By Kenneth Friedman: Former heavyweight champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson posted a short workout clip of him hitting the pads and looking incredibly quick and powerful at age 53. Even now, Tyson is faster than the current elite-level fighters in the division.
Tyson is training for a charity exhibition match, and he looks impressive. With Tyson’s punching power and hand speed, he would give Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, and Anthony Joshua massive difficulties in a three-round exhibition match. Anything beyond three rounds would put Tyson at a considerable disadvantage, however.
It’s remarkable to see how fast Tyson still is after being retired for 15 years since losing to Kevin McBride by a sixth-round stoppage in 2005. Looking at Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) hitting the mitts, it’s clear that he retired too early.
He should have continued with his career and dedicated himself to working on his conditioning. That’s what caused Tyson problems in his losses to McBride and Lennox Lewis.
In looking at this short video clip, Tyson would give Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury a run for their money in the first couple of rounds. The body punching from Tyson would give Wilder and Fury significant problems.
Neither of those guys has had to deal with a body puncher like ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson during their careers, and it would be a real test for them to deal with that.
There’s no chance for the 53-year-old Tyson to come out of retirement to take on any of the top-level heavyweights like Wilder and Fury. These guys could learn a lot from being trained by Tyson. The technique that Tyson still has is sadly missing from the best heavyweights in this era.
Thirty-five years ago, Tyson took the heavyweight by storm after turning professional in 1985 and winning his first world title a year later in destroying Trevor Berbick by a second-round TKO in November 1986 to capture the WBC heavyweight title. From there, Tyson went on a four-year run in destroying some of the best heavyweights in the division.
The fame quickly got the best of Tyson with him losing to Buster Douglas by a 10th round knockout in 1990. That’s a fight that Tyson probably wouldn’t have lost had it taken place a couple of years earlier before the fame started to get to him. That’s not to take credit away from Douglas, as he put together the fight of his life in outslugging Tyson.
After his loss to Douglas, Tyson did an excellent job of putting things back together for a while. His undoing is when he met up with a prime Evander Holyfield in 1996, and this was the beginning of the end for Tyson as an elite level fighter.