Prime Tyson vs 70s Heavyweights

Tyson would had his hands full with Ali, Frazier,.Norton, and Foreman.

 

Norton? Tyson KO 6 latest. Tyson beats everyone except Foreman
and Ali. However Tyson could dent Foreman's chin, and could
SD ALI over 12. There's some great live underdogs though
Lyle, Quarry, etc. Jimmy Young could trouble or beat him
as well. Tyson would pretty much clean up any division though.

 

Its really quite simple. Just look at the list on the other thread of the guys who Tyson beat to gain his reputation. Then compare them with the four mentioned above.

If the differences aren't glaringly obvious perhaps Tyson fans should look for a new hobby. These are guys in the Holyfield mould, no fear whatsoever of Tyson, who would take the fight straight to him, thus gaining a huge advantage over the mentally fragile New Yorker.

 

Tyson's footwork was faster than Ali by this point and he batters him with harder shots and wins by convincing decision. He was much more powerful than the attrition puncher Frazier and quicker to the target so he KO's him at some point early, no doubt here. Foreman present the biggest obstacle… that's a good fight. If you consider Foreman prime against Lyle, I would say Tyson takes it emphatically. If that's not the case then we have a difficult stylistic match up for Mike.

And the rest of the 70's were B-raters primarily so I don't include them...

 

Id agree that Ali Foreman would be his main concern. I think he has a better chance with Foreman though. Tyson had a decent chin so it is likely he could have taken a few Foreman bombs and come back with some of his own. The thing that swings it towards Forman for me is that he showed that toughness you need to beat Tyson, the unwillingness to accept defeat, the way he fought against Lyle for instance. He showed a greats ability to win. If he kept getting up and coming for Tyson and continuing to land those bombs I see Mike having a few problems. Forman was a beast as well, but a bigger beast. Saying that I still go with the belief Tyson would take out old Foreman, which is a common debate.

I think Ali had the ability to outbox Mike for 12/15 rounds and he obviously had the toughness/chin to take on Tyson’s attacks if he had to. I don’t see it plain sailing for Ali though, I just think he could out box Mike and bedazzle him with fast jabs and combinations.

The others 70s fights would be decent wars, such as Frazier, Norton and Savers. I see Tyson winning all of those. This is one reason I put him in my top ten heavies, I only see a handful of greats beating prime Mike, even though many of them had better resumes.

 

Kolcade you were doing great re: rising above bitter juvenile insults; no need to throw in the dress wearing fusillade.

The thread about Tyson's competition showed definitively & by fight how well Tyson did against who, & how long they had often been without a loss before & after he fought them. It is an UNUSUAL era & HW who fights ATG or near it competition in their prime, still Tyson had a relatively GOOD level of competition, packed a lot of fights into a short time period, beat so many bigger than him, & fought everyone around.

If you cherry-pick & distort for a critique you can make ANY figher seem like he whipped basically catatonic pre-sc:deskhoolers.

 

Tysons style is absolutely perfect for Frazier - the fabled left hook behind the bob and weave is going to land hard and often on Mikes chin . Tyson aint no Foreman pushing Joe away out of range and letting off bombs - hes right there in the punching pocket against a man who revelled in the streetfight style.

 

He definitely has a chance of beating all of the best men of that decade, especially considering that Ali was a bit past it. But in reality I'm guessing that he beats the vast majority while dropping a loss or two to somebody.

 

Tyson was faster and more powerful than Frazier. Mike also was a quicker starter. Joe would undoubtedly eat plenty of Tyson's bombs, and I don't think his chin is sturdy enough to withstand them.

 

Agreed.

Mike's chin is arguably better too. It survived the artilary of Smith, Bruno and Ruddock. It generally took a sustained beating over many rounds to make Tyson crumble, which Frazier was capable of, but I don't think he'd last long enough to make it happen.