By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech says former unified heavyweight champion Mike Tyson would have knocked out former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder if they had fought in their primes.
“Boxing’s not the same now. I’d guarantee that if Mike Tyson trained for six weeks, he’d knock Wilder out in a minute,” Fenech told Sporting News. “He would hit them. If these guys are getting knocked out by Tyson Fury – who’s a great fighter, but not a huge puncher – Tyson would kill these guys. They’re not on the same level today.”
No question about it, Tyson would of destroyed Wilder.
In his prime sure. He can train for 3 months and have a dozen tune up fights and he wouldn’t beat Wilder now.
I think Mike Tyson should start training and return for three fights. Tyson v. Wilder; Tyson v. Joshua and Tyson v. Fury. It would return “real” excitement to the boxing game!
Yeah, he was on fire 20 years ago. Should be quite the sight today.
Tyson is old. While I would love for him to come back and destroy these weak champions he’s susceptible to injuries. When he fought Danny Williams he was 37-38 and his knee gave out. Without the power generated from his lower extremities he’s not the monster we remembered and being 54 isn’t going to be as forgiving as 38
Tyson couldn’t knock out tony tucker, Mitch green, or razor ruddock for 19 rounds. Always had trouble with tall heavyweights and now he’s gonna knock out wilder in a minute? Lol maybe if he had a ladder.
Every opponent was taller than Tyson
Are you crazy ???
Your point makes no sense. Each of those fighters you mention were head and shoulders fundamentally better than Wilder, with better technique and sturdier chins. When are people going to realise and accept that Wilder falls well below the standard of a good heavyweight. Fury exposed him twice.
Every fighter he fought was taller than him. So your point is moot. You sound like Tyson hating Larry Merchant. How many fighters under 6 foot held the tittle? How many under 6 foot at 20?
He was shorter than nearly every fighter he fought.
Tyson could have beat a lot of these modern heavyweights. Wilder, Fury, and Joshua all have weak or semi-brittle chins when popped on the button which resulted in getting dropped on the canvas. Tyson’s speed in his prime would have over whelmed all three of these guys since speed for defense and countering are not really a stellar skill on their resumes. Only takes one punch to settle the score and Tyson had the tools to do it. All three of these guys would have held Tyson on the inside since he had a nasty upper cut once he closed the gap. I am sure many will disagree, but hey, it’s all for fun, right?
Well said Scoobs. I agree
I see Tyson ripping Wilder thanks more to Wilder deficiencies than to Tyson’s skill. Tyson would chase Joshua out of the ring. As Tyson was mentally weak, I see Fury having the greatest success.
Fury would fight from the out side and do a Buster Douglas.
For what it’s worth, Firpo, Wills, Langford, Galento, Chuvalo, Quarry, Bugner, Shavers, Lyle, Young, Ruddock, and even Cobb would beat him.
So all of those guys would’ve beaten Luis Ortiz or Bermane Stieverne? lol
Stieverne is a terrible, terrible fighter.
They are on the same level , what you’re trying to say is Fury should be compaired to Carl the truth Williams rather than Mohammad Ali
Deontay Wilder cannot fight going backwards. Tyson would demolish him in a round.
Mike Tyson could beat all of these top heavies today doing the moonwalk at the same time.
Fenech might be right about Wilder. But even a prime Mike Tyson could have had problems with some HW of today, especially Fury. Tony Tucker and James “bonecrusher” Smith were nothing special, but they knew how to box and were not afraid of him, and that was enough to last the distance against a prime Tyson.
My point is that is hard to guess how Mike Tyson could have been against skilled big guys of today.
What about him against an skilled and hard puncher giant like Vitali Klitschko?
Both klitschko brothers would have lost to him pre-emanuel steward. Before getting with steward they were both very robotic and fought the stereotypical European style of the time. Had he fought either of them then he would have destroyed them both. Remember a flabby little heavyweight that did not move his head “Samuel Peter”put wladimir down several times. Peter, another short heavyweight wasn’t even a tenth of what a prime Tyson was. I am no Tyson fan but he would have taken them both. After getting with emmsual steward he taught both how to use the jab more effectively, to set up the right hand, and to lean on any opponent got in close enough to do anything. He honed their skills and improve at fighting tall. With emmual steward they could possibly have won.
I don’t think Vitali ever worked with Manny.
With Wlad, I agree. Manny taught him how to loosen up a bit. Plus, when he got tagged, he was always told to try to ‘box away’ rather than hold an opponent when hurt. Manny taught Wlad that to be a successful pro, you have to put some of your amateur tendencies away.
How can you say Bonecrusher Smith was not afraid of Mike Tyson he was terrified which is why he literally held Tyson the whole fight and earned the monicker Bonehugger Smith.
