Who Gave Ali and Tyson, Their Hardest Fight Whilst Ultimately Losing?

For Ali, maybe Cooper?

For Tyson, that's actually hard. When things got rough for him he lost. I guess Ruddock?

 

Ali had some disputed wins like Norton, Shavers, Young…but Manila was probably the toughest physically for him. I think he took more hard head shots versus Shavers, but Frazier pummeled his body more and there was also the intense heat.

Tyson was behind the cards against Botha, losing 3 or 4 of the previous 4 rounds, but Ruddock 2 was the toughest physically for him. He took some brutal Ruddock ‘smash’ hookercuts and said he felt afterwards like he got jumped by 10 guys

 

Can you define hardest fight?

 

Muhammad Ali in his peak years as champion from 1964-1967 was given a very hard fight by Karl Mildenberger on Sept 10 1966 before stopping Mildenberger in the 12 th round of a 15 rounder. Ali had a hard time adapting to Karl's southpaw stance early on in the title bout. As far as Mike Tyson goes, I believe that Tony TNT Tucker gave Tyson a very competitive bout early on, the August 1 1987 title unification bout scheduled for 15 rounds was unusually tough during the early rounds until Tyson found his groove to win it very easily.

 

Tucker and Norton.

 

Ali- Jones, Frazier 3, Shavers, Norton series was debatable, Young was a gift


Tyson- Tillis, Ruddock fights, Tucker, Ferguson was blasted but was game unlike the rest of Tysons foes in his 17 pro fight span.

 

IMO Tucker showed with nice uppercuts long before it actually happened that Mike Tyson is not invulnerable, invincible, untouchable...

 

I think for all three categories you could land on Frazier in Manila. He never figured Frazier out - every round was a desperate struggle to stop the tide. Muhammad wasn’t given permission to get away with a lot of shenanigans like in the 2nd bout.

Ali had more in common with Marciano then most HW champions - sometimes he just threw down and dogged whoever was in front of him till one of them broke - he had that edge and Tyson admired his willingness to just throw his hands and see what happened.

 

I don’t remember I think Tucker lost 10 rounds? I just remember Tony on his bike. Maybe a revisit.

 

His style wasn't impetuous? His defense wasn't impregnable?

Just about lol but Tucker did far better compared to most opponents Tyson dropped like a sack of potatoes to that point. Will rewatch that too just remember Tucker having spots of success tho no where near enough to win.

 

In the big scheme of things Tucker won two, maybe three rounds. He was also extremely negative at times. He showed big advantages in height and reach and a helluva lot of running and clinching could make it hard for Tyson to knock you out, more than anything i think.