Mike Tyson - The Life Story

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Mike Tyson - The Great Fighter

From the streets of Brooklyn to the Heavyweight Championship of the World to international fame, Tyson has experienced a number of peaks and valleys during his life. Mike Tyson is indisputably the most explosive, vicious, most watched fighter.

This is his chronicle.

2000
Mike makes his British debut on 28th of January at the MEN Arena against JULIUS FRANCIS of England. After a bit of hassle with customs and women's groups kicking up a fuss because of his rape conviction, it is thought the fight might be cancelled. But home secretary of England-Jack Straw saved the day by granting Mike permission to enter the country. Incidentally, Mike destroyed Francis inside 2 rounds, flooring him 5 times along the way. Now Mike is due back shortly for his second British bout, this time in Scotland.

1999
Mike makes his return to the MGM Grand with an anti-climax. It's been 9 months since Mike has last fought, this was due to his incarceration at Rockville State Penitentiary for assaulting two men in the mayhem resulting from a car-shunt. The opponent-Orlin Norris. The date-October 23rd. Somehow, Norris decided that a late first round hook to the head from Tyson twisted his ankle. A No Contest was declared. This was the second No Contest for Mike this year, the first one being in court, as that was how Mike pleaded to the assault charge.

January 16th. It's Mike’s first fight since the ''Bite-Fight''. It's been nearly 18 months since Mike has stepped through the ropes. And well over 2 years since he has won a fight. South African Francois Botha is stunning the 16,000 capacity crowds at the MGM by taming Mike Tyson with a style that is, well, less than ordinary. Unfortunately for ''the white buffalo'' he forgets that Mike can actually hurt when he lands a punch. Botha walks straight onto the 223lbs weight of a right hand and hits the canvas like a paralytic drunk. He tries to get up, but Mike and everyone watching have dejavu of the Berbick fight. - It's a sweet, cold KO in the 5th.

1997
The date is June 28th, the event-Tyson-Holyfield rematch for the WBA title. Everyone at MGM wonders whether Mike has what it takes to re-capture the heavyweight crown. But what happened will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. The fight started off evenly with both fighters trying to land the telling blow that will dictate how the fight will unfold. However, Holyfield's use of his head is totally obvious to everyone except for the referee it appears. Mills Lane does nothing about the obvious head butts coming in from Holyfield. Even a 3-inch gash over Mike's right eye does not open Lanes eyes as to what is going on here.
Mike, eventually and inevitably loses it-BIG-STYLE. He bites part of Holyfield's ear off and spits it on to the canvas. After an intervention by the referee, Mike decides to chew on the other ear. This time Mike was thrown out, what happened in the ring afterwards was pretty ugly also. Mikey starts throwing punches at anyone who comes near him. For this 3rd round DQ, Mike earned himself a 1 year ban and $3m fine-the biggest fine in sports history.

1996
'Iron' Mike Tyson vs. Evander 'The Real Deal' Holyfield went down as one of the greatest fights in recent history. It delivered a result that very few could predict. Ron Borges of the Boston Globe was the only journalist to get the result right. The fight produced 11 rounds of master craftsmanship boxing from two of the heavyweight division’s biggest stars. It was give and take all the way through the fight. Each fighter giving and taking more than most men could handle. In the end, Evander pulled out all the stops and produced one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight history. And thus becoming a 3-time heavyweight champion that only Ali could boast alongside him. He had won via a stunning 11th knockout. This one will be remembered for a very long time.
On the 7th September, Mikey produced an emphatic, domineering display to wipeout Bruce Seldon in 1 very easy round. It was clear from the start that Seldon was going to be losing his WBA crown. He just had nothing to deter or defend himself from Mike’s vicious hooks. Its curtains for Seldon in 93 seconds. (Prior to this fight Mike paid Lennox Lewis of England $4m 'step-s-side' money, because he feels he isn't ready for a showdown yet).

Mike's second rematch to date, sees him gain the WBC title and become a 2-time champion by knocking out Frank Bruno of England in 3 rounds on the 19th March at the MGM Grand. This rematch was pretty similar to the first encounter between these two. With Bruno struggling to keep Mike and bay with his lumbersome jabbing. 52 seconds through the 3rd, Mike catches Bruno with a 16, yes 16! punch combination of unanswered shots, until Mills Lane decided that it was quite enough.

