{"id":718186,"date":"2026-07-30T00:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/718186\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T00:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:40:08","slug":"mike-tyson-says-one-man-will-always-be-his-favourite-fighter-over-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/718186\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson says one man will always be his favourite fighter over Muhammad Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Tyson<\/a> has named his all-time favourite fighter, a man he always found to be more relatable than Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n

While being in awe of Ali\u2019s greatness, Tyson knew he could never successfully replicate the elegance of his style.<\/p>\n

So, instead, the Brooklyn-born puncher focused on cultivating his own unique approach, designed to utilise his raw power, brute strength and explosiveness.<\/p>\n

With no shortage of help from legendary trainer Cus D\u2019Amato, \u2018Iron\u2019 Mike managed to achieve this style and, in turn, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.<\/p>\n

His second-round stoppage of Trevor Berbick<\/a> in 1986 was then followed by a series of equally ruthless WBC title defences, only for his reign to end via a shock defeat to James \u2018Buster\u2019 Douglas in 1990.<\/p>\n

Yet still, Tyson will always be remembered as one of the sport\u2019s most formidable champions, along with his favourite fighter Roberto Duran.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hands of Stone\u2019 claimed his first world title in 1972, dethroning Ken Buchanan with a controversial 13th-round stoppage<\/a> to become the WBA lightweight champion.<\/p>\n

Duran then went on to encounter Sugar Ray Leonard<\/a>, Marvin Hagler<\/a> and Tommy Hearns, contending with a significant size disadvantage against each of his fellow Four Kings.<\/p>\n

In that sense, it is perhaps no wonder that Tyson \u2013 a relatively small heavyweight \u2013 named the Panamanian as his favourite fighter at an event covered by ESNEWS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoberto Duran. The reason why is because he comes from filth \u2013 like I did. I wasn\u2019t handsome like [Muhammad] Ali; I was from the gutter.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I wanted to be like [Duran], because he represented me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is therefore not only Duran\u2019s height and reach disadvantages, but also his deprived background, that resonated with a young Tyson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson has named his all-time favourite fighter, a man he always found to be more relatable than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-718186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}