Mike Tyson admits he wouldn’t have won a fight against Muhammad Ali – a view endorsed by the late heavyweight champion’s son, who did say his famous father would have had a battle to beat martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
Tyson beat Ali in a eWBSS Heavyweight Legends simulation tournament run late last week by the World Boxing Super Series, but Iron Mike admitted he would only have beaten Ali in a fantasy bout.
“I wouldn’t win the real fight. Ali’s the greatest there’s ever been,” he said.
Ali’s eldest son, Muhammad Ali Jr, has also claimed in a soon-to-be-published book that his father would have “kicked [Tyson’s] butt”.
“Everybody says Mike Tyson would have kicked my father’s butt. I said no,” Ali Jr said in a chapter of Muhammad Ali: The Life of a Legend, authored by British journalist Fiaz Rafiq.
“Tyson can’t go the distance. He couldn’t go fifteen rounds.
“He’s not a boxer. He’s a street fighter. He’s a knockout artist. He can never hold up to my father!”
Ali Jr’s comments from Rafiq’s book were published in The Sun newspaper.
He said his dad would have had “a good fight” against Bruce Lee, who was “like the Muhammad Ali of karate”.
In the eWBSS Heavyweight Legends tournament, Tyson beat Ali in a unanimous points decision (114-111).
Ali knocked Tyson down in the first round, but Tyson decked Ali with right hooks in the second and fifth rounds.
In the semifinals, Tyson eliminated George Foreman in the fourth round, while Ali took care of Sonny Liston in the fifth.