Thirty-six years ago, a still only 21-year-old Mike Tyson was supposed to unify all the world heavyweight boxing titles. But he faced an undefeated giant!

1. on August 8, 1987, Mike Tyson had the chance to become the first boxer in history to hold all three of the world heavyweight boxing titles simultaneously. But how did he hold up against an undefeated giant who had a significant height advantage and similar KO power?

After winning the title as the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history, Mike Tyson wanted to break another record

He came into professional boxing like a bull into an arena and in just two years became the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing. He had a chance to break another record, but an undefeated giant stood in his way, cutting down his opponents as he did.

In late 1986, Mike Tyson infatuated the boxing world when he managed to break the record held by Floyd Patterson as the youngest boxing world title holder. In fact, at only twenty years of age, he was able to knock out Trevor Berbick in the second round to become the WBC champion.

But even that wasn’t enough and the following year he also became the owner of the WBA championship belt when he defeated James Smith. In the following fight he defended both belts, adjusted his stats to 30-0 and got a chance to get another record.

But he faced a boxer who, like him, knocked out one opponent after another. No losses, 34 wins, 29 of them by KO. That was Tony Tucker, who won the International Boxing Federation IBF title that same year after a win over Buster Douglas.

It didn’t even take two months for the two men to come face to face in a unification bout for all the WBC, WBA and IBF titles after their victories. The winner would become the first ever holder of all three titles simultaneously.

21-year-old Mike Tyson had to beat the undefeated giant

1. so, on August 8, 1986, an undefeated fight took place in Las Vegas to end all speculation about the best boxer of the time and unify all the titles.

Everyone wanted to see if the fearsome Mike Tyson could deal with Tony Tucker’s 18-inch height advantage. And it has to be said, it was the toughest fight of the still only 21-year-old Mike’s career up to that point.

Although Tyson pushed his huge opponent right from the opening bell, he returned the favor with equal vigor and managed to keep his opponent at arm’s length. Several times Tucker was able to shake Tyson up, and because of that he was able to take the first and third rounds for himself.

As time went on, however, the tireless Tyson found his rhythm and was able to get past Tucker’s long arms using the peek-a-boo technique drilled into him by mentor Cus D’Amato. In doing so, he landed some hard punches on his opponent that shook his confidence.

Tucker thus opted for a clinch tactic for the rest of the fight, using his power to keep the furious Tyson safe. He even resorted to provocations in the last two rounds, but it was ultimately Mike Tyson who had his hand raised after the fight.

It was only the fourth fight of Mike Tyson’s career to go to the judges’ scorecards. But nothing changed the fact that he became the first boxer in history to hold the WBC, WBA and IBF titles simultaneously, all at just twenty-one years old.

He then held all the titles until 1990 when he lost them after a knockout by Buster Douglas. However, by the last decade of the 20th century his career was already going downhill and he was staggering from one embarrassment to another. Although he made a successful comeback between the sixteen ropes, he was never able to hold three world titles at the same time.

Source: Wikipedia, Twitter