{"id":808840,"date":"2026-10-20T17:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808840\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:58:08","slug":"mike-tyson-names-his-3-boxing-idols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808840\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson names his 3 boxing idols"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Tyson<\/a> drew no shortage of inspiration from three all-time greats as he became the youngest world heavyweight champion in history.<\/p>\n

The American achieved this accolade by dethroning Trevor Berbick in 1986<\/a>, with his ruthless second-round stoppage for the WBC title sending ripples across the sport.<\/p>\n

He would then become known as the \u2018Baddest Man on the Planet\u2019, making nine successful title defences before suffering a stunning 10th-round stoppage defeat to James \u2018Buster\u2019 Douglas.<\/a><\/p>\n

One particularly significant performance during that time arrived against Larry Holmes, who was far removed from his prime but nonetheless continued to compete at the top level.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Tyson scored a fourth-round stoppage victory, as many expected him to, but it was more the story behind this fight that captured everyone\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

Around eight years earlier, Holmes had stopped Muhammad Ali in 10 rounds and, with \u2018The Greatest\u2019 being one of his idols, \u2018Iron\u2019 Mike was on a mission to avenge this punishing defeat.<\/p>\n

Tyson therefore approached his own fight with Holmes as more of a personal endeavour than just a standard title defence, given his fierce admiration for Ali as both a fighter and human being.<\/p>\n

As for his other boxing idols, the Brooklyn man told DJ WHOO KID<\/a> that Roberto Duran<\/a> and Sugar Ray Leonard<\/a> \u2013 two of the Four Kings \u2013 are among the fighters he most appreciates.<\/p>\n

Stylistically, it is clear to see why Tyson is a fan of Duran, given that, as hard-hitting boxers who typically faced taller opponents, they would fight with a certain tenacity to get on the inside.<\/p>\n

With Leonard, meanwhile, there are perhaps less similarities but, even so, many others would name the American as one of their all-time favourite fighters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson drew no shortage of inspiration from three all-time greats as he became the youngest world heavyweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808840","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\/808840","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=808840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}