How would Tyson react to Ali's trash talk?

No it doesn't. It's one thing to have issues in your personal life, it's another to be affected by someone's worthless talk.

No, he said he fed on fear cause it made him focused. And by fear he mostly meant fear of losing, of not performing well, not fear of getting hit.

Liston no, young Foreman yes.
Liston had no trouble with Ali's talking, he thought Ali was nuts. Liston simply lost cause:
Ali was a bad stylistic matchup for him, cause he was old and not properly prepared, cause he had shoulder issues.

That only worked on dumb and/or arrogant people, like Frazier and Foreman.

Mike needed people to keep him focused and training properly, not to deal with opponents talking, that never affected him one bit.

 

So they were all idiots.
That era wrote off then.

 

Fair enough. I just don't see him getting past Ali's mind-boinking, movement, or lead right. To be completely honest, i don't think he'd get by 1980 Holmes either.

But that's just me, all respect to your opinions.

 

Add his chin, ability to absorb shots to the body, ability to fight off the ropes and ability to tie his opponent up. We know exactly how Mike is going to fight Muhammad. We have no idea how Muhammad is going to fight Mike.

 

Not all, but some of them were very weak mentally.

 

Not like the titans of today.

 

Yes, it does hold, particularly since the personal issues involved being manipulated and a lack of mental discipline.

It’s worth noting also that we will read about Mike’s personal issues forever when they’re framed as a background excuse for his performances in the ring - but they’re off limits when suggesting that the root of those personal issues = features of Mike’s personality, (as described above) were also peeled back, real time, in the ring.

I know Mike fed on fear..of losing but he also fed on anger - left a nice hole in the wall before the Spinks fight among other examples.

I would agree that Liston wasn’t as affected as Foreman but I believe Ali did have Liston bemused by the psycho act and Sonny appeared to go after Ali with less patience and calm than he might’ve normally exercised.

Frazier was neither dumb or arrogant. If people actually listened to the man he was intelligent. Many didn’t “hear” Joe for the very fact that he wasn’t loud or completely ego driven like Ali.

Joe was pi**ed with Ali, and rightly so - a great example of Ali upping the ante in terms of abuse relative to the mental strength of the opponent - that opponent being Joe.

When the smoke cleared, it didn’t impair Joe’s performance - Joe channeled the anger into disciplined ferocity.

You cited being dumb and arrogant as making a fighter more prone to trash talk. I won’t comment on what believe Mike’s degree of intelligence to be - but I will say Mike was arrogance personified at the height of his career.

All fighters benefit from a team to keep them focused and training properly - but they shouldn’t be so precariously balanced as to need them as much as Mike is claimed to have needed his to prevent him from crashing and burning.

 

He'd get into his head, but it wouldn't be as big a deal as some folks think or as minor a deal as other folks think. He'd still have to shut up and use his fists at some point, and I wouldn't put a penny of money on this imaginary fight on a given night.

I say that as someone who's on record here as saying Ali is my No. 2 ATG behind Louis, who listed Ali among his five favorite fighters in a thread today and who (donning Kevlar) has always respected Tyson and considers him an ATG and thinks he'd be capable of beating any heavyweight who's ever lived on a given night, but (as evidenced by my choice of favorite fighters) considers him 180 degrees opposite to the kind of fighter and kind of human being I prefer in my boxing heroes.

 

He'd cower at fact that someone had utterly no fear of him and his presence. I mean Ali had no fear of one of the people Tyson used as a prototype for his fear tactics.

 

Wrong. In interviews done many years after the actual fight, Ali admitted that deep down he was afraid of Liston, but he didn't want to show it, so that Liston wouldn't feed of that.

 

Not well at all.

 

change the word "had" to "showed" and the result is still the same. Tyson would still end up shrinking from someone who wouldn't bend the knee.

 

Tyson wouldn't care. He would be ready to fight and Ali would have his hands full.

 

Tyson would be a mental wreck entering the ring and the would fall apart completely when he realized Ali wasn't afraid of him.

We're talking about the guy who BIT ANOTHER BOXERS EAR OFF, TWICE because he realized he was losing.

 

Laugh? I cannot see that bothering him in his prime. He was too disciplined then.

The past-it Tyson who said crazy things before fights? Oh, it would bother him and would make him say even more insane things.