Dempsey and Tyson might have displayed a mutual respect. Or gone to unprecedented lengths to prove their toughness. Dempsey shelves the razor to look meaner,Tyson turns off the water in his shower to smell meaner. The possibilities are a publicists dream. These two would leave finesse at the ballet. Dempsey knew only one way, but his atempts to bully Tyson would fail. Dempsey's 6 title challengers weighed an average of 190 pounds. Tyson, bigger, stronger and just as quick as his foe, would gladly ram heads in ring center. Punch for punch it would be no contest. Attempting to smother Tyson with a blizzard of blows, Dempsey would run blindly into a house wrecking hook. Boom! There would be three more knockdowns in round 1. (Dempsey's manager Doc Kearn, would have insisted on waiving the 3 KD rule.) Add two more crash landings in round 2 and you have a second round Tyson victory. "I forgot to duck - about 27 different times," Dempsey would say at the postfight press conference. "And i forgot to hit him". That's all right Jack. Our guess is Babe Ruth wouldn't have hit Roger Clemens, either.
I respect Dempsey as one of boxing's immortals...but that pretty much sums up a fight between him and Tyson at that time....:good
Dempsey pounds over rated Tyson into dream land,Tyson couldnt take Holyfields pressure just think what jack would do to him
Tyson KO1 Dempsey. Seriously, this is about as bad a mismatch as it gets for Jack. I have no doubts that Tyson would've gone undefeated against most pre-Patterson lineal champions' competition.
You're on the right track, only he'd be KTFO cold in about 30 seconds, not two rounds mate. Good try though, I appreciate a measure of realism here.:good
It's likely he'd have gone undefeated for a long time against most pre-80's champion's competition. I can't find any reasons to pick Ali against Tyson, and seeing that Ali was the best of the bunch. Foreman has a good style clash, but is too slow and too hittable. Liston doesn't have what it takes, realistically, to beat Tyson. The rest?:yep Please.
Imagine using Demspeys rules and Tyson is able to stand over a dropped opponent. Tyson KO within a minute
Why is it a "dose of reality" ? It's pure FANTASY. I take it this was written in 1988. As of 2008, Dempsey was obviously a far better FIGHTER than Tyson. I'd favour him in a quick brutal two-sided fight. The REALITY is that Tyson never showed the toughness required to make him favourite over Dempsey. The article talks about Dempsey walking into a "house wrecking hook" but says nothing about what Tyson might walk in to ! And Tyson never got off the deck to win a fight ! It's a big pile of ****, or just one man's opinion, surprising well-received and lapped up by some people here who I really thought might know better. It's certainly not "reality", since Dempsey was an old man before Tyson was even born, they never fought, it's pure speculation. Oh, I guess in they'd been matched in 1980, a 14 year-old Tyson would have literally KILLED any 85 year-old Dempsey. But I hear he was more inclined to mug grandMOTHERS rather than grandpas at the time.