Tyson at his prime- could any boxer in history beat him?

^^^ wonderful post..correct...I only quibble with you about Gerry Cooney...Smoking Joe Frazier and Tyson would have had a historic war maybe the fight I wish to see more than any other...Ken Norton vs Tyson would also have been compelling fight also.

Wrong question.

Could any boxer beat Tyson under Cus D'amato ?

HELL NO.

Tyson head moving style was a piece taken from Fraizer, which frustrated the hell out of Ali.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NThAEHN7c4

westsouthrunner wrote:

Jgfgh wrote:

?

He would beat those four in the same night. Faster, stronger and can take more than them

It does not matter how skilled you think those guys are. When Mike tyson connects one of those haymakers. Thats it. There is no amount of training that one can do to be harder to knock out.

Not the first big puncher to ever appear in boxing.

Hence the term punchers chance.

Ali et al were able to beat guys who could punch just as hard. Foreman and Frazier could hit just as hard.

The key is to not get hit flush. Ali would never have stood still.

All this is pointless. Tyson did fight a lot of ordinary guys, and many of them were beaten before they got into the ring.

Buster Douglas was an average heavy weight, who had skills more in line with Ali. That should tell you right there.

Ali lite whacked Tyson while at his peak.

Let's watch some highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O5h4enjrHw

(When the music switches to Cold Play, they show his losses)

Whoa. Totally wrong video above

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRlRO3D4kcw

crumpet wrote:

westsouthrunner wrote:

It does not matter how skilled you think those guys are. When Mike tyson connects one of those haymakers. Thats it. There is no amount of training that one can do to be harder to knock out.

Not the first big puncher to ever appear in boxing.

Hence the term punchers chance.

Ali et al were able to beat guys who could punch just as hard. Foreman and Frazier could hit just as hard.

The key is to not get hit flush. Ali would never have stood still.

All this is pointless. Tyson did fight a lot of ordinary guys, and many of them were beaten before they got into the ring.

Buster Douglas was an average heavy weight, who had skills more in line with Ali. That should tell you right there.

Ali lite whacked Tyson while at his peak.

Nonsense! If Joe Frazier could knock Ali down, Iron White would have killed him. Nobody in their right mind would say Frazier was more dangerous than Tyson. Why Joe was flattened twice by plodding George Foreman, and George was just too slow to get out of the way of Mike's haymakers.

And, of course, with Gus D'Amato's death ( in 1985) Mike was on a downward slide virtually from the time that he won his first title.

Larry Holmes' name has popped up a few times here, but of course did knock out Larry although, to be fair, Larry was past his prime.

And, Holyfield must have been on all sorts of juice to build himself so quickly from his light-heavyweight frame.

AND, Holyfield was allowed to "grab" Mike far too much in their fights. No wonder Mike got so frustrated.

Avocado's Number wrote:

Joe Lewis

"Louis"

(I included his first name to distinguish him from Lennox Lewis, but perhaps it would have been better just to spell his last name correctly.)

Chuck Norris

2:18 wrote:

Chuck Norris

If you think Iron Mike is small, then Chuck is more like a midget!

portsea57 wrote:

If Joe Frazier could knock Ali down, Iron White would have killed him. Nobody in their right mind would say Frazier was more dangerous than Tyson.

Iron White?

I didn't see anything about Frazier being more dangerous than Tyson. But Frazier didn't need to knock Ali down or out in a few rounds. Frazier could last fifteen punishing rounds against Ali, which gave him some options and chances that Tyson might not have had.

I assume, of course, that these hypothetical match-ups involve athletes at their respective peaks. For me, that always makes Ali difficult to assess, because Ali was prevented from competing for almost four years during his late twenties, when the arc of his career suggested that he might have been at his peak. Ali in 1971 was not the same boxer that he was in 1967.

Tyson in his Prime is undoubtedly one of the best ever at Heavyweight, but Ali would've beaten him because he beat a young Foreman who had similar weaknesses and strengths to Tyson and just completely outclassed him. If Douglas made him go to long and tire Ali certainly would. Anyone else I wouldn't be confident placing that bet, even though there are other guys more skilled. Tyson was a complete Animal, like Bo Jackson in Football, just so much raw power.

