When columnists get together you are certainly assured of an eventful evening, peppered with fun, laughter and interesting conversations. After all, these people are perhaps largely responsible for framing and influencing how Cebuanos think about certain issues.
During that lovely affair which was part of the activities of Cebu Press Freedom Week, I was lucky enough to be sandwiched between business mogul and author Bunny Pages and son John, who is a fellow columnist, a former athlete and now at the helm of the family business.
AI. The conversation quickly turned into Artificial Intelligence and how it has affected and permeated our daily lives at such an exponential rate. For my part, since I am a sports columnist, I offered my take that AI would be a great tool for recreating fantasy fights and making it as real as possible.
Tito Bunny (who graciously gave me a signed copy of his fast-selling book “Bunny’s Pages: 50 Lessons from my Entrepreneurial Journey)- ever sharp and inquisitive- quickly asked who I thought would win in a hypothetical Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson matchup.
I said, I preferred Al, if both men faced off in their primes, but these past few days, I began to seriously think about that fight and conjure up several plausible scenarios.
ALI. In his prime, he did float like a butterfly and stung like a bee. He was a three-time world champion and an Olympic Gold medalist. Ali was a spectacular physical specimen who combined blinding speed with relentless power, and who overwhelmed opponents with his ring generalship.
But in his prime he was defeated once by Joe Frazier, a fighter with a similar physique as Tyson and who had knockout power especially with his left hook.
TYSON. Iron Mike was the youngest man to become a world heavyweight champion and was also the first to unify and hold all three major belts. He was the most ferocious puncher in heavyweight history. He won his first 19 fights via knockout with 12 coming in the very first round. But he had a hard time against taller, rangier fighters who had good jabs and excellent boxing skills.
MY TAKE. Styles make fights and these two had very polar approaches to fights. Ali would take command early , lashing out with jabs and right hands while Tyson would come forward and attempt to land vicious combinations.
In truth, the fight would be closer than most people think and if hypothetically, they fought 10 times, I think Ali’s success rate would be around 60-70 percent depending on certain factors.
The reason I am leaning towards Ali is because he had a great chin and suffered only four knockdowns in 61 fights. And in those instances save for the Frazier fight, he was able to get up, recover and achieve victory.
That alone would be enough to frustrate a rampaging Tyson who would most likely lose some of the steam coming into the championship rounds—and because Ali at his peak had excellent cardio, he would outlast Tyson and win via decision.
LAST ROUND. It’s on us as me and the wifey celebrate 26 years of married bliss. Cheers to my favorite judge.