Boxing legend George Foreman revealed that Muhammad Ali secretly feared Prime Minister Mike Tyson

Muhammad Ali did not think he could have beaten a prime Mike Tyson, according to boxing legend George Foreman.

‘The Greatest’ was a pioneer in the heavyweight division and his popularity transcended sport as he danced around and drubbed the best fighters of his generation.

Tyson is revered by many as one of the most destructive fighters to ever set foot in the ring as he displayed brutal speed and power to dominate the division in the 1980’s.

Hypothetical questions about who would have won in a fantasy fight began many years ago and are still raging to this very day.

But despite ‘Iron Mike’ insisting he would have been no match for Ali, George Foreman has revealed this view was not shared by the man himself.

Foreman told Fiaz Rafiq for his new book, Muhammad Ali: The Life of a Legend, that he wasn’t sure he could have beaten Tyson.

He said: “Muhammad Ali told me himself.

“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.”

The legendary story of how Tyson vowed to avenge Ali after watching him get battered at the hands of former sparring partner Larry Holmes details the love and respect the young New Yorker held for his idol which carried on throughout his life.

Promoter Don King is a man who knew both fighters extremely well and also gave his comparisons of the two in the book.

The 88-year-old says: “They were both great heavyweights. Muhammad Ali had the blinding speed and he was a dancer in the ring. He was a fighter.

“He was a combination of things. He was emulating and imitating Sugar Ray Robinson, who was one of his idols.

“Ray Robinson, I think, was the best boxer of all time.

“Muhammad Ali made a heavyweight look like a middleweight the way he was fighting. Then he would coin all of his phrases and predictions.

“They would become exciting up to the countdown to see it. The people hated him or loved him.”

He continued: “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.

“Ali would go another way. He would win with his skill, charm and wit.

“So these two guys were both great fighters. Mike Tyson, same thing – love him or hate him. But he was the menacing, devastating guy that wants to punch you so hard and put your nose up your brain.

“He was the kind of guy not to be loved like a guy like Muhammad Ali ended up being.

“But it was not that Ali wasn’t in the beginning, because he was excoriated and vilified, but he was still at a time when he was making a move to become recognised by people.”