Tyson or Ali. Who'd Do Better In MMA?

Tyson by a long shot. Sluggers are more suited to mma vs boxers IMO.
That's IF his hands could hold up with those smaller gloves. Tyson with mma gloves... YIKES! Shoot in for a double... get KTFO.

(Apart from the phantom punch) Ali was never a one punch guy, and so I feel like eventually most mma fighters would be able to take him down over the course of a match and dominate there.
 
Marc A said:
I think Tank stops him lol
Tyson was very unstable I can imagine mma being banned because of how brutal he was
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Didn't Tank Abbott call out Tyson in one of the early UFCs?
 
CatchnShoot said:
Tyson by a long shot. Sluggers are more suited to mma vs boxers IMO.
That's IF his hands could hold up with those smaller gloves. Tyson with mma gloves... YIKES! Shoot in for a double... get KTFO.

(Apart from the phantom punch) Ali was never a one punch guy, and so I feel like eventually most mma fighters would be able to take him down over the course of a match and dominate there.
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These are my thoughts exactly. Almost every fighter is put on their back eventually, so without cross training Ali is going be taken down. Tyson will too, but he'll be able to prolong the inevitable a hell of a lot longer with his one punch KO power.
 
Seano said:
Didn't Tank Abbott call out Tyson in one of the early UFCs?
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Possibly, not sure, he did say a lot of funny shit though. The thing is with Tank, although he came across as just a bar room brawler he did show some decent grappling skills as well.

And I think Tyson could have done well in MMA in the early days, once the wrestlefuckers got into it though he may have struggled. I hope one day MMA can pay enough to attract a GGG across at his peak, would love to see what he can do with those mitts.
 
I know Royce Gracie was throwing the tyson name around. There wasn't nearly enough money to interest tyson at the time, he'd just been released from prison and was immediately getting multi-millions. Royce could have taken him i'm sure.
 
TankAbbott4Eva said:
Possibly, not sure, he did say a lot of funny shit though. The thing is with Tank, although he came across as just a bar room brawler he did show some decent grappling skills as well.

And I think Tyson could have done well in MMA in the early days, once the wrestlefuckers got into it though he may have struggled. I hope one day MMA can pay enough to attract a GGG across at his peak, would love to see what he can do with those mitts.
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I always said that Tank Abbott was one of the first guys in the UFC who was somewhat well rounded. I'm talking compared to the others of the era, of course. It may seem ridiculous when compared to today's guys who train everything but yeah, he could wrestle a bit and bang too.
 
mozfonky said:
none of them can walk through his best shots but they don't have to. People, even today, forget how easily a boxer can get tied up and taken to the ground. After that, the punching power is irrelevant for the most part. I love boxing, I hate to admit it but anyone with only boxing today cannot fight against the best. give him a five percent shot, that's about it.
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I think you are overestimating the powers of the takedown.
Id take Tyson with just his boxing skill to win. Let alone he would still have a training camp if he went to MMA, so he would be learning things.
5% my ass.
 
A.S. Deep said:
These are my thoughts exactly. Almost every fighter is put on their back eventually, so without cross training Ali is going be taken down. Tyson will too, but he'll be able to prolong the inevitable a hell of a lot longer with his one punch KO power.
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Ali would KO any MMA fighter as well.
 
Seano said:
I always said that Tank Abbott was one of the first guys in the UFC who was somewhat well rounded. I'm talking compared to the others of the era, of course. It may seem ridiculous when compared to today's guys who train everything but yeah, he could wrestle a bit and bang too.
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Fair point, I guess before Marco Ruas really showed a more modern diverse skill set I can't think of really anyone else who was like that. Tank was a street fighter, but in that you are talking about boxing and probably greco roman type wrestling which can help. There's an Aussie crim Chopper Read who was a street fighter back in the day and he used to train boxing and greco roman wrestling back in the day (70s and 80s) he reckons it always helped him with the guys who just trained the boxing.
 
