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Sports · Heavyweight of heavyweights · Take No. 021

Ali or Tyson?

The Greatest, who beat Liston, Frazier and Foreman and talked the whole time, against the most frightening 20-year-old who ever laced gloves. Different eras, same weight class, one question.

The case for each side, then the verdict. Then the floor is yours.
The case for

Muhammad Ali

Louisville · 56–5, 37 KOs · 1960–1981

  • 3Times world heavyweight champion. Lost the title outside the ring, won it back twice inside it.
  • 3Giants beaten: Liston, Frazier and Foreman, each of them considered unbeatable at the time.
  • 1974The Rumble in the Jungle. Rope-a-dope against the hardest puncher alive, and knocked him out in the eighth.
vs
The case for

Mike Tyson

Brooklyn · 50–6, 44 KOs · 1985–2005

  • 20Years old when he won the title, the youngest heavyweight champion ever. Still is.
  • 44Knockouts in 50 wins. Nineteen of his first twenty fights ended inside the distance.
  • 91 sTo beat Michael Spinks, an undefeated champion, in 1988. Peak Tyson didn't have fights; he had executions.

Cast your take

——
The verdict

It's Ali. Tyson was the scariest; Ali beat the scariest.

Prime Tyson is the most terrifying thing boxing has produced, and for about three years it looked like nobody alive could stand in front of him. If the question were a single round, you'd want Tyson.

But Tyson's best wins are over good fighters, and his worst nights came against the great ones. Ali's record is built on the opposite: Liston, Frazier, Foreman, in their primes, often as the underdog. Ali, and it's the easiest verdict in sports.

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