1995
Mike's second fight since leaving jail. The 16th December is the date and Buster Mathis Junior is the unfortunate opponent. After a couple of mediocre rounds from Mike, he finally starts to take effect in the 3rd. The crowd in Philadelphia on this advent night cheer franticly when Mike steps back from a clinch, takes a step to the right to create an opening to the floating rib and lands a bomb of a left hand to the midsection.
August 19th. Everyone has been waiting along time for this night, the crowd at the MGM in the heart of the strip in Vegas is covered by a blanket of anticipation. Mike's had been away for over 48 months. He has been in the Indiana Youth Center serving time for the rape of 18-year-old beauty pageant Desiree Washington. It is rumored that Mike had trained himself silly in Jail, and it looked that way. Rumors circulate that while in prison, he was doing 1000 sit-ups a day. As well as having a few 'scuffles' including one where he caught a man called 'TINY' flush with the 'greatest left hook he every threw' only for 'TINY' to respond with a mere wink. 'The man didn't even move' said one witness.

He is now out of jail and taking the first step of a long journey back to the undisputed crown. Will he be the same? Will rust have crippled his skills? Is he hungry? Is he in shape? Unfortunately for the Irish-American Peter McNeeley, Mike turned up looking the best shape of his life. Although McNeeley jumped on Tyson from the bell-it looked pretty much like a man trying to stop a rhino with a pee-shooter. Mike just composed himself and took his time. McNeeley's father and chief-second decided that after 2 knockdowns from Mighty Mike, he didn't really want to see his son get beaten by anymore.

1991
It's the rematch that wasn't needed in many peoples opinion. He had already stopped Donavon 'Razor' Ruddock once. Anyway, the fight goes ahead whilst Mike is waiting for a secured date with newly crowned undisputed king Evander Holyfield. Not much differs from fight number 1 between these two guys, except for a knockdown or two-Mike puts Ruddock down in the second and seventh, but they weren't a lot more than flash knockdowns. It's the same date that wouldn't bring as happy endings 6 years later-June 28th. But for now, Mike's happy-he wins a unanimous decision.

March 18th, Mike's sees off the big Canadian Donavon 'Razor' Ruddock via 7th round KO. Many people inside the boxing village declared this result controversial. Richard Steele was the referee and rumors were circulating about Steele's close 'friendship' with Don King having something to do with this 'premature' stoppage. Although I feel it was more than adequate.

1990
This is Mike’s second fight since he lost his undisputed crown in arguably one of boxing's biggest upsets. It isn't thought that Alex Stewart will give Mike too many equations to deal with. 1 round was all it took for Mike to keep his comeback bid unfolding successfully. It's December 8th, and Mike now has to look at bigger things.

June 16th, and it is Mike's first fight since the Douglas loss. Henry Tillman is the opponent handpicked by a now 'mixed' promotional team that still has Bill Caytons name on some contracts. It was a good choice of opponent though, because this 1 round KO was all it took to get Mike's confident levels back to where they once were.

It's Tokyo, 11th February 1990. A unique place for a title fight, but an even stranger time of day-lunchtime. Not a good time for Mike to be fighting if the rumors are true about his partying antics while in Tokyo. Some camp members and sources close to Tyson claim that he was still hung over from heavy drinking the night before. Mike came into the ring sweating buckets, and he also looked a little soft. Massive underdog James 'Buster' Douglas was unbackable at 42-1, but he had a game plan up his sleeve that would change the course of history. Douglas's mum had died just weeks before the fight, his wife had filed for divorce, and he was pretty down. But what a lethal concoction that proved for Mike Tyson. Douglas was absolutely relentless with the assault he committed Mike Tyson to. The Tokyo ringsiders, common to the culture of the country saw them just sit there, hands folded in laps watching the heavyweight champion of the world get punished in every conceivable way.

For every uppercut that Mike landed, Douglas would throw 2 or 3 back in sequence. The display Douglas produced was quite simply awe-inspiring. The fight carried with this plot for 8 rounds until Mike landed an off-the-ropes-uppercut with the force of an oak-tree trunk that had Douglas down and surely out. But to the astonishment of every person watching in the world. Douglas rose to his feet and returned to his corner, only to come out 2 rounds later and steal the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out the man and the myth that was 'Iron' Mike Tyson. (The knockdown in round 8 was heavily disputed by the Tyson camp, namely Don King, that the referee counted too slow, thus allowing Douglas 16 seconds to get up, the belts were held and meetings took place for 2 solid days, until all 3 sanctioning bodies-WBA; IBF;WBC awarded the fight to Douglas, and crowned him champion)

1989
Mike Tyson is gunning for a shot at the former cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield, but before that he has to deal with Carl 'The Truth' Williams, a relative no-hoper. Mike puts him away easily in 1 round on July 21st.

February 25th and finally the fight that had been postponed so many times is taking place. Frank Bruno, the most popular boxer ever to come out of England to date, steps into the ring in a 3rd attempt to capture the world crown.

It is wildly regarded that, despite his solid-greek-god-like physique, Bruno's array of skills will be far too limited to match the vicious 22 year old Tyson. 2,000 British fans turned up to watch the fight, and they could be heard throughout the arena clearly chanting ''BRU-NO, BRU-NO, BRU-NO'' soccer style. Although Bruno went down 10 seconds into the round he did hurt Tyson mid-way through the 1st with a left hook, although it looked as though it was Mike's balance that was a little off rather than it being Bruno's punch that had the crowd screaming.

