Mike Tyson Used To End Boxing Matches So Quickly That He’d ‘Still Want To Fight After the Fight’ — ‘I’d Punch a Guy in the Club’
Mike Tyson is universally regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, and his 50-6 record makes a strong case for him. During his prime, Tyson would earn upwards of $30 million per fight, often knocking out his opponents before the first round ended.
At his peak, Tyson was also known for having a volatile temper and got into street fights with fans, hecklers, and rivals such as Mitch Green, on several occasions.
Years later, Tyson revealed that many street altercations occurred because he’d end his matches so quickly that he still had energy left over to fight. Unfortunately, whoever happened to be around him after a match—whether it be an innocent bystander or a known enemy—would feel his rage.
Mike Tyson had a ton of 1st round knockouts throughout his career
Known for being a ferocious and intimidating fighter, Tyson built a reputation for ending his fights quickly. Over the course of his career, Tyson knocked out 22 of his opponents in the first round, famously defeating Marvis Frazier in just 30 seconds.
Tyson’s legendary boxing trainer, Cus D’Amato, trained Tyson from an early age to humiliate and embarrass his opponents in the ring. This led to Tyson scoring numerous first-round-knockouts in impressive fashion.
“I was with Cus, I wanted to strip them of their souls, Tyson told Tony Robbins in 2020. “That’s what he taught me, I’m not no philosopher, this is what I’ve heard from him, he taught me, ‘This is what you do to other big, strong men.”
Mike Tyson loved to fight after his boxing matches
Unfortunately, Tyson never learned how to turn off his in-ring mentality. The rage he brought into the ring to demolish opponents followed him everywhere he went, and he often had a ton of energy left over after brutally knocking out opponents in the first round.
Still having the desire to fight after said matches, Tyson would often take out his unused energy on strangers.
“Fights normally ended so quickly, I still wanted to to fight after the fight,” Tyson said, “So I normally had fights after the fights. … I’d punch a guy in the club, ah man.”
He’d get a $200,000 bonus for knocking out opponents in the 1st round
Even though Tyson’s reckless anger caused a lot of pain and suffering for both opponents and strangers, it proved to be very lucrative for him. Tyson became so notorious for first-round knockouts that he’d get bonuses for ending matches early. He called the extra cash “f*ck you money” during an episode of his Hotboxin’ podcast.
“That’s a bet you make with somebody. Everytime I knocked somebody out in the first round, I’d get a […] $200,000 bonus.”
He regrets his days as an overly-aggressive athlete
Now that Tyson is removed from the world of professional boxing, he has a completely different perspective about the way he used to function. He explained to Robbins that many of his actions were guided by his low self-esteem and fear of failure.
“I didn’t have no perspective [sic] of myself, I just looked at my idols,” Tyson said. “Jack Dempsey, all these guys … And I watched what they did, I watched what they said. Sometimes I said things that are really crude, that’s ironic sometimes. But I said it because my hero said it. … I would say all these dreadful things, that’s because I had low self-esteem. … It was all just because I was afraid of losing.”
