Mike Tyson, was he the best fighter ever
Tyson at his best was the most exciting fighter that ive ever seen by far.The first time i saw him it took my breath away.
The power, speed of Tyson when he beat Spinks was scary,pindits at first said Spinks took a dive but no he took a beating

I used to think he was but after seeing how a truly great boxer like PBF beat a gung-ho Hatton, I now wonder if Tyson in his prime would have beaten Ali in his prime.

Thats not to take anything from Tyson and Hatton who are technically very good in their own right, but if someone is that good you can`t even hit them then you are onto a loser straight away!

Tyson in his prime would beat 2 Alis
Tyson head movement when he was 21 was to fast for
anyone to lay a glove on him

Blasphemy!

Ali would beat Tyson,...and predict a round as well!!!
Tyson has a similar "short-man style" to Frazier, and Ali beat him.

Ali struggled to beat a 12 stone bob foster
Tyson wood ko Ali in the first.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3D7d6PgfcCw

Nice clip NMT , it says it all, he was awsome ....... in his earlier fights , the footage has stuck with his early bouts !!

Ali had 30f that year (given some were exhibition), but he ko'd him in 8.
How can you say thats struggling?

Im not denying Tyson is good, but I think you are over-estimating his abilities against someone like Ali.

http://www.boxing-memorabilia.com/muhammad%20ali%20biography.htm - 1972

yer he struggled against a 12stone fighter Ali wasnt a puncher
Tyson was the best every

when Tyson lost his head movement it was all over for him

I am still inclined to go with phil post about a boxer against a gung-ho brawler (but obviously not to take anything away from Hatton/Tyson etc), but the Hatton/PBF fight showed what being a pugilist is all about.
I am still inclined to say that (in their prime) Ali would make Tyson look clumsy.

ive been watching boxing since the late 60s
but no of them excited me as much as Tyson did when he appeared
on the seen.So fast and so strong

I can see why that happened...everyone was too strict with their style and Tyson came in and shock the whole game up. I am not saying he isnt a pioneer of the sport or that he shouldnt be in the boxing hall of fame or anything, just believe that Ali is better than Tyson.
People are always gonna disagee over hypothetical matches...and another hotly contested arguement is the "all-time £4£ best fighter" title everyone will look for. Some people say Sugar Ray Robinson, some say Ali. Tyson would definately be in my top ten.

Ray Robinson
Ali
Ray Leonard
PBF
Tyson

ive just matched Tyson v Ali on our interclub
you will have to come down to Northampton Rich to see who wins

LOL....I think I know who will win that one.

i think tyson, he had 28 fights in he's first 2 years as a pro, won all of them, 25 by stoppage! That's mad. Once Cus demotto died, he changed, and he then went rapidly down hill as we all know. Look how fast/agile/powerful he was from age 19-23, awesome!

Tyson never had any defining fights like Ali had with Foreman and Frazier! Ali in his prime would have whacked him down imo.....Ali was 64million times better than Douglas when he KOed Tyson....However if Tyson would have fought Lewis, Holyfield etc when he was 21 they wouldnt have gone 3 rounds!

i know Tyson was awsome, but if he came in my pub and knocked my beer over and looked at my wifes tits i would kick the shit out of him

that bird Robin Given broke his heart
she was with him when he was training for buster
his head wasnt there ,buster was lucky, 2 years earlier
if would have been different,

I find this hard because Tyson is my all time favourite (closely followed by Nigel Benn), yet he only did the do for a short time in what should have been the long career of the best fighter ever to grace the ring.

Ali had longevity and as Liam said, was beating others that would also be classed a legends (Frazier, Liston, Foreman etc). Don`t think the same could be said about Tyson and his crop of Stewart, Ruddock, old Holmes etc.

Tyson will always be top of the tree for me but the PBF Hatton really gave me a reality check on just what a top, top, top boxer is all about and from I have seen of Ali he had that in bucketloads. Plus, he could punch, Foreman was a monster and so was Liston and he stopped them. If I hit them they would just laugh before killing me with hammer fist to the top of the head.

Anyone who thinks Tyson is the greatest heavyweight of all time needs to lay off the crackpipe and study some real fighters. All of the following would have handed any version of Tyson a beatdown;
Ali
Frazier
Holmes (in his prime)
Louis
Foreman

And this lot would have all given him all he could handle, 50/50 fights at best for Tyson;
Marciano
Dempsey
Johnson
Liston

Lewis and Holyfield both beat a shell of Tyson but would have had a good chance of doing the same to a younger Iron Mike.

Bonecrusher Smith and Tucker exposed the mythical ‘prime’ Tyson.

And Angelo Dundee said (when Tyson was in his prime) that the guy who would beat him would just need mental strength, a decent jab and a big right hand. Not long after Buster Douglas did him in.


Not saying Tyson wasn’t a phenom when he emerged, cause he was blatantly a beast with amazing physical gifts. But he also had a bully mentality and won so many fights on the intimidation factor.

Can you imagine Foreman, Liston or Frazier being scared? Get a grip, Iron Mike would have sh*t his pants faced with any of them, then been given a old man spanking when the mental midget broke down after a couple of rounds

*Shhhhhh!*
Stone-cold Osta speaks! :)

Nice to see you back mate.

thats put me in my place sorry everyone
Tyson is a weed

Hello Mr C, you know I can’t resist a boxing thread!

