Who's more athletic in their prime: Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson?

I went with Ali. Lots of speed, coordination, movement and stamina. Just a great all around athlete. Mike Tyson was too but I’ll say Muhammad was more athletic

 

Perfect description.

 

Good Post.

 

60's Ali for sure, Rooney had to break balls to make sure Tyson was getting his roadwork in

 

Tyson. Ali may have had slightly better reflexes, but in regard to pure handspeed and volume punching, Tyson may have been the fastest heavyweight champion ever. I also believe that a 23 year old Tyson, trained by Rooney, may well have beaten a prime Ali. If anyone had the style to bother Ali in his prime it was Tyson. And, no I am not comparing Tyson's style with Frazier's.

 

Oh my God!

Tyson had some of the quickest hands in heavyweight history, that was his main asset, go and watch some of his combos in the 80`s.

 

I agree.

 

What the hell has road work have to do with athleticism?

 

Well it's literally running, perhaps the most raw/basic expression of athleticism, the vast majority of sports require it and it is a sport in and of itself

There is a huge mental component to it too, which is mostly where Tyson ran into issues

Ali ran 6 miles in under 40 minutes in heavy boots without having Dundee up his ass about it

So Ali was both physically and mentally more athletic than Tyson

Hand speed has nothing to do with athleticism unless we start talking about sustained hand speed over an amount of time, which I'm sure Ali would be superior in as well

Put a timer on for 45 minutes and who is punching faster after 10 minutes, 20 minutes etc