Is Mike Tyson's record unbreakable?

as already pointed out, the record certainly couldn't be broken under current matchmaking practices, whereby top prospects fight infrequently and always start out against a long run of tomato cans.

i suppose fashions change, it's possible that one day matchmaking practices would have changed enough for that not to be an obstacle.

but even then you'd need, to get a title shot at 20, to be a world level fighter at 19... which is a huge ask at heavyweight... you'd need someone who ticks all of the following boxes:

1) a freakishly early developer (I consider myself to be fairly typical in this regard and between my 18th and 22nd birthdays I'd put on c 2 or 3 stone of muscle. many of the really tall guys like Fury and so on may well not be fully grown and/or have fully caught up with their body in items of coordination and so on at this age);

2) huge amounts of training and sparring starting at a very early age; and

3) for whatever reason uninterested in any kind of prolonged amateur career.

Tyson, with his highly unusual genetics, early route from correctional facility to living in with Cus, and decision to turn pro very quickly, really was a bit of a one-off, with nature and nurture perfectly aligned.

I guess the record just might be broken one day, but it could easily last 50 or 100 years or whatever, certainly, and who knows what boxing's status or popularity might be a century from now.

as someone has said, maybe someone from the traveller community, who's lived and breathed boxing from a ridiculously young age & who wants to fight for money at the first opportunity, might have a shot.

 

Definitely won’t be broken because today is a different game where the better heavyweight will be groomed slowly knowing they will peak later in their 30”s .


DDD is the closest thing and he’s chasing the AJ money so he skipped the Olympics ,but unless you get a rare talent that is not a huge heavyweight with a style to leap frog others years past his peak and needing to peak at a young 18 ? That’s a hard ask . I’m going to say no, it won’t be broken it’s 2020 , smart teams won’t rush guys to break that record they will do the smart thing and go at the pace of their fighter , M.Tyson was a rare gem who also fought guys much lighter then we have now by a good 25 pounds ,today and future guys aren’t shrinking ever ,we see a small guy like that but chances are very slim and against even more giants ? People need to think about this stuff if they assume this record gets broken .


AJ has broken a record himself off the age one , he has won and unified in 19 fights with I believe the most less rounds ever ? I’m not sure but someone 18 winning a HW title ? Not happening.

 

I don`t think any 20 year old could beat Ruiz aside from a 20 year old Tyson.

 

not right now. But certainly someday. Ruiz? We are not sure how good he is yet. He had one good night.

 

Records are made to be broken wether you’ll see it or not one day it can or will be broken

 

Great point. You actually just changed my mind about all of this.

I would pick 22 year old Dubois to clobber Martin right now. Dubois probably would've been too green at 20 -- two years ago -- but it makes it seem pretty possible we could see another 20 year old belt-holder.

 

Tyson's record was the combination of perfect timing.
He had established himself as a dangerous and skillful fighter from a young age, and happened to walk into a decade of boxing where there was no dominant champion given Holmes had just lost to Spinks.

I don't see it happening. Fighters now don't fight often enough to establish themselves high enough in the rankings, plus I'd think promoters (of the champion) would be pulling the 'he's not ready or he's still green' card out to save themselves from the risk.

 

Tyson's youngest World HW Champion can be broken one of these days.

 

Tyson won the title in his 28th pro fight, so in terms of fighting experience the speed of his route was arguably bang average [e.g. Ruiz II was for Joshua, now aged 30, his 24th pro fight - Charles Martin was Joshua's 16th pro fight, Fury beat Wlad in his 28th pro fight, Vitali took 25 fights, Ruiz 33, Wilder 33, Wlad 35].

Here are the number of days rest that Tyson had between each of his first pro fights, 1st through 28th.

35; 43; 28; 21; 8; 27; 21; 34; 16; 7; 12; 9; 14; 21; 15; 13; 23; 22; 54; 17; 24; 15; 13; 15; 22; 20; 77

astonishing numbers by today's standards... e.g. Tyson's **19th** pro fight took place on a Monday!!! and *loads* of his earlier fights were midweek.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson#Professional_boxing_record

hardly a pattern likely to be repeated by a top prospect any time soon.

 

Crude calculations:

In the US or UK the earliest you're ever going to get a pro licence is your 18th birthday.

The most frequently a top prospect is going to fight these days [aside from maybe a couple of early-doors pushover fights which might come as often as say once every 3-4 weeks] is about say once every 8 weeks.

The shortest number of fights a prospect [with no amateur career to speak of behind him] needs to get a title shot is about say 15.

All of the above are very much the atypically fast side of what'd normally be considered 'fast track'.

Even so we're talking 120 weeks minimum from your 18th birthday, which would take you to 20 years, 4 & half months, i.e. a very similar age to Tyson's when he beat Berbick.

It's exceptionally tight.