Mike Tyson v Sonny Liston

[eagle]

Tyson MAY have been able to get to Frazier because Joe poured it on late in fights where as Mike was a quick starter....if it went past 5 I'd favor Frazier more. vs Foreman? Tyson had 0 chance, not vs the young Foreman, not vs the Old Foreman....Tyson would get the shit beat out of him plain and simple.

I think your selling Mike a little short saying he'd have 0 chance against either version of Big George. Prime Tyson had enough power and skill to have a chance against anyone ever.

[boxer dude]

A prime Tyson would have beat Liston up, he was a much better boxer than Sunny, he had great head movement and unbelievable hand speed. Sunny was just big and strong but nothing special and he won the tittle from a much smaller man in Floyd Patterson.

I think outside the ring Liston was the badder man, while Tyson has made dumb choices and mistakes in his life he has a good heart. Liston on the other hand was a thug with well known ties to the Mafia.

[ICB]

Actually people are selling Sonny Liston short here, lets not forget Sonny Liston was a master at bullying opponents. Remember he taught George Foreman everything he knows about bullying opponents, he also had a ridiculous reach for his height, something like 84 inches wasn't it ? and lets remember Sonny Liston did have a ramrod jab.

Sonny Liston gets seriously underrated because of the Muhammad Ali fights, when infact theres strong sources that actually say Sonny Liston was 40 when he fought Muhammad Ali. Plus there was something for certain shady about the 2nd fight.

Sonny Liston at his best could very well of beaten Mike Tyson, he certainly had the tools. Im not saying he would of, because a prime Mike Tyson is a handful of anyone, and i do have Mike Tyson as the favorite in this fight. But lets not sell Sonny Liston short here.

[Spicoli]

Could come down to the first bully blinking losses.Think once Tyson gets under his jab that speed of hand and stance would catch up to Liston for Tyson TKO.

[ross]

You would have had to have been something exeptional to beat the young Tyson and I dont think Frazier and foreman were, they got hit they werent very mobile and werent particularly quick, Tyson would been all over em, Foreman only defended the titles twice before losing it.

Ali had a will to win but he did have trouble with quick fighters who could move and throw more than one shot at a time, he would have also had to be more reserved in his punch output because of Mikes defence.

To be fair to Liston, he did beat Patterson easy who fought with the same technique as Mike but Patterson could probably have fought as a light heavy, Mike would have been a whole different proposition.

In Mikes defence against Ali, Ali himself has actually said something along the lines of patterson being the most skilled boxer he fought.

Its hard for me to defend Mike against Lewis and Holyfield but the Lewis that got beat around by Mercer and the Holyfield that Bert Cooper was smashing around both loose quick to a young Tyson

Out of all the fighters since Tysons heyday, I see Bowe giving him the most to think about, that man was skilled

[Zilla]

You would have had to have been something exeptional to beat the young Tyson and I dont think Frazier and foreman were, they got hit they werent very mobile and werent particularly quick, Tyson would been all over em, Foreman only defended the titles twice before losing it.

Ali had a will to win but he did have trouble with quick fighters who could move and throw more than one shot at a time, he would have also had to be more reserved in his punch output because of Mikes defence.

To be fair to Liston, he did beat Patterson easy who fought with the same technique as Mike but Patterson could probably have fought as a light heavy, Mike would have been a whole different proposition.

In Mikes defence against Ali, Ali himself has actually said something along the lines of patterson being the most skilled boxer he fought.

Its hard for me to defend Mike against Lewis and Holyfield but the Lewis that got beat around by Mercer and the Holyfield that Bert Cooper was smashing around both loose quick to a young Tyson

Out of all the fighters since Tysons heyday, I see Bowe giving him the most to think about, that man was skilled

I can see Mike beating the younger version of Foreman simply because George didn't look that coordinated to me. He threw big punches and that's about it in my book. Frazier was hittable, that's why Geroge pulled the trigger on him. I could see Mike weaving around what George had to offer and blasting him to the body, then coming up to the head. As awkward as George's punches looked I imagine they would have been completely ineffective once Mike got inside. But the older version was much smarter, could absorb a lot of punishment and could have stretched it out until the later rounds where Mike was much less effective. A couple good 1-2s from him might have stopped Mike in his tracks.

[generalbulldog]

That's funny. Just because Tyson beats up an blownup Light heavyweight in Spinks, and that makes some people think he can beat prime Ali? 1 thing for sure Ali wouldn't be intimidated by Tyson's prefight stare or bullying antics. More than likely he makes fun of Tyson's high pitch voice and then whips him in the ring.

A prime Tyson vs a prime Ali wouldn't even be competitive. The only thing that would be interesting about such a fight is what Ali has to say about Tyson during the press conferences.

And hey if Tyson loses to Ali, his fans can say he was past his prime like the excuses they had when Buster Douglas beat him. Or maybe a long count excuse if he gets ko.