How would tyson deal with Alis TALK

[Panamaniac]

Tyson would deal with Ali's talk the same way Liston and Foreman dealt with it - by losing via (T)KO the way he lost to Buster Douglas.
Saying that Ali had an uncanny ability to deal with fearsome sluggers is almost redundant.

[HtotheZ]

I have a feeling it woulda resulted in an "I'll f-ck you till you love me ******" moment

either that or he woulda been quiet the whole time and exploded in the ring

[Ray Corso]

If Cuss was alive he wouldn't say a thing. He'd thank Ali "for the opportunity"!
If Cuss had passed when this happened I don't care because Tyson without the old man wasn't ****! It would be a disgracefull press conference that would need to be blepted a million times for news coverage! A joke that only ignorant people without any class would think was good! Ray

[CHEECH]

when a prime tyson faced tyrell biggs, biggs made a crack that tyson people woulda fought joe louis but then they found out louis was already dead. tyson made a simple comment that the press conference was in bad taste then whacked out biggs in the middle rounds. i belive blood green was a talker as well and he never came close to competitive in his fight with tyson. i dont see the ali who beat liston losing to tyson but i dont see the prime tyson affected by any talking by any opponent

[The Iron Man]

If Cuss was alive he wouldn't say a thing. He'd thank Ali "for the opportunity"!
If Cuss had passed when this happened I don't care because Tyson without the old man wasn't ****! It would be a disgracefull press conference that would need to be blepted a million times for news coverage! A joke that only ignorant people without any class would think was good! Ray

Cus died in 1985, Tyson went on to win his first heavyweight title, unify the titles and then beat spinks to become the lineal champ. He did all this while staying undefeated and also being respectful in an out the ring (with a couple of exceptions, but not comparable to post-prison Tyson). I don't think Cus' death is the point where Tyson went off the rails: Jacobs, Cayton and Rooney did a good job of keeping him grounded until Givens and Don King came along.

Back on Topic

As for the OP, its hard to say how a prime tyson would have reacted to Ali's talking as no one ever tried this with him. I am sure he would come out with a few threatening remarks but I don't think he would explode in the press conference. For the most part he would handle it silently (imo) but who knows how much it would have affected him mentally. I see him being more like Liston than Frazier, it didn't seem to bother him but when they step in the ring you realise it did.

[Bodyshot3]

Ali was a lethally eloquent man who had also accumulated a good working knowledge of political/social issues, other cultures/faiths and he had the knack of identifying flaws in opponents that were not just boxing related.

He would then make sure these were replayed and magnified by the media; who he was able to play like the proverbial fiddle.

Before a punch had been thrown, Ali had often imposed a crushing intellectual superiority over his opponents as well as remaining supremely confident about his superior boxing ability. He had the capacity to pinpoint and then attack some doubt or source of embarassment in the other man.

With FRAZIER, he focussed on Joe's lack of education and supposed political passivity/backwardness. Joe was the rural, compliant, cotton-picking idiot (not true at all) and Ali was the new, heroic face of Black America.

LISTON was remorslessly typecast as ugly, brutal and unthinking. It was often done with a degree of slapstick humour; but it hurt and hurt deeply. Ali's additional stunts of being hyper-active in Liston's company or turning-up on his doorstep at all hours were also absolute masterstrokes.

Nobody was supposed to pull strokes like that against the much-feared Liston; yet Ali skillfully and deliberately stripped away the air of menace surrounding Sonny by acting like the crazy kid.

FOREMAN was mocked for being a robotic brute and Ali went out of his way to embrace the crazy world of Mobutu's Zaire; ensuring the huge stadium crowd was right behind him. He got the political significance of the fight and ruthlessly used it.

So, Ali became an African (using the adulation to motivate himself and create huge pressure on Foreman) and also cast himself as a hopeless underdog. Meanwhile, Foreman slipped into a weird bunker mentality and tried to get the whole fight/African nightmare over with as soon as possible....and walked straight into a perfectly snared trap.

With TYSON I could see Ali applying all these tricks; perhaps it would be mocking/sarcastic humour, maybe he would focus on Tyson's criminal past, perhaps he would niggle away at D'Amato's absence from Tyson's life.

Take your pick on the raw nerve Ali jabs with a needle....but one thing is for sure; Tyson will not enjoy the experience and will feel belittled and less confident than he should be.

[Cardinal Buck]

Tyson wouldn't give a s hit. Mitch Green sure did a number on Tyson mentally, right?

[Scott9945]

Tyson wouldn't give a s hit. Mitch Green sure did a number on Tyson mentally, right?

Green was a street thug and nothing that Tyson wasn't very familiar with. Muhammad Ali was an entirely different story.

[joseph5620]

Green was a street thug and nothing that Tyson wasn't very familiar with. Muhammad Ali was an entirely different story.

That's the truth.

[Anthony342]

It would probably be like Ali-Frazier, maybe the second fight. Ali would win a decision, but Tyson would still land some good hard shots on Ali during the fight, but Ali would land more.