Yes - on numerous occasions Ali showed his respect and liking for the young champion…
And Mike certainly showed his respect and liking for Ali as well.
CREDIT PICURE ARSENIO HALL SHOW AND YOU-TUBE
Ali liked and admired Mike Tyson, and as he did with all rising fighters, tried to raise his popularity - because it helped the sport he loved so much.
Ali realized he was now the past, and boxing depended on young champions rising up. He said:
“their accomplishments as no threat to me, as mine were no threat to Rocky’s or Joe Louis’s. Each man’s records were his own and a part of boxing history.”
Mike, he liked and knew personally, as Cus D’Amato, Mike’s adopted father and trainer, had been his mentor for 25 years and he had known Mike since his teen days.
Mike and Ali:
Mike first met Ali while in reform school, and idolized him his whole life:
“We watched the movie The Greatest and then he came in through the door in the night in the dark and he just started talking to us.
Mike said it was one of the most important experiences of his life.
And they grew to be friends in later years.
Ali and Mike were frequently guests on the same shows, and both showed each other mutual affection and respect.
Ali would say about Mike:
“he can beat me…if he can catch me.”
Ali also showered Mike with praise, describing him as:
“unstoppable, a great fighter.”
Ali said once:
“That man scares me”
Mike says:
“Nobody beats Ali,”
Mike was blunt and to the point when he talked about Ali:
“I always like to think I'm a bad motherf**ker. A vicious motherf**ker. I don't give a f**k, but that's the part where he, Ali, overshines me, because I can't understand a man that's willing to die for this. I talked the sh*t, but he's the real deal. Ali is a giant. There's no way other fighters can match him. He'd die for this sh*t. I'm not going to die for this. That's real talk. Ali is a savage, he's an animal. He's a different breed of person. He's not like us."
What awed Mike the most is Ali’s indomitable will, and willingness to go further and harder than anyone else:
“This is the thing about Ali: When we were watching him get beat up as an old man-even when I was a young kid-he's not going to quit, you've got to kill him. He won't quit.
What awed Ali about Mike was:
“Man, he can punch, and punch hard and fast! And he’s got that killer instinct only the great ones have.”
Respect and affection between the two men was real, and visible.
Nowhere was Ali’s respect for Mike better shown than a joint appearance on Arsenio Hall
In an interview from the Arsenio Hall show, when both men appeared together, the question of which of them would have prevailed in their primes was raised. Hall asked both men their thoughts on what might have gone down had the pair met inside the ring.
When Arsenio asked Ali who would have won between Mike and he in his prime, Ali pointed to Mike.
Mike shook his head no, and said:
“The champ is modest, I’ve seen him in the ring with killers like [George] Foreman and [Ernie] Shavers, guys who hit much greater than me. And he took all their punches.”
Ali responded by saying to Arsenio:
“He [Mike] hits harder than Shavers.”
Ali then said:
“I was a dancer, I wasn’t that powerful, but I was so fast. If he hit me [then Ali slumps] IF he catch me…”
Mike then said:
“I am vain. I am a great fighter, but in this case, every head must bow, he is the greatest…”
Ali was not at all threatened by other fighter’s success - in fact it made him happy
Ali was not jealous of other people’s success. To the end of his life, when asked, he praised Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton, his friend Larry Holmes, and most of all Sonny Liston.
Ali clearly believed what he said:
“boxing depends on a galaxy of stars, not just one.”
As to his own place in history, Ali clearly preferred other people judge it, saying:
“When people ask me about who was the greatest of all time, I say look at the records...”
Ali preferred other people look at the records, then decide for themselves.
Ali saw Mike as the future and was real enough to know he was the past
Ali always said that boxing was always bigger than any one man:
“there was Jack Dempsey, then Joe Louis, and then Ezzard, and Rocky, and Sonny, and then me, then Larry, and now there’s Mike.”
