Mike Tyson has revealed the hardest hitting opponent that he ever crossed paths with.
‘Iron Mike’ exploded onto the scene back in 1985, winning his first 19 career bouts via knockout with 12 of these victories coming inside the very first round.
He was just 20-years-old when he made history by becoming the youngest heavyweight champion of all time, stopping Trevor Berbick in the 2nd round of their bout in Las Vegas to capture the WBC world heavyweight title.
In the year that followed his historic victory over Berbick, Tyson defeated WBA heavyweight champion James Smith and IBF heavyweight champion Tony Tucker to achieve undisputed status just one month after he turned 21-years-old.
Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, Tyson didn’t hesitate to name Razor Ruddock as the hardest puncher he faced, but admits there were ‘a lot of hard punchers’ out there during his prime years.
“Razor Ruddock.
There’s a lot of hard punchers out there, this guy that’s taking punches, that’s psychological, everything’s psychological. Holyfield yeah, and all of those guys are hard punchers, but the purpose is they can’t land the punch, I know you look at me, you see me, but I don’t get hit much when I was at my prime, that was the whole objective, you know.”
Ruddock faced Tyson twice within the space of just over three months back in 1991. ‘Iron Mike’ had stopped Ruddock in their first encounter, although many fans had been unhappy with this decision from the referee.
Their rematch took place several months later as Tyson floored Ruddock twice before being declared the winner via unanimous decision, putting the heavyweight duo’s rivalry to bed.
