88 Tyson vs. 67 Ali, who wins?

I'd pick Tyson in this fight and I know lots of people are gonna disagree but here's my reasoning why.

Before anybody brings up Tyson worst performances, please note that he wasn't no where the same fighter he was when he left Rooney. You can clearly see it and he was more one dimensional later in his career, plus the disipline and inactivity eroded him more than he was.

Here's the reason why I pick Mike:

As you know Ali usually had problems with swarmers. Doug Jones, Joe Frazier, and Ken Norton all gave him problems. Good foot speed and a Jab would give Ali lots of problems and Tyson had both and was more skilled than Frazier, Jones, and Norton. People will say Ali wasn't in his prime when he fought Frazier, or Norton and this is true but the first Frazier fight was the best Ali ever got the rest of his career and Frazier beat him decisive. That was the best Frazier of course but Frazier didn't have one punch power like Tyson, a good jab like Tyson and a defense Like Tyson to get in on Taller opponents the way Mike did and cut the ring off before the taller fighter could anticipate. Frazier was a left hook guy and a good body puncher but tyson was more mutlidimensional than Frazier with more speed, physically stronger, and hit harder.

Ali was young when he fought Doug Jones and Jones was another swarmer(ali was still green but it answered some questions) and gave Ali one of his toughest fights and many thought Doug Jones beat him, I thought he edged him but it was close. One of the tendicies Doug Jones exposed was that Ali pulled straight back from punches and Frazier further exposed it. Ali had good footwork but didn't duck punches well. Pulling straight back from punches against an expolsive fighter Like a young Tyson spells danger because Tyson leaped at you and would eventually catch Ali with a left hook. The fight would look similiar to the Tyrell Biggs fight.

The fighters who beat Tyson(even though Tyson wasn't no where near his best when they did shoed what was the nessecary tools to have) had authoritive Jabs and they would circle Mike, something Ali never did. Ali had more of a flicking Jab, not authorative jab like Lewis, Hoyfield, and Douglas had. Another thing was Ali was too much of a head hunter and Dundee even admitted to that. He would be throwing a lot of head shots at Tyson and that you definetly couldn't do cause Tyson had really good headmovement. You have to try and go to Tyson's body, mix it up and use lots of uppercuts while circling and tieing him up and Ali wouldn't fight him like that. Tyson was also good at timing punches and if he got you hurt, forgot about it, cause he wasn't just a devasting puncher but one of the best finishers of all time. Larry Holmes found that out when he tried to recover against Tyson. Besides all of the fundamental flaws that Ali had the biggest thing would be he would fighting a guy who good foot speed, great timing, and a quick accurate Jab, something he never had to deal with and that would cause major problems along with him trying to time Tyson which would be very hard cause of Tyson's head movement and the fact the he would be punching down at him.

As good as Ali was, Tyson IMo would be the perfect opponent for him and would stop Ali in the later rounds. Ali would be fighting a combination of Frazier and Doug Jones and it would be too much for Muhammad. I see it being Biggs/Tyson all over again but a more competitive.

 

Doug Jones and Ken Norton both swarmed Ali and it was effective. Doug Jones could box but he was a good swarmer as well.

 

His style was very similiar to Ali's. Biggis was big and very athletic and also taller than Ali with a longer reach. Lets not forget Biggs was superheavyweight Olympic gold medalist who beat Lennox Lewis. He already had more experience than a lot of the other heavys cause of his ameutuer credentials when he fought Tyson. He was never the same After Tyson beat him and even went into depression.

 

Ali never had to deal with a wirlwind swarm like Tyson would put on him if he hurt him. Sorry he didn't. Ali being faster than a young Tyson is debatable. And in this scenerio, you don't have to be faster, or you have to be is fast enough and Tyson surley was. And he didn't have a better chin. Tyson had one of the best chins in history and Ali never was taking consecutive big shots from big men like Douglas and Lewis and Ali always came in shape, Tyson didn't in his later career, which is why he got stopped in those fights. Tyson proved his chin when he took Razor Rudducks best shots who would Ko'ed any fighter with the shots he hit Tyson with and Tyson was conditioned for that fight and that wasn't Tyson at his best.

 

He countered Ali but he still swarmed him, he just did it spurts. And it was effective against Ali because of his lack of fundamentals. Tyson also was a good counter puncher but he did it lot more agressivley.