Why 87 Tyson beats 66 Ali...

I say this with TOTAL intention. If they squared up tomorrow, and Ali found a way to say BOO to Tyson, he would **** himself. Because he KNOWS he is, and always will be inferior to Ali.

Even the very old, and very ill version.

It is a mindset thing.

And by the way, I am not an Ali fanboy. I just wish Lennox had been around in his day, or he would have been around in Lennox's day. I would have taken great pleasure in seeing Lewis close that big effing mouth.

 

It is just so hard to stop Ali. The feet, the reflexes, the blazing one-two's coming back, the chin, the survival skills when hurt, his capability in the clinch, the enormous will to win.

The heavyweight division is the division where punching power, chin and stamina go a long way. It is the puncher's division. Ali was never stopped. When he was badly faded, he fought Shavers, took his best shot early and often, then got his worn ass and almost stopped Shavers in the last round.

I cannot, for the life of me, make Mike a favorite to stop Ali, and that's what I think he has to do. Mike became less productive past the midrounds, especially with straight punches coming back, and Ali will lean, clinch and tire you.

Give Mike 50% more workrate and great morale, and he's a definite favorite. I think his workrate and performing under pressure let him down.

When has he ever been in a war and won? I don't mean to do the man an injustice, but the best he beat in a war was Ruddock. Mike was best as a hunter -- not volume like a bully, but fighting in bursts with blistering, hard combinations to head and body that you need to recover from. And while you recover, you're being checked for weak spots.

I think Ali would have success with his feet and one-two. But more than anything, I think he'd win with his clinch. Tie up, hold the head, lean, move, shoot the one-two.

 

Tyson's style was designed to wreck you in six rounds or less. When he was extended he fought a patchy, strained fight. Bonecrusher and Tucker may not have done much on their way to defeat but they showed that, if you can survive Tyson's bursts, he wasn't the Joe Frazier type to wrestle himself out of clinches and chop you down.

His attack could be broken up, and Ali would exploit this home truth in the most frustrating manner.

The young Tyson could put Muhammad on his heels (possibly down), but the tide would inevitably turn when all that holding behind the head and sharp-shooting would plant the seed of doubt. That's not to point at the ugly theory of Tyson having no cojones, but his mentality was a sore point. Tyson was like a legendary grenadier; highly dangerous but with preferred ranges and liable to self-destruct. He wasn't the man to lead everyone to victory.

To beat Ali you need more than sophisticated fire-power; it may shock him, it wouldn't slay him.

In that classic 1974 Parkinson interview Ali famously spoke about making opponents fight "too hard" so that they fall apart. It's difficult to think of a fighter this would work better against than Mike Tyson.

 

A prime Tyson could beat Ali up to first Liston fight.After that, he would lose to any version up to probably the third Norton fight.

 

So Ali is supposed to win by holding onto Tyson?

 

Unlike James Smith and Tony Tucker, I think Ali including his 1974 version would absorb 2 much punishment (4 him) 2 even last 12.

Same scenario with Ali vs Foreman , except that that 1 did not get d opportunity 2b fought on even terms.

 

Yeh people do exaggerate his chin, he only thought the likes of Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers etc.... :roll:

 

Is that the same Tyson that couldn't knock out the likes of Jose Ribalta after hitting him with everything he had?

 

The same Jose Ribalta that the legendary Ricardo Richardson stopped 3 years before??

 

Largely to disarm and frustrate him. Flicking jabs and solid rights would get him on the slippery slope. More of an accumulation stoppage than a brain-scrambling one.

 

It doesn't have to be the '66 Ali. The Ali of '74 (who beat Foreman) also beats Tyson.

 

He did.Watch the fight. How anyone can question Ali's chin is beyond me.

 

Well Tucker and Smith managed to comfortably go the distance with prime Tyson and a small heavy in Holyfield walked through him and stopped him.
So I'm sure the superior skilled,fleet footed tough guy that was Ali would have managed to prevail.

 

Buster Douglas and Lennox Lewis were far more aggressive than Ali? When's the next joke???

 

He didn't exactly run and hide from Joe Frazier, he threw the kitchen sink at him. He'd use his footwork and pepper mike from the get go!