Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson

When has Ali ever been made short work of? atsch
So Ali wouldn't be able to keep Tyson off of him yet Buster Douglas could keep him at distance and HANDILY pummel PRIME mike throughout the entirety of the fight? Or how about when Ali knock-off Quick Tillis went the distance with him and frustrated him even when he lost, also keeping him at distance through the fight. :deal

 

I agree with a lot of the different viewpoints in this thread; Ali had what it took to beat a prime Tyson on points, even the best Tyson did struggle more with fighters like Ali than inside fighters. In fact I'd count out most if not all inside fighters against Tyson in other fantasy match-ups but I don't know about Ali knocking Tyson out. People like to bring up Douglas but to me that's not Tyson at his best. The Tyson that fought Douglas wasn't training properly (if barely at all) for that fight nor was he really taking the last few fights before it serious either. That was Tyson at his downfall where the excess of fame got the best of him as he was too young and immature to deal with it properly and other turmoil in his life and lastly another big factor is that he didn't have the hunger he once had to fight. I also think that was Douglas at his absolute best and probably could of beat any number of fighters the way he fought that night and hell he actually came to it in good shape as well. I mean the very next fight against Holyfield, Douglas was out of shape again....Mike had to be thinking...gah why didn't this Douglas show up to my fight? ha ha. You have to remember this was a case of man extremely driven to win the championship for his mother who recently died and after he did so it appeared that drive went away which you can clearly see with the Holyfield fight with his discipline going into that fight out of shape. I bring this up because I wouldn't downplay these factors as people generally do rise to another level when they are pushed or think they are doing it for a great cause or destiny (as cheesy as that may sound). I think if you combine all the factors I'd say pretty much all the cards were laid out for Tyson to lose that match.

Anyways Tyson was very well conditioned and I think he could of gone 15 rounds but Ali would be favored if that happened; Ali like others have mentioned could of also beaten Mike mentally before the fight even happened with all his banter and self glorification. Mike was good at doing that with fear to his opponents, although it's really questionable if that would work on Ali. I think Tyson would have to take him out early which is totally possible as Ali never fought anyone that had a combination of speed and power like Tyson. If Tyson got to him with fast and precise combos like he used to do at his best it's totally possible he could knock out Ali. Also Tyson's defense at his best was incredible or as Tyson would put it "impeccable". Tyson rarely ever got hit when his defense was at it's best which is something I think many people overlook. Nobody ever really saw him get hit hard until when he started getting (for lack of a better word) lazy and didn't bob much anymore which is apparent in his early 90's fights with Ruddock and even more so after Prison where he would just take shots. Cus pretty much taught Tyson to be an Ali destroyer or actually maybe more along the lines of a Larry Holmes destroyer so I wouldn't count him out of this fight. I pointed out more points about Tyson but that's because I think more people make a point for Ali but overall I'd say I'm with the OP with being on the fence on this match-up though.

 

Truth.!!!

 

Ha ha, well I wouldn't count Ali so quickly out of this match, but yeah one wonders if he could of handled someone like Tyson with points like you and I pointed out. I do think Tyson was better than Norton, Frazier and Foreman if we are going to compare him to great big punchers Ali went up against. I also don't see Ali being able to just take hits from Tyson for 8 rounds and then knock him out like he did with Foreman; he'd have to keep his distance and do it that way. Tyson was way faster than foreman and one could argue that he was just as heavy a hitter or maybe he was just more deadly because of his power mixed with his speed while doing combinations. Tyson is the one fighter more than any other that I always wonder how any great fighter before or since would of dealt with. This is mostly because we have never had a fighter like Tyson before or since. Mike was certainly a scary but also skillful brawler the likes we may never see again.

 

A prime Ali just to Classy for Tyson Ali was 32 and took apart an absolute Monster in Foreman...Foreman was 25 year old and in His prime and Ali still knocked George out the only time George ever got TKOd.!!!!

 

This, Tyson KO Ali within 3

 

The way you worded this makes it sound like you're arguing against what I said because I think I'm the only one that brought up Ali/foreman as a comparison. That's really strange though because I said the exact same thing you said about Tyson being faster and probably just as powerful as Foreman so not sure who you are arguing with because we agree with that. I was just pointing out that Ali would not be able to do the same thing he did with Foreman, that would be a stupid way to fight a guy like Tyson. Also yeah Tyson's speed was up there with Ali and that's what made him such an incredibly scary brawler the likes Ali never faced in his career.

 

He was also just being polite. :good

 

Well Ali would have had his best chance after being in jail for 4 years,so he would have had a nice long rest,especially after his earlier KO loss to Cooper. :roll:oops::verysad

 

See what Tyson himself says on the subject @ 4.10 in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF17mkqyf44

 

To be fair they both said it about eachother
http://youtu.be/Qa8j26S2gR0
Either way it would be a hard fight fight for either of them

 

Yeah this is hard to predict, Mike had been a monster, but Ali had one special weapon, his mind games and his mental strength combined with his elusiveness could make Mike become frustrated escpecially with Ali connecting jab after jab. However, if Mike managed to connect with his monster hook to Ali's chin it would change the game immediately.

 

Ali wouldn't be beat before they step in the ring, that's for sure.

 

prime ali would school him to death jabs all night move in and out dancing all night Tyson would give up

 

I don't know. If it goes the distance...Ali on pts. Ali aint KO'ing Tyson if he can't KO's nearly half of all his opponents. Tyson is a better in every way version of Frazier so I think Tyson could possibly KO Ali or get a TKO. If he doesn't well Tyson didn't stop many guys after the 7th round. I can remember Rebalta TKO 10 but can't think of anyone else without going back n checking his record. Tyson was a whirlwind and deadly in the first 5 rounds...and was downhill after that. If Ali could weather the early storm he's every chance of a UD. But can he? He couldn't do the rope a dope on Tyson that'd be suicide.