1988
On June 27th, 3 days before Mike became 22, he produced a performance that is wildly regarded as his greatest ever. All the hype was in place, and all the celebrities were ringside. Many boxing analysts believed that Spinks was the man to bring down the aura of Mike Tyson's invincibility down. The timing seemed good for Spinks, as outside the ring, Mike was having many problems.

For starters his marriage to Robin Givens was almost over (some say for the better), and his contact disputes between Don King and Bill Cayton were reaching a climax. They thought that the light rangy Spinks could dance and jab and keep Tyson off to claim a points victory. How wrong they were. Spinks was scared stiff, 91 seconds was all it took for Mike to land the telling shot-a short inside right to the midsection. Spinks rose-briefly-referee Frank Cappuccino stepped back to let the fight carry on. No sooner had he done that than Mike landed a right to the head of Spinks that had his head crushing to the canvas hard. The fight is over.

Now it's March 21st, and Mike has been doing a lot of promotional and marketing work in Tokyo, Japan. What with Nintendo adverts, Toyota adverts Mike is busy. Oh, yes, and incidentally he had a fight in the Tokyo dome (a debut location for Mike, and boxing alike) with a fat man called Tony 'TNT' Tubbs. Mike's takes him out clean in 2 rounds.
Larry Holmes had all the mouth in the approach to his fight with Mike Tyson on January 22nd. He startled the media at a pre-fight press conference by declaring - Mike's going to be remembered as an SOB'. Come fight night, Larry looked in poor physical condition. His age - 37- was no excuse, look at Evander Holyfield now and he is also 37. The fourth round antics of Holmes did nothing more than delay the inevitable - he started sticking and moving with the jab, trying to be the Holmes of 10 years earlier. When Mike finally caught up with the aging challenger, he landed a beautiful, punch-perfect left right to the head that could be heard from the '$10 dollar seats'.

Holmes' has to be given respect for his courage at trying to get up, but Mike didn't let him off the hook. He took about 30 seconds to assess the situation and then he knocked out Holmes in destructive fashion.

1987
On the 16th October Mike fought the 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist - Tyrell Biggs. Biggs was having a lot of problems making anything of himself in the professional ranks. It didn’t help that he was coming off a heavy drug addiction. But his contacts in the game brought him face to face with his former amateur foe. Mike produced a mediocre performance, but did manage to stop Biggs in 7 fairly punishing rounds.

August 1st 1987 will be a memorable day for Mike Tyson and heavyweight boxing alike. It was this day that Mike fought Tony Tucker for the IBF heavyweight title (he was also defending his WBA and WBC titles). If Mike won, he would make history and restore the fight game, by becoming an undisputed heavyweight champion. Mike did win, it went the full course. But there wasn’t any doubt whose fight it was. Toward the bell to signal the end of the fight, Mike got caught with a blow that would have floored a lesser man. But Mike simply poked his tongue out at the jerry curled Tucker.

Mike's second fight since becoming the youngest heavyweight in the history of the sport, sees his up against the one time Heroin addict and 6-1 underdog Pinklon Thomas. As per usual, Thomas had all the pre-fight mouth. And when they got in the ring on May 30th, he appeared to be backing that mouth up for a while. In the 6th round however, Mike caught Thomas with an uppercut that set up one of the most accurately timed and placed combinations witnessed in a ring for some years. A left, right, and another left (all hooks) saw Thomas sitting on his backside like he had just woken up from an afternoon nap. The fight was over.

On March 7th - fresh from his 2 round demolition job on Trevor Berbick 5 months earlier - Mike not only defended his new WBC title, but also fought for the WBA title against James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith. Although still only 20, Mike has learnt to act and portray himself (thanks to Jimmy Jacobs) like he is 10 years older. Everyone was caught up in the Tyson hysteria by now. He had appeared on the front pages of all the high-class magazines, and was seen socializing with all kinds of women. He pretty much dominated the whole fight against Smith and won via a unanimous decision.

1986
November 22nd. Mike is 20 years, 4 months and 22 days - and at 2214 hours he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever (his predecessor was another Cus D’amato protégé - Floyd Patterson). The way he beat Berbick opened the eyes of everyone in the world. He ruthlessly, peerlessly destroyed Berbick in a stunning, awesome performance, to claim the WBC title. The ‘punch’ that done it was a short left hook to the temple. Berbick looked as though he was breathing intoxicating fumes as he kept trying to get up but falling down again. Finally, after 3 attempts to rise, referee Mills Lane saved him from anymore humiliation by wrapping his arms around Berbick and holding him up. Mike Tyson was king at last. The promise he made D’Amato had been delivered.

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