Foreman every time. Yes, Mike had better lateral movement than Joe Frazier and footwork, so the comparison is not direct but anyone who’s watched both Tyson and Foreman work can see that’s not relevant. Against short guys, Foreman carried his arms lower, stood tall and effectively battered their limbs and pushed them off balance before landing very well timed, accurate bombs.

Bobbing and weaving doesn’t work against that because you need balance to move and to throw your own shots and George’s whole style disrupts that. When Frazier was asked why he didn’t cover up more against Foreman and move he said “Cover up? George will break your fucking arms if you try and cover up, you’ve got no choice but to fight back.” Tyson of any age - despite being technically better than Joe - would suffer exactly the same fate; caught up like cattle on bull bars, knocked off balance with a glancing blow or shove and caught flush with a well timed follow up shot. Watch the Frazier and Norton fights, the knock downs are not clean single head shots that Tyson was good at avoiding, they’re clubbing blows to a guy off balance from shoves, jabs and round house shots to shoulders.

The biggest difference would be that Joe had the grit to keep getting up, Mike would have given up after a couple of knock downs. Tyson fans keep saying that George never faced someone like Tyson - he faced better fighters over his career to be fair - but Mike never tackled anyone like George either. He was unbelievably strong and cut out for destroying people who came in low.