At the peak of his powers, Mike Tyson was the most formidable heavyweight on the planet.
After making his professional debut when he was just 18-years-old back in 1985, ‘Iron’ Mike went on an explosive run of knockout victories, winning his first 19 bouts via stoppage with 12 of these coming inside the opening round.
He made history by becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history when he was just 20-years-old in 1986, knocking out WBC champion Trevor Berbick in the second round of their bout in Las Vegas.
Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles to his collection with respective victories over James Smith and Tony Tucker in the 12 months that followed his iconic victory over Berbick, achieving undisputed status when he was barely 21.
In a historic interview, ‘Iron’ Mike weighed in on former rival James ‘Buster’ Douglas, who became the first fighter to defeat Tyson in a monumental upset back in 1990.
“He had a good night and he beat me in Tokyo, god forbid he fought a great fight that night, I didn’t, but what do you do?
He quit against guys lesser than Holyfield you know what I mean? And once you quit, you always quit, they talk about I took my beating, I got beat up in Tokyo, see I took my beating like a man, he never took a beating, he quit before he ever took a beating.”
A rematch between Tyson and Douglas never ended up happening, as the latter went on to defend his undisputed heavyweight championship against Evander Holyfield just eight months later, suffering a third round stoppage defeat at the hands of ‘The Real Deal’.
