Ranking Mike Tyson's 10 best KOs
The once 'Baddest Man on the Planet' is 58 but returns from nearly 20 years in retirement to fight Jake Paul in an official fight on Friday
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
Mike Tyson, the former undisputed heavyweight world champion and onetime “Baddest Man on the Planet,” became a legend because of his awesome punching power. He even had a video game named for him — the iconic “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!”
That fierce power was often on display as Tyson, who had two heavyweight title reigns and took part in some of the biggest and most iconic fights in history, retired in 2005 with a record of 50-6 with 44 KOs before being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011. (He did take part in two exhibitions, one in 2006 against Corey Sanders, one of his regular sparring partners, and one in 2020 against fellow Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr.)
Although I covered several fights at the tail end of Tyson's career, I was a teenager in the mid-1980s when he was coming up, and because I grew up in upstate New York, where Tyson was based and fought regularly in his early pro career, he was already a celebrity where I lived long before he became an international figure. At school, my friends and I often talked about his fights and knockouts and looked forward to his next bout.
It was quite a career but who would have ever thought that more than 19 years after he retired on his stool in a sixth-round TKO loss to journeyman Kevin McBride on June 11, 2005 that Tyson would exit retirement to, at age 58, face the 27-year-old Jake Paul (10-1, 7 KOs) in an officially sanctioned eight-round bout — albeit with rules tweaks, including two-minute rounds and the use of larger than usual 14-pounce gloves — on Friday (Netflix, 8 p.m. ET) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Who knows what will happen when Tyson fights Paul or if either man will score a knockout but I have ranked my 10 favorite Tyson knockouts.
Let the countdown begin:
10. KO1 Michael Johnson (Sept. 5, 1985, Atlantic City, New Jersey)
Tyson scored so many quick and exciting knockouts early in his career that I really could have picked any number of them, but this one is perfectly representative of the young Tyson, who was lightning-fast with his hands and head as he crushed opponents. Tyson came out looking for an early KO and dropped Johnson with a left hook. Johnson survived, and then Tyson ran to him, cocked back with a right hand that landed clean on Johnson's face, and down he went. Over and out.
I am in my 25th year of full-time boxing coverage. Take advantage of that experience by upgrading to a paid subscription to read the rest of this post and for full access to all posts and comments — and also support independent journalism.