Prime Mike Tyson (88) vs Prime Muhammad Ali (66)

Tyson as more skilled than Frazier and yes Frazier should have slipped more shots Ali looked really sluggish in the fight.

 

Hey Marky Mark

This could go on forever with small tack ons.

No. Ali wouldn’t stand there and trade exactly like that. It wasn’t prime Ali and it wasn’t even the best Ali could be at that time.

Prime Ali could move at light speed and still inflict serious damage - see Liston 1.

A heavier Ali could still move though not quite as much and inflict even greater damage, setting down on his punches even more - see Chuvalo 1.

The man was incredibly multi faceted and adaptable. Mikey Mike not so much.

You made an observation re FOTC noting Frazier’s success which was only in the last 10 secs of round 3. I analysed that round and moment from my perspective.

Bottom line, Mike is less likely to get in to land as Frazier did, especially as more and more rounds go into the bag.

 

Ali's accomplishments are blown out of proportion. HW boxing in the 60s was atrocious.

 

The punches he hit Liston with were sharp but wouldn`t have hurt Tyson and Tyson`s hand speed was far quicker than Liston`s he would have been countering Ali`s shots Ali didn`t have Buster`s reach, Holy stand and trade with Mike so his reach didn`t matter as much.

 

Tyson would have dominated every boxer from the 60`s but boxing in general has had other awful eras, the Floyd Pac era was one of the worst of all-time, that said Pac is a legend and Floyd was very hard to beat.

 

Ali`s opponents were better in 70`s, Foreman was a monster, Norton was a good boxer and Frazier was better than Norton, some fighters in the 70`s would have been highly competitive during the awful Wlad era.

 

Anything Ali did in his first fight with Frazier Tyson could have done.

 

The first thoughts that came into my head were Tyson going the distance with Mitch Green, Bonecrusher Smith, Tony Tucker and Quick Tillis and Ail surviving punches from Foreman, Frazier and Shavers. However that is looking at the overall career.

If we focus on 66 Ali, people have mentioned George Chuvalo giving Ali trouble but he was a tough dude with a win over Doug Jones, who fought pretty much all the top contenders and who only got stopped by Foreman and Frazier in his career. Also it was only Ali's 3rd defence.

I always felt Ali took Cooper quite lightly when he was knocked down in the first fight. I find it hard to imagine Ali would take a fight against Tyson anything other than deadly seriously. I don't think he was in this serious trouble again in any other fight until his Frazier fight? I maybe wrong?

Some posters are talking like Ali couldn't punch, he may not be a one punch KO artist but I think Ali had a solid puncher and is maybe a bit underrated in this.

I maybe totally wrong but Liston was a prototype Tyson as far as intimidation and being a "bad man". He hit hard and had excellent skills and Ali prevailed twice. As someone mentioned I think Ali's mind games would mess with Mike's head, as they did with Liston, and provided he didn't clown about and stayed focused he could keep Tyson on the end of his jab and and dance his way to a possibly quite boring points win.

I see Ali is more three dimensional that Tyson, just a more complete athlete overall. Ali seemed to be able to win in numerous ways and change his game plan mid flow which I am not sure Tyson could? However this may have been more to do with having Angelo in his corner! If we factor Dundee into this fantasy fight Ali has another advantage over Tyson.

 

You're the clueless one.

 

Nice post brother.

 

Ali’s reach was 78/79”. That’s 7/8” on Mike.

Ali punched fast enough and accurately enough for his own reach advantage to matter a lot.

Even more reach might’ve been handy but entering into overkill territory.

Sure, Buster had a tremendous reach - so did a few others Mike engaged. The most significant features to Buster’s game were his consistently applied jab, overall skill set and actually fighting to win.

You do realise you just described two very different stylistic applications that were employed to defeat Mike Tyson during the reality of his actual career , that’s just naming two - Mike simply was not invincible as he is being played out in fantasy.

And, in Ali, we’re pitting a relatively one dimensional Mike against one of the most adaptable, multi faceted boxers in the game.

The punches Ali landed on Liston would’ve hurt Mike - particularly in accumulation. Liston, whose chin was well proven, was clearly wobbled by an Ali combination and stung otherwise at different points of their first fight - and Liston himself attested to Ali having a punch after the Miami bout.

Some people wax lyrical about prime Mike’s defence but afford him a great chin at the same time.

The way I see it, prime Mike could show off some nice defence at different moments - but the biggest key to his not getting hit was his own offence and the fact that he got a lot of his fights over and done with in quick time.

All that besides, I actually do think that Mike had a terrific chin - the type of chin that a great boxer like prime Ali (who had his own great chin anyway) could’ve got along with handily-

That Mike could be more easily hit in the later rounds and the facts that he was KO’d and TKO’d, even with his quality chin, does not scream exceptional defence. Also, mentally, as compared to some other ATGs, Mike could be more easily discouraged when hit hard and often.

You could reason Mike perhaps scoring a KO/TKO over Joe Frazier but he wouldn’t be able to do exactly what Ali did to Joe - and it doesn’t matter anyway, it’s what Mike would be able to do against Ali - as that is the specific match in question.

 

Ali's mind games wouldn't do **** to Tyson. A ridiculous notion.

I can't believe this tripe isn't censored in Classic. Leave that 2nd grade argument in General please.

 

Why don't you make a poll then. You already got that boxing genius mark ant pulling for you. That's one vote in the bank