Celebrate Mike Tyson's 50th birthday with some of his greatest knockouts
"Iron" Mike Tyson turns 50 on Thursday, so to celebrate, we look back at some of his most exciting knockouts
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1 min read
Few boxers ever had a meteoric rise to the top of the sport like Mike Tyson.
As a 20-year-old, Tyson knocked out Trevor Berbick in 1986 to claim his first world heavyweight title and defended it nine times while becoming the undisputed, lineal heavyweight champion with the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight belts.
Tyson's calling card was his power. He retired in 2005 with a 50-6 record and 44 of those wins coming by knockout. Few have ever possessed the kind of power he had, and arriving even one round late to a Tyson fight always ran the risk of missing out on the entire fight.
Turning 50 on Thursday, Tyson is well past his prime and hasn't boxed in ages, but that doesn't mean we can't look back at some of his greatest moments in the ring.
Tyson's knockout of Michael Spinks as a 21-year-old in 1988 is one of his most legendary performances. Spinks had never even been sent to the canvas and Tyson put him down once with a combination of an uppercut and body shot and then quickly sent him down for good with the right hand that ended so many fights.
The fastest knockout of Tyson's career came in 1986 on his ascent to the heavyweight title against Marvis Frazier. Tyson cornered Frazier early and knocked him out with a vicious right uppercut followed by a left, 30 seconds into the fight (2:40 mark of the below video).
The final knockout of his nine title defenses came against Carl Williams in 1989 in Atlantic City, when he floored Williams in less than 90 seconds with a left that sent Williams sprawling into the rope.
After losing in stunning fashion to Buster Douglas and dropping his titles, Tyson came back in his next fight against Henry Tillman hellbent on beginning another run at a title and knocking someone out. Tillman almost made it through the first round but allowed himself to drift back to the ropes and was crumpled by an overhand right from Tyson.
The final knockout of Tyson's career came in 2003 against Clifford Etienne in Memphis, where he showed that he still had sledgehammers for fists with a first round knockout by way of a right hook.
