People forget that grabbing objects (ie. a cage) to maintain your balance would help against wrestlers. Tyson is also willing to go to a much darker place and would literally bite the crap out of Liddell in close quarters.
Assuming Tyson doesn't have any other skills would be incorrect. Street fighting in a shit-hole neighbourhood provides a great deal of knowledge and tricks.
Well for starters Chuck looked like crap hitting the pads, though he never looked great in his prime. This is what Tyson looked at 49:
He doesn't train anymore and he's able to look like this at 49 years old:
People seem to think wrestling is the same weapon on the street as it is in the cage. Of course it's effective, but what happens when you're allowed to grab something to keep your balance and use your other hand to strike the back of the head? What about shoving your fingers into the wrestler's eyes while he's clinching your legs? There's a bunch of factors that have to be taken into consideration in a real street fight.
It takes a real man to realize that your best days are long gone. Competitively Liddell still can't let it go and ended up getting embarrassed by Tito of all people.
"Prime" can be subjective. Do I think a 28-29 year old Liddell was in his physical prime when it comes to ability to take a shot, react, & move around quickly etc? Yes, I do & you'd have a hard time making an argument against that.
Bas answers:
Again with the "he stood up with MMA fighters" argument. There are multiple variables going into fights against other well rounded martial artists that would not exist against a boxer with no ability to stop a take down.