Great Observation Jeff. I’ve been rewatching Tyson fights that I forgot about like Ruddock, Bruno, Thomas, and other really good fighters of his time, and my god, his left body shot/uppercut combo, among all his other lethal punches, were devastating and reminded me how incredible Tyson was, even against taller/bigger fighters.
I only wish Tyson used his “Shot Gun Jab” more frequently, since it was a “KO JAB”
Tyson fans boys are infamous for their perspective.
Wasn’t Fenech gravely ill recently and on the verge of death? I guess he hasn’t fully recovered! Tyson was ko’d by two unimpressive journeymen 15 and 16 years ago, yet he’s going to train 6 weeks and beat arguably the second best heavyweight in the division today? I agree, Wilder would not have made it beyond the 3rd round with Tyson in his prime, but I don’t think Tyson could beat todays 50th ranked heavyweight, which is about what Kevin McBride was ranked when he fought Tyson in 2005!
In his prime Tyson defeats Wilder easily but now, even getting Tyson to train for 6 weeks would, in itself, be a major challenge.
Yep. 3-4 weeks of intensive hardcore old school training and Tyson would be able to knock Wilder out COLD for sure this summer on some remote deserted island.
In his prime he would be able to destroy Mr Corona himself in a round or two, EASY. Wilder is nothing compared to that…
Man, even his white tiger feared him for a reason…
@Haha James- I like that! You’re being totally ridiculous just to get a rise out of people! Thanks for the laugh!
As much as I love Mike Tyson, there is no way that could ever happen. Especially with 6 weeks of training. At the end of his career Tyson lost that hunger, that fight in him. Now with his pot land and the way his enjoying life, no way they should even think about staging such a farce. A Tyson in his prime yes, Tyson now? Nooooooo
Is he saying Tyson would beat him NOW, as seems to be implied by the “if he trained for six weeks” or in their primes? Because if it’s the latter, I’d say sure. But if it’s the former, of course not.
And Fury’s a heavy puncher when he sits down a bit on his shots. He’s all kinds of problems for anyone you’d care to name, and probably an ATG. I’d pick him over Tyson(in their primes, of course). People get this weird nostalgia about Tyson and seem to think he’s invincible when the guy basically lost in almost all of his biggest challenges.
A prime Mike Tyson? No doubt about it.
We all know wilder doesn’t have the skills to hang with any Mike Tyson
Who care, it’s a different era. From 1985-1989 Tyson was the most dominant fighter ever. That’s 30 years ago, who cares. Anything Fennech says….who care. Let’s judge Wilder with today’s crop.
Sorry to disappoint Mike was only a great fighter for a couple of years, too much too fast.
OMG what could have been
No question about it. Mike Tyson in his prime before all the controversial shit and hiccups. The early young Tyson would devastate all the Heavyweights today. They not even near the same level as he was then. I don’t know why people loves Wilder so much the man is not a very good boxer. He fought nobodies his whole career and earn knockouts and when he got his first world class opponent he looses. Wilder’s knockouts are controversial because he didn’t knockout anyone worth mentioning. Just because his knockout ratio was great doesn’t mean he is great or on the line of greatness because he didn’t earn a single knockout on a world class fighter. They had mostly shit records. If Mike Tyson fought the level of opponents as Wilder did he would have had a perfect win/ko ratio.
Tyson, Holmes, Foreman, Frazier, Ali, Norton, Lewis all would have beaten Wilder. The division is at one of its weakest periods right now.
Jeff Fenech is right. 100% right.
I don’t think so.. Iron Mike too old and tool small, … I’m NOT a Wilder fan but before his loss to Fury, many were saying how great Wilder was… he loses and now, every one says that he is beatale by many fighters out there today.. I could possibly understand this if Tyson left the fight game undefeated but he didn’t and look at who beat him especially in his last few fights…I thin Iron Mike was an ICON in the game but NOT as great as many of you out there believe…
It’s important to realize when talking about Mike Tyson that you have to almost think of him like 2 different people. You had the Cus trained years of inspired, hard-working Mike who was about as good as a heavyweight gets and the post Cus years when Tyson barely trained and was just a good but not great heavyweight. When you look at someone like Ali you are talking about someone who pretty much always came in in shape and although he got older over his career he was basically the same mentality. With Mike Tyson it was night and day depending on if you are talking about a disciplined Mike or not. When he was not disciplined he was just a hard-hitting short guy in there without the stamina and fire to bob and weave and cut the distance all night and so was pretty beatable by a skilled man. I think for whatever reason, Cus was a father figure to him and Tyson wanted to make him proud by training hard and listening to him. When Cus died the discipline went with it and without discipline Mike lost that furious fire except little glimpes of it for a few seconds once in a while.
Tyson would knock out Wilder in 3 rounds
wilder in my mind has no boxing skills he just has the punch power to stear him out of trouble if he fights fury in the 3rd match up again fury will kick his butt ….and for mike tyson….he would slaughter wilder…..