Muhammad Ali Admitted He Had ‘No Confidence’ In Beating One Heavyweight Legend He Never Faced

George Foreman once revealed that the ever-confident Muhammad Ali actually admitted he did not ‘have the confidence’ to beat one heavyweight rival.

Ali is known as ‘The Greatest’ not just for his fine achievements in the boxing ring but also for his actions outside of it. He gave up the prime years of his career after refusing to be drafted for the Vietnam War, but later returned to the sport to once again become a heavyweight ruler. He then reigned as the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978.

He fought all the stars of his era from George Foreman to Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston to Larry Holmes.

However, as revealed in The Sun, speaking for a book about Ali, the oldest ever world heavyweight champion Foreman revealed there was one man Ali feared in the ring: Mike Tyson.

“I said to him, ‘Do you think Tyson could beat anybody?’ He said, ‘Man, Tyson hits so hard.’ He felt Tyson hit harder than anyone he’d faced. He told me once that he didn’t have the confidence he could have beaten Mike Tyson.”

Foreman then compared the two fighters.

“They were both great heavyweights. Muhammad Ali had the blinding speed and he was a dancer in the ring. He was a fighter. Mike Tyson had awesome, devastating power. He was not the boxer that would be boxing and laughing – he was menacing. He was the guy that came in that they feared. You would be shivering in your bones. He would go out and seek and destroy.”

Tyson was the youngest man ever to become world champion in the division and was feared for his high percentage punching ratio paired with blistering speed and fight-ending power.

He initially retired in 2005 after back-to-back losses, though returned to the ring last November. He was a shadow of his former self and took a wide points loss to Jake Paul, who was less than half his age.

‘Iron’ Mike held Ali in a similar regard, once stating that he could never beat the man who came before him.