Let’s go ahead and get the 300 lb gorilla out of the way in the beginning, shall we? I know Mike Tyson has mental issues. I know he’s hurt a lot of people (outside the ring) and done some shady stuff in his life. He had a terrible upbringing, lived on the edge of safety/sanity for most of his childhood, and made one bad decision after another throughout his life. This we can all agree on.
But no one is asking that he be sainted. What I’m saying below is strictly limited to his talent and his dominance in the ring.
And I like boxing so I’m biased.
Here’s the real headline: Mike Tyson is arguably the most dominant athlete of all time. For that there is no debate.
In his first 25 fights from March 1985 to August 1986 he recorded FIFTEEN first-round knock-outs or TKOs where the ref had to step in and stop the fight before Tyson inflicted further damage to his opponent.
Also during that span, only three of his fights made it into the 3rd round. So 22 of 25 fights were over in the 1st or 2nd round.
That’s pretty dominant, folks. And that’s really before he peaked as a “boxer”. Back then he was just a “brawler”.
And he didn’t have any flash or sizzle about him. He didn’t have long robes or ornate shorts. He came out of the locker room in his signature plain-black-shorts, no shirt, little fanfare, gloves on and ready to rumble. He was all business. A gladiator heading off to battle.
In November 1986, at just 20 years old, he won the heavyweight championship of the world by defeating Trevor Berbick in a 2nd Round TKO. He only got MORE dominant from there.
The thing with Tyson’s early career that made him so dominant is that he went out and fought for his life each time he entered the ring. It’s well documented that he literally feared for his life in the ring and therefore his strategy was to “get the other guy” before he could get hurt (or killed).
That’s an insane perspective on things. Someone should’ve suggested: “Hey, Mike, maybe try a different job. You seem to have fast hands. Maybe you could be a magician at children’s birthday parties. Or perhaps a blackjack dealer in Atlantic City. Maybe a bartender? I bet you’d be a quick pourer during happy hour.”
Nope. Iron Mike Tyson was destined to be a fighter. He was destined to be the Heavyweight Champion of the World. His talent and his work ethic and his mentality (and at the time, his trainers and managers) all funneled him toward a singular result: winning.
That period in the mid-to-late 80s was arguably the most dominant performance by any athlete of all time. He didn’t just win — he annihilated his opponents in a fashion that had never been seen before (or since).
His loss to Buster Douglas on February 11, 1990 in front of 30,000 people at the Tokyo Dome in Japan is still considered one of the greatest and most unlikely upsets in sports history. Douglas was a conservative 42-to-1 underdog. The 10th Round knock-out shocked the world.
I’m still mad about it 33 years later. I was at a college party in Amherst, MA and we watched it live: frozen, shocked, unsure if it was real.
Of course Tyson went on to a troubled adulthood and ended up getting convicted of sexual assault in 1992. He was a 25 year-old man-child who was on top of the world, treated as a celebrity, had very public relationships with Hollywood actresses, and living by all accounts above the law. Until he was stopped. Like one of his own fights. Maybe it saved lives. Likely it saved his own.
He served 3 years in prison (of a six year sentence) and returned to boxing in August of 1995. It was never the same. We didn’t look at him the same. We didn’t root for him the same. His life was still very public for all to see and he continued make bad decisions.
In 1997 he had the infamous rematch with Evander Holyfield where his bit a sizeable chunk of Holyfield’s ear off during the fight.
At this point, no one doubted Tyson was deranged. Sadly, some of us continued to watch to see how far he’d go, like a wildfire spreading out of control. Rather than stop it we just watched in awe and disbelief.
Today we know him as a 55 year old B-list celeb with a face tattoo.
We’re still unsure of what he’s going to say or do next. He is a cannabis industry entrepreneur, hosts his own podcast, and shows up in public appearances to the delight of some, dismay of others. At some point during his time in prison he converted from Christianity to Muslim and advocates peace over violence, aside from professional fighting of course.
He has now spent over two decades as more of a punchline than a puncher. No question that he brought it all upon himself. But that doesn’t make it any less sad to know or to have watched it happen.
Looking back, as a teenage boy from Boston growing up in the 80s, Larry Bird was my first, second, and third favorite athlete in the world. But Mike Tyson was different. He was scary-good. It was must-see-TV before that was a thing. As great as Bird was, he didn’t defeat the Lakers in the first quarter. Earl Strom and Dick Bavetta never stopped the game three minutes into it because Bird overwhelmed Michael Cooper to the point where he couldn’t continue. (Or did he?)
I don’t watch UFC fights or MMA or any of that nonsense today so I can’t say for sure that there’s nobody out there who could be considered that dangerous. But I will say it anyway: NO ONE has ever been as dominant as Mike Tyson. It will be one frightening dude to come along and match or surpass him, if it ever happens. I hope it doesn’t.
For a while, the only person who could defeat Mike Tyson was, in fact, Mike Tyson. And that’s exactly what happened. It was a technical knock-out that he was never ablet to recover from.
Below is a YouTube video with just five of Tyson’s memorable knock-outs. There are other videos out there that show more but you could get lost for hours just watching them. This one shows how dominant he was in the ring.