Fun fact about Mike Tyson: Tyson won his first 19 fights by knockout, 12 in the first round.

Not insane when you watch bouts like the Mark Young fight, and you see Young "fly" across the ring and lay face first on the canvas after getting punched on the gloves. But that's part of the business.

 

No one looks as impressive Knockin em out, as young Mikey.
OK, they were fodder some of em but fun to watch!

 

Nigel Benn was very similar.

 

Should I have picked Jesse Ferguson instead?

There was a concerted effort by New York boxing members and the media to promote Mike Tyson as a KO artist. He had a full-blown media campaign behind him. He was marketed to the brink, tapes of every early win, including fights like Mark Young where guys "played their roles," were sent to media all over the east coast. His team put on a full-court press to generate coverage.

It got to the point where, in Tyson's network television debut, Jesse Ferguson was disqualified for holding against Tyson, and NY State Athletic Commission Chairman Jose Torres (another Cus D'Amato fighter and Tyson advisor) changed the result to a KO because they wanted his KO streak to continue.

And, of course, the NY Times reported the next day "ANOTHER KNOCKOUT FOR TYSON."

He didn't knock out Ferguson.

I've always enjoyed watching Mike Tyson and think Tyson became a great heavyweight. But he was one of the most carefully marketed fighters the heavyweight division has ever seen until he broke with Cayton.

 

Tyson's early knockouts were far more legit than Deontay Wilder's. Many of Wilder's fights had fix written all over them.

 

But, but, but Wilder. You guys are a broken record.

Which one of Wilder's wins was a Disqualification changed to a KO win?

 

He was. The Logan fight was mental.

 

Shame.
I knew Ferguson was disqualified, but I didn't know the whole story.
That injustice has not been corrected to this day, but disqualification is still treated as a knockout.
It hurts both boxing and Mike Tyson.
Thanks for the information.

 

Mike Tyson had one of the most impressive beginnings to a career.. between March of 1985 to March of 1987 when only being 18-20 years old, he compiled a record of 29-0-0-26 and captured two world titles. He also did this while sporting some very emphatic performances along the way. It’s little wonder that popularity in heavyweight boxing sky rocketed at this time and after a long period of having a divided title with a lot of slow paced boring fights.

 

All true, but it's not like their marketing was wrong. He really was a KO artist and repeatedly generated spectacular KOs in fights nobody can argue were fixed. He even managed a few when old and completely shot.

I guess I'd be more annoyed if they had been blowing smoke.

 

Mark Young did a Bruce Seldon before Bruce Seldon did a Mark Young.

I'm sure there were other fights on Tyson's ledger that were tenebrous like Julius Francis, the aforementioned Seldon, the quick count against Mathis, possibly Alex Stewart to name a few.

It's boxing, remember that. Nobody is perfect. Those first 19 KO's were scintillating and brought back excitement to a talented but boring division that Magoo mentioned earlier.

"Easy fights? They were fast, not easy!" - Cus D'mato when asked why Tyson's fights ended so easily.

 

I don't think anyone knowledgeable here needs anymore proof that Mike Tyson was sensational in the 80s. We should all know it.