in the final round; Ribalta was eager to fight on. Tyson was on route to winning a wide UD.

'87 Tyson UDs 196cm Tony Tucker. They both weighed in at 221lbs. Tyson was frustrated by Tucker, but won by UD and ended Tucker's IBF reign of 64 days.

'87 Tyson KOs 196cm Tyrel Biggs. Biggs won Olympic gold, but his success never really translated over to the pro ranks. At 229lbs he was the only super heavy that prime Tyson legitimately KO'd. Tyson also claimed he carried Biggs as he wanted to dish out more punishment.

Regarding Joshua's size and weight advantage: In '86 Joe Cortez gifted Tyson a KO against the 193cm 236lb Mike Jameson. A journeyman who was clearly not brought in to cause the problems to the young Tyson that he did. Now, keep in mind in Ruiz 2, the trimmed down Joshua still weighed 237lbs.

So maybe Tyson wins, but an easy KO it is not. And Tyson was always susceptible to the uppercut a punch he was often caught with in the above fights.

In the end, I guess it comes down to whether or not you think Joshua has worse skills than the above fighters who were able to land upper cuts on Tyson as he came inside to what kind of chance you give Joshua v '88 Tyson.

 

AJ doesn`t have more power than Tyson had and Tyson was a better finisher and a better body puncher, Tyson took Ruddock`s best shots and Ruddock had more one punch KO`s than AJ has.

 

AJ is easier to hit than Tyson was and has a weaker chin.

 

AJ`s jab is decent but Tyson was a better jabber and just a more skilled puncher all round, he was also a far better combo puncher than AJ was and AJ wouldn`t be able to fight at the pace Mike would set, AJ`s work-rate since the Wlad fight hasn`t matched Mike`s in most of his fights under Rooney.

 

I would not be surprised in the least if Tyson stopped him in the first minute if it could have happened.

 

You,ve got to look at how they we,re brought through. From 14 tyson was being trained as a professional from guys that had already been at the top level of professional boxing. At 14 joshua had never stepped into a ring. Think he was around 17 or something like that. No sure what age anyone that done anything in boxing got there hands on him.

Add to that the sheer amount of hard rounds tyson and the guys back then sparred before health and safety came into play. This was a guy that pretty much learned how to fight by fighting as opposed to learning by drills.

I dont care about size difference if the skill level is as vast as it is. I still say the level of skill of the 80,s was high. They we,re good guys tyson was beating...just need to watch them in some of their other fights against any one but tyson. I,d wager a bet a few of the guys tyson demolished or beat up would maybe have beaten joshua. Joshuas athletically brilliant but in comparison skillwise hes basic in comparison not just to tyson but a lot of guys that get derided on this forum from tyson era.

 

That particular Tyson was a skilled fighter and had very good in ring vision and iq. His ferocity, speed, abilities, and power would overwhelm AJ. If fat Andy could get to AJ there’s absolutely zero doubt that an 80’s Tyson could.