Yahoo Finance Chuck Liddell believes he would beat Mike Tyson in a street fight
UFC legend Chuck Liddell is a year removed from being knocked out by Tito Ortiz in his latest return-from-retirement fight, but 12 months without fighting only means he’s itching for more. He’s identified someone he thinks he can beat: boxing legend Mike Tyson.
In an interview with Ed Mylett, Liddell was asked what would happen if he met Tyson in an alley somewhere.
“If it were a street fight, I’d win,” Liddell said. “I mean, he’s got a puncher’s chance. He’s got a chance to catch me coming in. But other than that, it’s over.”
If they were in their primes, a fight between these two would be endlessly intriguing. Both ruled over their respective sports: Liddell was the king of the light-heavyweight division in the UFC while Tyson was the king of boxing’s heavyweight division. A fight between two all-time greats in peak condition? Sign me up.
Their primes, however, passed awhile ago. Liddell is 49, and is at a point in his career where most people, including UFC president Dana White, want him to stop fighting. His November 2018 fight against Ortiz ended up being kind of embarrassing, with Liddell looking slow in training and then losing via knockout in the first round.
Tyson is 53, but hasn’t been trying to keep the magic going like Liddell has. After retiring in 2005, he returned to the ring the following year for an exhibition tour, but hasn’t been back since.
Considering that Liddell was training for a professional fight a year ago and Tyson hasn’t sniffed the ring in over a decade, Liddell could probably beat Tyson in a street fight. But does anyone really want to see that? Probably not. Thankfully for us all, an alley-fight PPV doesn’t seem to be in our future, so the question of who would win will remain tantalizingly unanswered for all eternity.
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