It is probably the most asked hypothetical boxing question of all time, who wins between a prime Tyson and a prime Ali?

Unfortunately we can never know the answer but Tyson himself believes that he wouldn’t have had a chance. Speaking to ‘This is 50’ in 2012, Iron Mike explained exactly why no one could have beaten prime Ali.

He said:

“There’s no man like him.

“Everything we have, he supersedes it.

“Nobody beats Ali, it’s not about the muscle memory it’s not about concentration it’s just about him doing it.

“I can’t beat that man, hell no f**k this (laughs).”

At his best Tyson was feared throughout the heavyweight division and his big punches landed him many knockout wins in the early part of his career.

Tyson eventually lost the title in 1990 when he was shocked by Buster Douglas. It’s an apt tale of a man shocking the world to win the heavyweight title and then losing his way and losing the title in his very next fight.

Unlike Andy Ruiz Jr’s recent loss, Douglas didn’t lose the title back to Tyson and instead lost to Evander Holyfield, with the ‘Baddest man on the planet’ taking six years to win the world title again, following jail time.

Ali also lost his titles and had to wait sometime to win them back. The 1960 Olympic gold medal winner had his belts stripped from him after refusing to his refusal to be drafted to army service.

It took seven years for Ali to win his titles back when he defeated George Foreman in ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’.

Both men are considered amongst the best heavyweights of all time and were both around when there was an excellent division full of talented fighters and title challengers.

There now seems to be that again in the heavyweight division and whilst we can’t answer one of boxing’s great unanswerables we’ll hopefully one day get to find out if AJ, Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury is the best of the current crop.