There was talk of Tyson fighting in UFC when he was suspended back in 97....

He'd have beaten all of the glorified barroom brawlers back then, but would probably have gotten beaten by one of the truly skilled fighters with good all-around skills in wrestling, judo, BJJ, etc.

 

He'd wreck anybody who decided to stand with him. He'd lose to anybody who didn't. So it goes...

 

He'd beat a fat **** head and that's about it. We saw how a chicken legged pumped up LHW manhandled him in the clinch, just imagine what a trained grappler would would do with him.

 

Vitor was a Jiu-jitsu black belt who found out the had the attributes of a striker and fell in love with it. Barring the worst case of hubris since Greek legend, Tyson gets taken down and tapped quickly.

 

He'd kill someone if he lands. He'd tapped quickly if taken down though. Or he'd get GNP to Bolivian.

 

I would have liked to see him fight with Tank Murdoch.

 

I don't recall this ever being discussed at that time. Tyson was making $30 million a fight at that point.

"Cage fighting" wasn't even legal in most states then, and it was really low budget. "Really" low budget.

 

Mark Coleman would have been the one I think could have given him the most trouble, if his chin holds up long enough to shoot the blast double.

 

Exactly. The idea that a GJJ Black Belt would want to spend even a second trading with a striker like Tyson is way out there. Likewise, Abbott with his wrestling background would look to take Tyson down as soon as possible. Tyson would obviously wreck either in any kind of stand-up fight, but they would be absolutely insane to fight him on those terms.

If we're talking about Tyson with minimal cross-training diving straight into the UFC, he probably does as well as other boxers did in that era. Even an average grappler like Steve Jennum was able to take Melton Bowen down pretty easily. Yes, Tyson was a far better boxer than Bowen, but there's no reason I'm aware of to think he was a better wrestler.

Monster wrestlers like Coleman and Kerr were dominating the UFC at the time. Bearing in mind that the UFC's vested interest would be in boosting their brand at the expense of boxing, Tyson would probably be thrown to the wolves and it wouldn't be pretty.

 

There were some good grapplers like Shamrock around and they wouldn't take any chances and just take it to the ground and finish it there. Anyone who would be stupid enough to do a Tim Sylvia would end the same way. Tyson would do terrible damage with those minimal gloves. It would be close to suicidal to even think of standing up with him.

 

It's not accurate to say that most guys were brawlers. Most of the top guys were from grappling backgrounds and had poor striking skills. The rules at the time did not favour strikers, as there weren't 5 minute rounds, ref stand-ups etc.

Maurice Smith around that time was the first genuine striker to achieve success by utilising a good defensive guard and improving his takedown defense. Things evolved from there, but in 1997-98 it was still a wrestler dominated sport, particularly under UFC rules.

 

Obviously Tyson is in a world of hurt if someone like Marco Ruas or Don Frye get him to the mat. I saw someone mention Tyson fighting Mark Coleman. RIP Tyson if that happens. There's been a lot of talk of PEDS on this board lately; Coleman and Mark Kerr in the early UFCs might be the two most roided up athlete of all time.

If Tyson just does it half ass with a few months of absolutely minimal grappling training, he probably manages to win about 50 percent of his fights. A lot of those guys back then were pure ass and would probably get bombed out. Tyson would lose to the top fighters though.

If on the other hand, Mike went all out and paired up with someone like Bas Rutten to try to become truly well-rounded, I don't doubt that with his freakish athleticism he could be throwing some nasty kicks and holding his own on the mat eventually. Even better, he could ship himself off to do two a days with Carlson Gracie's comp team: Bustamante, Ricardo Arona, Liborio, Sperry etc.

Of course there was virtually no money in the UFC back then. Tyson's best bet to make money from NHB/MMA would be to wait till Pride hit is swing and then do some staged fights in Japan. Cut to Tyson submitting to a fishy looking sub against Takada.

 

To quote Joe Rogan talking about Coleman "He was 250lbs of American muscle, and Mexican steroids."