Mike Tyson vs Michael Moorer '96, Who Wins?

KO1 for Tyson. Mentally fragile Moorer does a Seldon and freezes in the headlights. Tyson then stands over Moorer with his arms spread smirking at Teddy Atlas

 

The real question should be: Would Tyson have a chance? Yes, he would. But Moorer takes this. A lot of things were running into Tyson's mind at this time, and he wasn't in best shape - mentally.

 

Let's see who Tyson beat in his career after returning from prison: Peter McNeeley, Buster Mathis Jr., Bruce Seldon, Frank Bruno (in his final fight), Francois Botha, Lou Savarese, Julius Francis, Brian Nielsen and Clifford Etienne. This reminds me of Deontay Wilder's win list (which probably is a bit more impressive). He never beat anybody as good as Moorer.

Now coming to strengths and weaknesses, Tyson still possessed good hand speed and power. However, people tend to dismiss Moorer quickly based on his one punch KO loss against George Foreman. Moorer got into a wild brawl versus Bert Cooper (not a good boxer but a good puncher), was floored multiple times and yet came back to win that fight. Moorer also beat Holyfield (not really known for his punching power but a great technical boxer), Tyson never beat anybody like that. The only people to beat Moorer before his first retirement were Holyfield and Foreman, two ATGs.

 

Moorer may rush Tyson, try to surprise him, get him early.
He's getting kod fast anyway.

 

If Moorer got through the early rounds, he would beat Mike without question imo. When folks talk about Moorer being mentally fragile they have it backwards. Tyson at that point was the mentally fragile one. Moorer only got knockout by two of the greatest punchers ever in Tua and Foreman. Against Holyfield in 97', Moorer fought his heart out and got up multiple times against Evander. Years later, he won an extremely tough fight against a determined Vassily Jirov. Tyson was done after 96'. By Round four, it would be all Moorer.

 

Tyson by early KO. Moorer had already been clipped early before even before Foreman, he just fired back. He wouldn't be able to take what Tyson gave him, and I don't think he could wear Tyson down (he'd already be gone).

I think Tyson would be a bad matchup for Moorer.

 

We are not talking prime for prime. We are talking 96'. Tyson was not Tyson anymore. Watch Holyfield vs Moorer II and how competitive it was up until the 7th round. It was a grueling back and fourth fight until Holyfield hurt Moorer bad. Holyfield physically dominated Tyson in both of their fights.

 

I think people here are confusing 1996 Tyson with 1986 Tyson with this first-round KO nonsense. I think Moorer beats the crap out of 1996 Tyson.

 

I was specifically thinking about this................The tale of Holyfield/Tyson was that Tyson couldn't hurt or bully Evander and one of the major strengths of Evander is that he could punch and trade with Tyson and had no fear of getting hurt by Tyson. Moorer wouldn't have (IMO) been able to do that. He couldn't fight Tyson in that manner that Evander did. Tyson definitely had the ability to run Moorer over, hence me saying Tyson early.

 

Tyson has his way with him.

The agenda to portray Tyson as so shot that any decent fighter could take him is so tired.

He had just gone right through Bruno and Seldon without hardly being touched. Holy just had his number. Make your peace with that

 

I recently re-watched Moorer vs Holyfield II. You should watch that fight. Moorer was giving Holyfield all kinds of issues and it was really a back and fourth affair until the 7th. Moorer was trading with Holyfield and backing him up.

If nothing else you should watch it because it's a pretty good heavyweight fight for seven rounds. Moorer has a lot more grit than people think.

 

The agenda to portray Tyson as this unbeatable badass monolith both pre and post stir is tired too.