I just like my boxers to be entertaining it's not as though they are my mates...no doubt AJ is a wonderful chap.
Never been anything like him, doubt there ever will be for a long time. He lost a lot of his best years to the US Gvt because he refused to go to Vietnam. 'Ain't no Vietcong ever called me ******' He was an amazing athlete for such a big man. Almost balletic in his movement, there were genuinely fights where hardly a glove was laid on him. And he fought all comers, never avoided anybody. Unlike the bullshit that goes on nowadays.
Tyson had a lot more to his game than power and ferocity. He was incredibly hard to hit for a start, because he never stopped moving and took everything on his shoulders or gloves. He had excellent technique and at his best he was every bit as mobile and difficult to pin down as Ali. Plenty of fighters with height, weight and reach advantage struggled to land a meaningful blow on him. Tyson vs Ali would be no easy call imo, and I say that as someone who rated Ali almost as highly as he rated himself.
He was a cocky kid then. In the rematch he cut Cooper to shreds. Today's refs would have stopped it long before it was actually stopped. Cooper was way out of his league.
He never faced anybody with Ali's speed of punch and movement. Tyson would have done all the chasing - mostly shadows - and as he tired, Ali would have cut him up, imo.
Oh he was way out of his league alright. My point is that Tyson was a lot faster and hit a lot harder than Cooper.
But he exposed Ali's weakness, that throughout his career his tendancy to drop his right hand left him vulnerable to a left hook.
If you got close enough, maybe. But given Ali's height and reach advantages - and don't forget his ability to take a punch! - Tyson would have had to get close enough first. And getting close to Ali came at a price!
But Ali was, by his own later admission, terrified of Liston. Substitute Tyson at his best for Liston in that first bout, and I'd find it hard to call the result.
He was nervous until he was actually in the ring, then he just did what came naturally to him. Liston was reduced to chasing shadows as Ali slowly worked him over and cut him up. That wasn't Ali in his prime though. That came 2-3 years later, when he went on his 'bum a month' campaign. He pretty much took on every new challenger. Took them all on from top to bottom, no bullshit avoidance of fights. They all went the same way!...
I'm not disagreeing. Ali was incredibly graceful for a heavyweight, as light on his feet as a ballroom dancer, great hand speed, great power and technique, the full package. I just think you are in danger of underestimating Iron Mike. The most ferocious since Marciano, but also fast, technically excellent, a blistering ball of malice and talent who, until the distractions of fame and his own personal demons got the better of him, lived only to train and box.
Can't believe what I'm reading here although the people who think Tyson was great obviously grew up during this period and knew little of the likes of Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes. Tysons first 14 fights were against lay downs which accentuated the myth. All four of the above would have stopped him inside 2 rounds.....end of.
We're never going to know for sure, are we? But I'm convinced as I can be that Tyson wouldn't have gotten anywhere near Ali in his prime. Ali would have cut him to shreds in 6-7 rounds.