After saying all that, i was a massive Tyson fan and still am, I was nearly crying my little eyes out when Lewis whacked him all over the place. Which reminds me, he had an awesome chin, took some huge shots that night and from Holyfield and still wasn’t clean ko’d. The daft old rapist

First time in a while I have actually laughed out loud to the "The daft old rapist" comment. Class.

Hey NMT, we arent saying he was weed by any stretch of the imagination, just that he wasnt "the best fighter ever" or that "he wouldnt beat 1 Ali, never mind 2".

We all have our gods and people we admire.
If you choose to idolise him fair enough.

i dont idolise anyone mate, not even you
but when i saw tyson for the first time i was very impressed
with his speed and power, something id not seen in boxing since the late 60s.
And osta, crackpipe how very dare you, lol

osta maybe its you who sucks on a stiff pipe

Ali!

Ive watched every documentary - have practically every fight. He's loveable! And talent --- above and beyond so many - even Tyson I think!

Tyson was immense...very exciting. A destroyer. But Ali was capable of destroying a destroyer.

I know when Ali's time comes I will shed tears. Anyone who hasn't..watch 'when we were kings'..a beaut of a documentary!

agreed with osta and the other about ali! Ali was not 1 fighter, he was 3!
1 when he was young he would be so fast and floating.... tyson would not be able to even get close to unload
2 when ali beat foreman, his legs were no longer what they used to be and yet he was so clever and gutsy, who else would let someone as impressive as foreman was at the time lie all that leather on himself for 12 rounds before unleashing the best KO you ever seen!
3 he had a chin and he could intimidate with his big mouth style, he would have beat tyson even before they stepped on the ring!

sorry mate, Ali is still hands down one of the best athletes (not just fighters) who ever lived.

Holyfield was hardly a puncher at heavyweight,Tyson was overated in an era where there was no decent heavy weights around,Pinklon thomas,Berbick,Tucker,yes he was a great fighter to watch but intelligence wins and Ali was the cleverest as he could change plans when Tyson could not ko early he ran out of ideas like in Holyfield 1st fight,plus he bit him in the second??? he was a misguided person who struggled to cope,its a shame as he will be remembered as a rapist and a thug who couldn,t really hack it when it did,nt go his way...and he brought alot of idiots to the sport who thought it was about power and attitude look around now they have all disapeared as they never did much neither x

He was divorced from Givens, before Douglas he got beat because he lost...no mike never did this etc..he got beat up,makes me laugh he had this and that wrong...and Douglas had a seriously sick mother, a brother who had shot someone,his wife was poorly too and he had 7 year old son at ringside..oh poor Mike? and watch the fight Douglas that night he would have a match for anyone in history he was class,long count...no he lost to a better boxer and figter and in the end a better man xx best boxers imo Robinson,whitaker,leonard,jones jnr,mayweather,Ali....uk Calzaghe easily and Hatton,most exciting Benn by miles xx

I thought i remember that bird in the gym with him before the fight in japan
whilst he working out on the bag.i watched it live and i thought buster
looked real up for it ,he was bouncing on the spot in his corner and didnt take his eyes of Tyson.And yes buster was brill that night working from behind the jab.Tyson looked lost

I`d go for Hagler over Leonard. I`m omitting from my calculation the fact that Leonard beat Hagler :)

I watched live jesus i was like...lost for words for once...Leonard won great mind games v Hagler watch the intro as leonard punches Haglers corner post stepping into his space,brilliant and Angelo dundee waving a Hagler and laughing in between rounds...mind games excellent its the main part of it x

NMT, tyson divorced Givens in 88 she was an evil bitch as was her mum too x

yer thanks Vinny i stand corrected
but she didnt help him out 1 bit
and her mother was an old boiler

Defo...see her evil eyes never trust a bird with a mam who you,d do aswel lol x

that is so true!!!!

Bonus if its just for one night though

Tyson used to scare me just looking at the TV haha. There are very few fights take place where 2 fighters are in their prime and evenly matched. Hatton V PBF was an example of one them and that's why everyone was so excited.

Tyson was awesome when he came along and for those first 3 years he would have beaten any man on the planet in any era. That doesn't mean I think he was better than Ali all round but he was too explosive and the power would have caused the problems.

But if you want to drink from the furry cup when you are not invited then you go to jail! haha

Tyson had too much money, power and fame at 19! It was always going to be a downward slope. You could argue even in the first 3 years he was on the decline due to the people around him and the loss of Cuss. He was that good that the 3 years hid the downward slope he was on.

Buster Douglas beat an overweight Tyson and Douglas was the better man because he trained to beat him. Tyson had his plane ticket booked for when the fight should have been half way through (That's a fact)That just shows he thought he could just turn up. Awesome fighter could beat anyone at the begining but can never be classed as the best because he wasn't clever enough inside or outside the ring to make that top spot. Top 3 yes.

hes lying cadden NMT had an orange pic of you when u got back from egypt as his screensaver when he asked me to fix his pc

I can feel the love!

x

ali would have beat him he was the most mentally strong fighter ever and an amzing fighter he is every fighters hero or one of them

tyson was amzing an animal but thats all he was, a good fighter, ali was more than that

Sugar Ray Robinson would've dropped 'em both.

On the same night!