A Hollywood story that every fan should know, not only of combat sports! How Mike Tyson avenged his idol Muhammad Ali

He got what he deserved! That’s the story of how the scariest man on the planet Mike Tyson avenged his idol Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali’s last fight ended sadly

A story straight out of a movie script. That’s what you might call Mike Tyson’s revenge on his idol. A story every boxing and combat sports fan should know.

During his stellar career, legendary boxer Muhammad Ali suffered only one defeat before the limit. The boxer who managed to force a fighter of that caliber to leave the ring early was Larry Holmes.

The story begins on October 2, 1980 in Nevada, USA, when 38-year-old boxing legend Muhammad Ali had one of the last fights of his career against his former sparring partner Larry Holmes.

Few people know it, but three months before this boxing match, Ali underwent a medical examination, the conclusion of which was closely guarded. We now know that Ali has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The symptoms were obvious. Ali could not balance on one leg for long, could barely touch the tip of his nose, and his speech was increasingly unintelligible.

His opponent, Larry Holmes, was toying with his fate before the fight

The boxer took full responsibility and insisted the fight go ahead. Holmes let his mouth drop before the fight and said many unkind things about the legend of the sport. “The night Ali and I face each other, I’m going to go right at him and make that guy fight every second. I don’t think our fight will last more than eight rounds, so I expect a knockout or an early stoppage,” Holmes said at the time.

“My main goal is to go in there and knock this guy down, hurt him and get him out of the ring as soon as possible. I’m not going to feel sorry for him, because he’s going to get paid for me cutting him down,” he went on to disrespect the legend of the sport.

” I am your mentor, I am your teacher, you owe everything to me.” It can be assumed that there was some animosity between the two fighters, which is why Muhammad decided to risk his health between the sixteen ropes.

In the end, the fight brought tears to the eyes of every spectator present, as the helpless and already sick Muhammad took a severe beating in the fight. Parkinson’s disease had only just begun to progress, but it still managed to take its toll on Ali’s stamina, reactions and speed. His trainer Angelo Dundee could no longer stand to watch his charge take the beating, so he decided to put a stop to it.

Enter Mike Tyson

This is where the story could have ended, but it was at this point that fate wove the character of Mike Tyson into the story. At the time, 13-year-old Tyson was in a juvenile detention facility. One day, it was there that he met Muhammad Ali, who came to visit the children at the facility.

This encounter changed the troubled child’s life forever. From that moment on, he wanted to become a world champion boxer and was willing to do anything for it. Coincidence or fate?

When Mike was 14 years old, his potential was recognized by the famous trainer Cus D’Amato. He adopted the young homeless boy and personally asked Muhammad to talk to the boy on the phone several times. The first conversation between the boxing legend and the boy took place just after Ali’s fight with Holmes.

Tyson uttered a memorable line into the phone. “Don’t worry, champ, when I’m big, I’ll avenge you and beat him for you,” the young boy promised. As time passed, Mike went from a little boy to the scariest man on the planet. Slowly he grew up and by the end of the 90’s he was already boasting unified world champion boxing titles. By that time, D’Amato had left this world, but his legacy continued in the figure of “Iron Mike”.

The day of reckoning is approaching

The tables were turned and the aging Holmes experienced two straight defeats at the time. But the 21-year-old Tyson never forgot the promise he made to his idol. And so in 1988, world-renowned promoter Don King arranged a heavyweight world title fight in Atlantic City with Larry Holmes, the very man Mike had so coveted.

The promoter then promised Holmes $8.5 million for the fight, and so Larry, despite recent surgery on his left hand, gave the nod for a mutual duel with Tyson. For some unknown reason, he was sure that he would be the one to beat the upstart Tyson first.

Even now, Holmes uttered words before the fight that would later come to haunt him. “I will go down in history as a great, whereas Tyson will go down in history as a loser. And even if by some chance he wins, he won’t enjoy the championship belt for long.”

The sweet revenge was overseen by Muhammad Ali himself

And so, that night, Tyson entered the ring, weighed down by his belt, with a terrifying look and a determination to tear his opponent apart and make good on his promise. Then came a truly legendary moment.

For into the ring stepped Muhammad Ali himself. He slowly walked up to Tyson and whispered the memorable line Tyson just nodded his head confidently in agreement.

Holmes, who had a big height advantage in the fight, wanted to keep his fearsome opponent at a greater distance. But Tyson was driven by a force that could not be stopped that night. The desire for revenge was simply overwhelming.

At the end of the fourth round, he landed punches that left Holmes on the floor. The veteran was able to shake it off and continue the fight, but another hard combination sent Holmes into the count again.

He did get up again just before the count ended, but another right hook sent him down with five seconds left in the round and a disoriented Holmes could not continue to fight.

The referee immediately stopped the bout. Holmes, like Ali years before, suffered the only defeat of his illustrious career before the limit. Nice ending to the story, don’t you think?

Source: Pandora TV, Twitter