In a recent feature with ESPN, ‘Iron Mike’ revealed that his 1987 stoppage of Pinklin Thom as to retain his unified heavyweight crown is the one that he rates over all 43 others.
“Pinklin Thomas. Because I hit him with 15/16 punches on the chin to bring him down.
He took a tremendous amount of punishment.”
Tyson knocked out the likes of Trevor Berbick, Frank Bruno and Larry Holmes – amongst many others – and boasts one of the most impressive highlight reels in the history of the sport.
Despite still holding the record for the youngest heavyweight world champion in history, there is still a view that somehow Tyson failed to fulfil his potential, due to the derailing of his career by a jail stint in the first half of the 1990s.
A staple in any respectable list of the blue ribbon division’s hardest punchers, Tyson was arguably the heaviest hitter America had produced in the past century, until a certain Deontay Wilder came along.
Wilder boasts an even more impressive knockout ratio than the legendary New Yorker, stopping every man he’s faced in a professional ring apart from current WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Tyson was last seen in the ring in an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr, and although he has no immediate plans to return, he hasn’t entirely ruled it out.