Each man lost three years of his prime — Ali for taking a moral stand against the draft and Tyson for **** — and came back. Obviously Ali took the harder road on his return and stopped Jerry Quarry on cuts in three rounds. Tyson won by TKO (should have been DQ for cornerman running into the ring) against journeyman (to put it kindly) Peter McNeeley. So what happens if that rusty version of Ali fought that version of rusty Tyson? I figure Ali stops a tiring and discouraged Tyson in about five rounds, maybe six.
with Ali, of course, for several reasons. 1. They both had styles that aged quickly but Tyson's style aged the fastest, at 20 he could have been better than Ali at 20 but at 29 (McNelley fight) he wasn't as good as Ali at 28 (Quarry fight ) even if their careers had not been interrupted 2. Ali had a 3-year break, Tyson had a 4-year break. 3. Ali could and did train all the time under normal conditions, Tyson absolutely couldn't. He could do push-ups, not much else. No boxing training 5. Ali was clearly hungry for boxing, Tyson was not. Before his return, when asked if he would continue his career, he replied yes, because he couldn't do anything else. However, it was obvious that he was no longer interested in boxing Summary: Tyson has no chance against Ali after his return. He would probably also lose to the returning Holmes in 1990 and certainly to Vitali in 2007. I think Vitali would have beaten both Tyson and Ali even though he was much older.
Might be a bit of a stinker actually, wasn’t Ali grossly overweight and by his own admission gassed by the fourth round finish? I see him surviving any Mike onslaught but by the end of it he’s too gassed to finish Mike himself so it’s a 15 round clinchfest to a decision in Ali’s favour
Both men's timing would be off and throw a lot of shots off target in the first couple of rounds but both would be landing a few hard ones too. Muhammad would the least discouraged by any punishment by the middle stage of the bout and would also be first whose timing settles. Ali eventually stops Tyson late in fight.
