Mike Tyson was on a twenty-seven-win streak before he defeated the Jamaican Trevor Berbick, becoming the world champion.
Barring two instances, the rest of the twenty-five matches fell in his kitty through knockouts. Among the two, where the opponents took him the distance, was the May 20, 1986 bout against Mitch Green.
The six feet and five inches tall ‘Blood’ was as much a product of adversity as Tyson conferred a rough upbringing in the troubled Brooklyn hoods.
Mike Tyson versus Mitch Green street fight, Harlem, 1988
So, it started with Yayo asking Tyson how he reckoned to live with vast amounts of money at such a young age in the eighties. The latter confessed that he barely knew what to do with so much money.
Then as he explained what he did with the earnings, DJ Whoo Kid asked, “It’s funny, but back I mean, Eminem had no way of looking at Value and money. [So], did you have that same issue, too, like you didn’t look at it?”
Mike Tyson replied, “No value because I believe what I was doing it wasn’t. Why am I getting paid for doing this? Really, this is not even working [for] me. I’ll enjoy doing this.
I would do this for free, a lot of money.” That’s when Yayo interjected and said, “You guys were freak like Mitch Green at that, but then. Is that n****er still alive?” ‘Iron’ Mike immediately responded, “I’m sorry I did that.” As Whoo Kid started laughing, Yayo added, there’s no need for him to apologize.
Tyson subsequently mentioned that Green became a born-again Christian. Whoo Kid couldn’t help but say, “Yeah, he knocked the shit out of him.”
After their clash in 1986, Mitch Green and Mike Tyson met again. But it was not for a rematch. Instead, the two clashed on the streets of Harlem in 1988.
Reportedly, Green was angry with promoter Don King for not paying him well. So he confronted Tyson, who was visiting a clothes retailer to buy an $850 jacket. A brutal showdown followed, leaving Green badly injured with his left eye shut due to the swelling and a cut on his nose.
Reportedly, Mike Tyson felt that he had killed the man, but thankfully, it didn’t happen so. But he also paid the price for the brawl as it left his right hand fractured.
As a result, the injury postponed the upcoming fight against British boxer Frank Bruno to February 1989.
Roughly a year after he faced Bruno, Mike Tyson met his first career loss at the hands of Buster Douglas. And in the process, he lost his undisputed crown.