“I Would Have KO’d Him Easy” Heavyweight Legend Says Mike Tyson Wasn’t The Fighter Everyone Thinks: “I Would Have KO’d Him Easy”
Mike Tyson is one of the most fearsome heavyweights of all time but one legend of the sport still believes he could have beaten him if he’d faced him in his prime.
Tyson knocked out all of the first 19 men he faced inside the opening six rounds, and 12 of them inside the first. He was the youngest ever fighter to become a world heavyweight champion when he did so aged 20, and that record still stands today almost four decades on
He has famous fights with the likes of Frank Bruno and Evander Holyfield, both of whom he fought twice, while also suffering a historic upset loss to Buster Douglas in Tokyo.
In 1988, he took on former champion Larry Holmes, when ‘The Easton Assassin’ was making one of his late career comebacks and was past his best.
‘Iron Mike’ won that night but speaking to Go For It Radio, Holmes claimed he would be victorious within the first half of the fight had he have fought him in his prime.
“Mike, sorry man, I’m just telling you, you’re a great guy man, but you can take a punch, you can’t take a punch from Larry Holmes though.
“Man, three or four rounds man, five rounds, I’d get him out of there, If I got Earnie Shavers out of there, if I got Gerry Cooney out of there, if I got Kenny Norton out of there, if I can get them out of there why can’t I get Mike Tyson out of there?”
In a interview with Sky Sports Holmes dismissed Tyson’s record and said he could never have survived in his era.
“No [Tyson couldn’t have survived in my era]. Jo Frazier would beat him up at his own style. No [he couldn’t survive in that era]. Ali? He’s slap him all day with the jab. Kenny Norton, too strong. George Forman would win in two seconds, he hit too hard.”
Holmes eventually retired for good in 2002 with a record of 69 wins from 75 fights and recently predicted that his mentor Muhammad Ali would have also beaten Tyson.
Tyson stirred up plenty of controversy last November when, despite being 58-years-old, he returned to the professional ring for an eight-round fight with YouTuber turned professional boxer Jake Paul, and lost almost every second of the fight in Texas.
