No boxer in history has made the impact Mike Tyson had on the sport at such a young age.
The all-time great Heavyweight came out of nowhere as an 18-year-old and took the boxing world by storm.
The short, stocky Heavyweight took the sport by storm immediately, landing quickfire knockouts as he cultivated an impressive record in the ring.
This led Mike Tyson to a world title fight at the age of 20, giving him the chance to overtake Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson as the youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history
Mike Tyson was 20 years old when he knocked out Trevor Berbick to become the world Heavyweight champion
After accruing an impressive record of wins in the build-up to November 1986, Tyson faced off against WBC Heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick in a history-making fight.
The young Tyson was 27-0 going into the bout, with 25 of these wins coming via knockout. Of them, only one fight made it past the sixth round, with finishes within minutes a trademark of “Iron Mike” during this time.
While Berbick was an impressive champion with a 31-4-1 record behind him, and a win over Ali for good measure, he paled in comparison to Tyson that night, who seemed destined to become champion no matter what Berbick did.
Despite having a 3.5-inch advantage, Berbick had no defense against Tyson as he came on the inside to lay in some brutal hooks, aiming to knock out the champion.
He battered him throughout the first round, with the champion showing an impressive heart to stay on his feet from some of the biggest shots in boxing.
It seemed clear from the beginning that Tyson would win, and it was just a matter of time. Berbick looked unsure on his feet in the first round, and it was obvious he would not last past the second.
Halfway through that round, Tyson escaped a clinch with a right to the body before an uppercut caught Berbick, while his massive trademark left hook knocked down the defending champion.
Berbick flopped around the mat, his body unable to do what his brain was telling him to.
Tyson won the fight via knockout in the second round to become the youngest world Heavyweight champion in history, although the win meant even more to Tyson than just winning a title belt.
Mike Tyson tried to kill Trevor Berbick in the ring as revenge for his victory over Muhammad Ali
The win over Berbick was Tyson’s way of getting revenge for Ali, who was battered by Berbick in his final fight in boxing.
Berbick was the last man to face “The Greatest” when he went ten rounds with Ali in 1981. Ali was overweight, lumbering, and not the man people remembered, although he managed to go all ten rounds with his younger opponent.
While Berbick didn’t knock out Ali, Tyson took umbrage with how hard he was hitting the retiring legend, as he revealed in an interview with Vlad TV.
He admitted that he wanted to kill Berbick for his work in that match, adding that Larry Holmes was another man he targeted for similar reasons.
Tyson said: “100 percent. Yes, no doubt about it. I was going to kill him, you know. I saw the way he was hitting Ali, really hard, with everything he had. Ali didn’t have nothing left.
“He couldn’t, but he was trying to kill him. I said, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to get him.’ Him and Larry Holmes.”
Tyson also went on to knock out Holmes in their 1988 fight.