Ali or Tyson who was the fastest?

Young Tyson was a lot faster than people give him credit for but pre exile Ali was faster. Just look at the flurry against Brian London as proof.

 

AS far as being able to evade a punch (fast head movement etc), I don't know that anybody was better at that than Ali.

I think punch speed was fairly equal prime vs prime, although a slight edge may go to Tyson.

Ali was much faster at dodging a punch in my opinion.. that gives him the win over Tyson, although it wouldn't be easy for him against a "buzz saw" type fighter.

 

Tyson was very quick, maybe not as quick as Ali. However, I think Holmes and Lewis are right up there as well. Sometimes style and technique makes certain fighters look quicker than they actually are.

Probably one of the quickest fighters ever was Oscar De La Hoya. I once timed a four punch combination he threw against Chavez during their rematch, just over one second I timed it at. I'm pretty sure it was the combinantion at the end of the 7th round on the bell. The Trinidad fight is another good example showing his handspeed. Very underrated handspeed indeed. Not many have him in their quickest lists. Its usually Jones jr, Whitaker, Ali, Taylor, Whitaker, Leonard, Robinson, Hearns, etc.

 

Ali, his combinations were like blurs.Tyson is closely behind, but so is Patterson, Holmes, Dokes, and several others.

 

tyson was fast but looked a lot faster than he was due to the short looping punches he threw. as far as reaction and handspeed, there is no question ali was quicker

 

Every post I've seen from you has always been sensible. I might not agree with everything you say but you always have sound reasoning behind your posts. However, this one I just don't understand.

Ali had much faster feet than Tyson.

 

Ali takes it.

Actually, Dempsey was quicker than Tyson, overall.

 

Alis hand speed was faster in his prime by far

 

Ali would meet me 1st, I'm sure of it. Ali could float gracefully, but he could also move damn fast whether that was to back off and evade blows or to move in quickly to land a flurry. Tyson was very mobile too but he also had much shorter legs than Ali. His stride would be considerably shorter than Ali's which means he'd have to move much faster and work harder to cover the same distance in the same time.