Mike Tyson faced a who’s who of great boxing legends during his decorated career.
Few boxers have ever matched the success of Tyson’s early career. He became the youngest ever world champion aged just 20 and stopped all 19 of his first opponent inside 6 rounds, 12 of them inside the first two minutes. ‘Iron’ Mike was also the first heavyweight to hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles at the same time and was the only heavyweight to unify them in succession.
Despite his talents, he suffered a famous upset loss to Buster Douglas in Tokyo and then spent three years in prison. Upon release in 1995, he soon got back to boxing and by 1996 he regained a world title by beating Frank Bruno in 1996 and also beat the likes of Francois Botha and Andrew Golota.
When taking part in The Ring Magazine’s Best I Ever Faced feature, Tyson had to pick the best overall fighter he ever faced and he went with two weight undisputed ruler Evander Holyfield, praising him for having all the attributes needed to make a great heavyweight.
“Great champion: chin, heart, determination, work ethic, demeanour.”
Holyfield and Tyson shared a great rivalry in the ring. They first met in November 1996 when Tyson was the WBA champion but was stopped in the 11th round by ‘The Real Deal’.
The rematch in June 1997 is infamous for Tyson biting a chunk out of Holyfield’s ear, apparently after growing frustrated with what he saw as constant headbutts from his opponent. Holyfield retained his WBA title after Tyson was disqualified.
Tyson fought on until retiring in 2005 but returns to the ring this November against Jake Paul.
