Who was better in their prime Foreman or Tyson?

Tyson. All around it's not too close. Tysons prime was longer too.

Keith

 

Why are you comparing Ali to Tyson when it is a Foreman vs Tyson in the thread?

My point is that rope a dope wouldn't have worked against Tyson because he didn't have that weakness Foremen had.

In any hypothetical fight, I always want to lean to the side of the more skillful fighter. I want to believe that learning the skill of boxing would make you a better fighter. If the idea that a less skilful boxer but say with more power still win over the more skillful boxer, it would make me value the art of boxing less. Not much point learning boxing if you became better at it, don't mean **** and you still lose. Sure, things like physicality matters in boxing and why there are weight classes but I want to want to think greater skillset will allow you to punch above your weight a la pacman.

And as said why I rate Tyson so highly since the guy has everything. I still don't hear what he actually lacked as a boxer.

 

answer - nothing.... well on second thoughts maybe mental stability.

 

In his Prime. He didn't start off mentally unstable.

 

tru.
though i have heard stories where he would do things but somebody would cover it up. i guess thats just a he say she say.

either way, he's easily the best.

 

Head to head I'd bet on Big George. His size, power and reach, and those big paws of his he used for defense, give Mike all kinds of problems.

 

What was Foreman's prime??? Maybe 1972-1974. After Zaire he was not the same. Before Frazier he didn't really fight to many people of not.

Tysons was roughly 86-90. About twice as long....


Keith

 

The point that you don't get is that someone who can win the HW title what 20 years after he lost it is in a class all by himself, and the usual parameters don't even apply. Someone who was a top contender for an interval over 25 years against somene like you said for 4-8 years was a top contender. Just one way to show the stature vis-a-vis each other.

 

so you think Tyson in his prime wouldn't have gone all out seeing his opponents on the ropes? He'd gas himself out for sure and would do it 2 times a quick as foreman did vs Ali.

 

This :deal

 

I'd beg to differ. If tysons prime was 86-90 then prime Tyson couldn't KO James Smith (who had already been stopped by Holmes) so if a prime Tyson doesn't KO bone crusher smith then I don't see how he kos the likes of Ali, Holmes, Frazier etc.

If we were all the same as we are right now at the start of tysons career we'd be slating him for being a hype Job and getting KOed by buster Douglas and later by Holyfield (although not in his prime)

 

ali would be dead if he tried that funky ass trick.
ali could try anything against tyson and still loose.

 

If evander Holyfield dominates the **** out of Tyson I'd hate to see what Ali would do to him. Little bit of rope a dope early on, Tyson goes wild swinging all over the place while Ali dances and boxes him. Sure Tyson would have his moments and probably take 4 or 5 rounds but going all out the way he did in his earlier career for 15 rounds he'd probably get KOed by Ali in 11-15 or DQed by tackling Ali because he ate his jab all night

 

Also not to mention how easy it was to get inside mikes head. Ali would chat **** to him all night and mike would be getting slowly and slowly pissed off round by round.

Foreman's win over prime Joe Frazier was better than Tysons top 3 wins put together.
Prime Foreman's one loss was to the best heavyweight of all time. Prime tysons one loss was to Buster Douglas.