Who had the best combination of speed/power in the heavyweight division,.....?

Question

in the last 30 years?

Answer 1

Mike Tyson is the obvious answer.  Ali is known mostly for speed although he did have respectable power.  By 78 there wasn't much left to his desire to train and fight.  He had become even more of an arm puncher but could get away with it because of his natural speed even though he rarely trained.

Tyson, for a short time, combined the most destructive blend of speed and power seen in the division.  His greatest weakness was poor stamina and, of course his mental state of mind.  Still, if you're talking of the blend of speed and power, probably EVER, it would be Tyson.

Larry Holmes also comes to mind.  He was fast and accurate and had better than average power.  His late round blend of speed and power would rival Tyson's but Tyson has the edge in early speed and power.

Joe Louis blended speed and power well also.  He made better use of his power than Tyson did but Tyson had more sheer power.

Answer 2

Iron mike tyson,because 30 years ago ali was on his way out of boxing.he wasn't that fast anymore and you said in the last 30 years.

mike tyson was lightning fast and he hit very hard.

Answer 3

lennox lewis LOL LOL LOL im joking mike tyson in his prime you can hate on his own personal life mistakes he was still one of the best in his prime i bet a good amount of you never seen him fight in his prime and go by what holyfield lewis and mcbride did to his washed up self then you throw in buster douglas because he beat tyson due to mistakes by don king and others plus tyson wasnt properly trained mentally wasnt there in other words tyson wasnt there douglas fought the best fight of his career and still almost got his *** kod

Answer 4

WITH OUT QUESTION Evander Holyfield circa 1990. He had the footwork and fast hands of an Ali type fighter. But could counterpunch and unload as if the blow had been delivered by Joe Louis.

Mike Tyson's reputation on the other hand was a more of a MYTH perpetuated by Manager Bill Caton's media machine and fed by the media in a heavyweight starved era. This myth was sadly accepted by the fans who never bothered to question Tyson's poor quality of opposition. The large majority of Tyson's early knockouts came against feeble hand picked fellas. One fighter was actually a laid off coal miner looking for work!

Pinklon Thomas who fought both Mike Tyson AND Evander Holyfield in the late 80's was asked to analyze back then a possible fight between Holyfield and Tyson. He emphatically went with Holyfield. He also was asked having been hit by both Mike and Evander who was faster and who hit harder. He DIFINITIVELY stated that Evander was faster AND could hit harder with his timed counterpunching!

That is why Tyson and his handlers wanted NO PART of the Real Deal.

In fact Evander Holyfield was the Universally recognized number 1 contender by Ring Magazine for 2 years of Mike Tyson's 3 year title reign and was never even given a shot!

We all soon found out why!

Holyfield circa 1990 was an unstoppable fighting MACHINE, physically trained by Tim Halmark's NASA like technology in space age training complexes.

Evander was designed almost like a SCI FY cyborg to give him the ULTIMATE combination of Speed, Power, Footwork, Agility, Dexterity, Counterpunching, and timed reflexes ever seen in a Prize Fighter!

Holyfield was a physically constructed masterpiece!

In his completion Holyfield had transformed in to not only the most physically conditioned specimen in boxing history, but arguably the most physically conditioned Athlete PERIOD!

He once even incredibly beat the FASTEST MAN ALIVE, Olympian Carl Lewis in a 40 yard dash!!!

In a nutshell. HE WAS PRETTY DARN SCARY!!!

Answer 5

iron mike tyson !

Answer 6

Tyson in the early years would be a good shout as he was extremely fast and powerful but i would still go for Ali as he was definitely faster and his his power is underated others who i thought about would be Frazier (simular to Tyson in many ways) Dokes and Byrd (fast for Heavys) and Jones Jr (but he was only at heavy for a short time) but after thinking i could still only come up with one name and that is Muhammed Ali.

Im sure more names will spring to mind so i may well add a few more in a while.

Answer 7

Ike Ibeabuchi. . . . . he could have ruled the division if he didn't have Tyson-like mentality.

Answer 8

Mike Tyson. Easily. Terrific hand speed and awesome power in those early years. Singlehandedly revived my interest in boxing. Too bad he lost focus.

Answer 9

This one is rather easy since we're going back only 30 years, which 1978. It is definitely Mike Tyson. We all know he had the power, but he also had the head movement and quick hands. By that time, potential mention, Muhammad Ali was on down slope of his career and was only around for four years of the time range that you're asking about, as well as Joe Frazier.

Answer 10

Muhammad Ali was declining along that time so I would say as far as heavyweights go that the following fighters had the best combination of speed and power since that time.

Larry Holmes

Lennox Lewis

Evander Holyfield

Mike Tyson

Riddick Bowe

Answer 11

You have to go with Tyson on this - probably the best of both in the past 30 years.

Lennox was pretty fast in his younger days, back when he weighed around 230 or so, Riddick Bowe too.

Answer 12

Iron Mike in his prime

Answer 13

Tyson? Are you all crazy?   Get off the kool-aid.  Tyson was a chump.  If he had the best speed/power he would have won against a couple of decent fighters wouldnt he?  Ask Buster douglas if tyson was any good.