The question is asked on this study whether Tyson could beat any martial artist including elite MMA fighters, could Tyson in his prime have beaten an MMA champion in a fight in the octagon? This content is protected
He don't make it out of the first round in the Octagon, someone like couture could wrap him up like he did Toney, but its crystal clear what happens if its reversed and he gets the return Queensberry style. I'd actually back middleweights to beat Tyson in the Octagon, with no hesitation if they are elite
Tyson closes distance better and quicker than Toney did though and punched much than Toney or any UFC fighter in history.
Why do people still make these dumb threads? This has been settled for ages. In boxing Tyson always wins in MMA he has a punchers chance. If he gets taken down at any point the fight is over.
Prime Tyson would be quickly taken down by someone like Randy Couture who wouldn't stand/trade with him for a second and a frustrated Tyson completely out of his depth on the floor would get disqualified for biting or eye gouging.
Tyson is obviously capable of landing a punch on any fighter and knocking them out but as we saw with Toney,being proficient in just boxing won't cut it in MMA and being able to defend a TD by doing some grappling/wrestling is a bare minimum if you hope to be succesful
Maybe but the strengths he had like that which made him successful as a boxer would be fairly predictable for his opposition and easy for coaches to train there fighters extensively to defend against,compared to the variety of different attacking and defensive techniques of other MMA fighters
Predictable is most certainly not harsh because we all know what Tyson is going to do: close the distance and throw punches. Is he going to clinch and dirty box? No. Is he going to head kick? No. Is he going to low kick? No. Is he going to kick, period? No. Is he going for a single or double? No. Is he going to clinch and go for any number of Judo throws? No. Is he going to body lock and take a guy down Greco style? No. Is he going to suplex? No. Is he going to elbow? Maybe. Is he going to spinning backfist? No. Is he going to flying knee? No. Is he going to muay thai plum and knee? No. An MMA fighter has any and all of those at his disposal. An MMA fighter is unpredictable. Granted, Tyson does what he does at the very highest levels. But no MMA fighter who isn't a total spastic is going to trade punches with Mike Tyson, let's be honest.