Mekhissi.

Avocado's Number wrote:

portsea57 wrote:

If Joe Frazier could knock Ali down, Iron White would have killed him. Nobody in their right mind would say Frazier was more dangerous than Tyson.

Iron White?

I didn't see anything about Frazier being more dangerous than Tyson. But Frazier didn't need to knock Ali down or out in a few rounds. Frazier could last fifteen punishing rounds against Ali, which gave him some options and chances that Tyson might not have had.

I assume, of course, that these hypothetical match-ups involve athletes at their respective peaks. For me, that always makes Ali difficult to assess, because Ali was prevented from competing for almost four years during his late twenties, when the arc of his career suggested that he might have been at his peak. Ali in 1971 was not the same boxer that he was in 1967.

Well, in 1971 Ali was still in his 20s! And, surely, the perception that Ali was better before he was banned from boxing is to do with the opposition! Apart from Liston ( and there are big question marks about Ali's first win over Liston), who did he beat? Talk about a weak period in heavyweight boxing!

fisky wrote:

What are you saying??? wrote:

The following four would have beaten Tyson four out of five: Ali, Foreman, Frazier and Larry Holmes. Tyson did not fight great athletes. In the 1970's NFL did not pay well. There were better athletes in the heavy weight division than today prior to 1980's. Tyson, when Cus was alive was angry and fit. Tyson was never as skilled as Ali,, Frazier or Larry Holmes. George Foreman loved to brawl toe to toe. No one could successfully brawl toe to toe with George Foreman. Frazier tried to brawl toe to toe with George Foreman. Frazier lost.

This

This Larry Holmes?

Nonsense! If Joe Frazier could knock Ali down, Iron White would have killed him. Nobody in their right mind would say Frazier was more dangerous than Tyson. Why Joe was flattened twice by plodding George Foreman, and George was just too slow to get out of the way of Mike's haymakers.

Joe Frazier was a great fighter and one of my favorites but he was tailored made for Foreman. Frazier style was to take a few punches to deliver one. The problem was you could not just take 3 or 4 clear shots from Foreman. When Ali fought Foreman he allowed Foreman to throw a lot of punches but not land cleanly. Foreman was gassed midway thru the fight and Ali beat him.

Tyson was too small and had a glass jaw. He is the most overrated fighter in my lifetime. He does not have any signature fight that will go down as an All Time great fight.

So much nonsense here. Ignorant people. First of all almost every boxer Tyson fought with was taller than him. He had no problem knocking out tall guys. In fact the taller the easier for him, because usually taller means slower. Tyson would get in close to them and kill them. Secondly all those old timers Ali (most overrated boxer ever) Forman etc we’re slower, and weaker than Tyson- one punch of Tyson and they would be done. (Forman maybe two- but anyway he was so heavy and slow compare to Tyson. So Tyson at his prime in his early days when he still had that old haircut with the z in his hair (mid and late 80’s) was unbeatable- no one could match him. He was so fast and had the most powerful punch and could lay a serious of fast punches. He would make Ali look like a welfare case.

Tyson would not have laid s punch on Ali in his prime.

His prime which everyone forgets bout was prior to his ban.

He beat Foreman when he'd already lost half his speed and fitness. Still beat him.

Ali could also take a punch and never stayed down.

Tyson had the steroids and was extremely tough with Cus D'Amato, and was very much lacking something afterwards.

Top fighters with size later showed him to be a bit of a myth, at least in his post-Cus days. Ali, Frazier, Foreman, but not Holmes, would have beaten him easily, and I think that the Klitschko brothers, also steroidal, would have beaten him as well, because they were very big and very strong and much more skilled than the big patsies that Tyson beat up in his early years.

In his prime - which didn't last long, Tyson was a super-human. Against any other boxer in their prime, Tyson wins by TKO within 3 rounds.

His punch could knock a statue cold.