Ali would do better in MMA, because of his length, movement and hands down style. He would be much quicker to learn TDD for those reasons. Tyson would have to change his whole plodding, bob and weave style or he would be an easy target for a single leg. Ali hit hard also,and would be able to keep distance and stay up long enough to get the KO. Both would have been fun to watch!
 
Tyson would do better because he has a better build for grappling and he has more punching power. But remember that if someone like Ali or Tyson was pursuing MMA and training in wrestling and jiu-jitsu their takedown defense and ability to avoid subs would improve but also their boxing would not be as refined as it was when we saw them--after full careers of fighting as amateurs and against top level pro boxers and training boxing exclusively.

Guys like Warring and Jimmerson had HUGE advantages over the grapplers they fought in terms of boxing skill. Tyson was significantly better and bigger than Jimmerson, but even a relatively well rounded grappling HW like Cain Velasquez has that much and more of an advantage in size and boxing ability over Royce. The differential would be the same or less if Ali or Tyson were fighting the HWs of today. IMO we've already seen what happens when there is huge boxing differential offset by a huge grappling differential with no real cross training. I don't even have to consider how well any boxer would do in that respect. They wouldn't do well. Neither did Aerts, Leko or Skelton FWIW.

Even if the cross trained version of Tyson maxed out at the boxing ability he had as the amateur who fought Tillis, I think he'd be able to outbox any HW that is fighting today and most of them he'd simply run through if they couldn't take him down easily. The toughest guys would be guys like Cain or Cormier who stay low, have good chins, can mix up punching and clinching and are at too high a wrestling skill level for guys without a wrestling background to counter their takedowns. The other interesting matchup would be Semmy Schilt. He's the one guy I could potentially see fighting a standup fight, keeping distance, and bothering a (much) shorter fighter like Tyson. I certainly could see Tyson winning that as well, but it would be interesting to see how it went down.
 
Ali's creativity would be a much bigger factor I think. Eapicially if we are talking earlier MMA days.
 
a prime Mike Tyson training in MMA would have been so amazing Nintendo would have made an MMA game with Mike Tyson as the final boss. He would still have his instant knockdown punches but he'd also possess an unbreakable pretzel lock move for an automatic instant win if you fail to block it.

That's how badass Mike Tyson would have been if he had trained MMA...
 
Ali fought to a draw against one of the best grappler of that era. So Ali already done it.
 
DeJulez said:
I think you are overestimating the powers of the takedown.
Id take Tyson with just his boxing skill to win. Let alone he would still have a training camp if he went to MMA, so he would be learning things.
5% my ass.
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i wish i was, if you've ever been around grappling, you'd see how easy it all is. Of course that kind of training, of course I would have never used real punches on a partner but still, it's awful easy for them to get in on you.
 
Breakfast Bar said:
Except he wasn't allowed to grapple.
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in that era, neither guy knew what to expect. one thing for sure, Ali should have never been there. Inoki was too scared to stand with him, it was a farce. Ali had serious trauma to his legs and ended up in the hospital, it's been called the stupidest thing he ever did and I see why. You don't take secretariat and have him race on a dog track.
 
mozfonky said:
does anyone know if any of the top gracies were kayoed on their feet?
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Ralph Gracie was KO'ed in about 6 seconds by Takanori Gomi. Royler Gracie was KO'ed by Kid Yamamoto. Rolles Gracie was KO'ed a few years ago too. And Frank Shamrock embarrassed and KO'ed Ceasar Gracie in a few seconds, although he was no where near elite. I think Renzo Gracie was KO'ed by BJ Penn too.
 
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Of course they would have to learn basic takedown defense, but IMO Tyson would have been very successful. More so with the last generation of MMA fighters. Look at a guy like Chuck Liddell, no real ground game but really good takedown defense and he was a very, very successful fighter and long time champion. Most of Chucks game was his hands which are not even remotely as good as Tysons.
 
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