Legendary trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas has had his say on who he believes was better between heavyweight legends Mike Tyson and George Foreman.
Tyson’s formidable prime came during the mid to late 1980s, where he became the youngest world heavyweight champion in boxing history with an explosive second round knockout win against Trevor Berbick in 1986.
He then went on to hold the undisputed championship between 1987 and 1990 before eventually surrendering his titles to James ‘Buster’ Douglas.
‘Big’ George’s glittering career came in two parts, which culminated in him becoming the oldest world heavyweight champion in boxing history in 1994. Foreman captured world honours for the first time in January 1973 in a famous second round stoppage win over Joe Frazier.
Speaking on VladTV, Atlas, who once trained Tyson, made no mistake in favouring ‘Big’ George as the better fighter out of the two, claiming the once-formidable puncher was ‘greater’ than ‘Iron’ Mike.
“Call me a hater, come on go ahead, he’s greater for me than Tyson, and Tyson’s great but he’s greater.”
Atlas would go on to detail how Foreman would have caught Tyson coming in.
“You ain’t gonna like this Tyson fans … Foreman’s style was wrong for Tyson. He would’ve came in trying to slip and bob and I think it would’ve been a replay of the fight with Foreman and Frazier, twice, and we all know what happened in that – Foreman knocked him out.
Bad style match up, the right punches to catch him, the size advantage. And they are from the same era do we don’t even have to play the game to conform and adjust. Foreman was naturally the bigger guy. He would’ve been able to catch Tyson coming in, time him. Foreman had a great chin. Tyson would’ve landed maybe a left hook, Foreman could’ve handled it.”
Foreman walked away from boxing in 1977 after a shock defeat to Jimmy Young, making his sensational return to the sport 10-years later. In November 1994 he defeated Michael Moorer via 10th round knockout to claim the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles, breaking the record for being the oldest heavyweight champion in history at 46 years and 169 days old.
A fight between ‘Big’ George and ‘Iron’ Mike never ended up materialising, although it was heavily speculated that the pair had been interested in facing each other in the early to mid 1990s, leaving fans wondering what could have happened in one of the great heavyweight showdowns that didn’t come to fruition.
