Muhammad Ali said there was one heavyweight he couldn’t beat even at his peak: “A real champ”

Muhammad Ali looked to be unstoppable during his prime years.

Ali’s prime is widely considered to be during the mid-to-late 1960s, where he had become undisputed heavyweight champion and compiled an unbeaten record of 29-0 with stoppage victories over the likes of Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson.

He was then exiled from the sport due to his refusal to be drafted into the military for the Vietnam War, leading to an absence of nearly four years, with Ali not competing between March 1967 and October 1970.

While he may have regained the world heavyweight title thanks to iconic victories against fighters such as George Foreman and Joe Frazier, many boxing fans still believe that nobody would have been able to defeat Ali during his peak, though it seems he may have disagreed.

In a resurfaced interview, Ali was asked who would have won if he and Mike Tyson had fought in their primes. Ali pointed to ‘Iron Mike’ and explained why he thought Tyson would have beaten him.

“I’m scared of him. He’s a real champ. [Tyson would have won], I was a dancing master. You are that powerful and so fast, if you hit me [then I hit the canvas].”

It’s easy to see why Ali may have come to that conclusion, due to the ferociousness that Tyson displayed on his rise to becoming undisputed heavyweight champion.

‘Iron Mike’ won his first 19 fights by knockout, 12 of them inside the first round, and would become the youngest world heavyweight champion in history at the age of 20.

Tyson’s most memorable knockout wins arguably came over Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks, before a shock stoppage defeat to Buster Douglas in 1990 effectively ended his prime years.