Mike Tyson’s warmup for his 1988 title fight with Michael Spinks included throwing punches at his backstage changing room wall.
Heavyweight boxing legend Mike Tyson, during his prime, was one of the most ferocious and most intimidating people on planet Earth. His unbeaten 37-fight win streak to begin his professional career will go down as one of the greatest runs in the sport’s history.
During his career, Tyson was known as a bit of a hothead who looked for fights in and out of the ring. His unprecedented punching power made him a headache for his opponents, as many of his adversaries looked defeated before the fights began.
Tyson faced former light heavyweight titleholder Michael Spinks on June 27, 1988, for The Ring heavyweight championship. While Spinks was an accomplished boxer during his career, he had the misfortune of facing Tyson at the peak of his skills.
Spinks was notorious for playing mind games on his opponents before their fights. Hours before the Tyson fight, Spinks and his team requested that Tyson’s hands be re-wrapped, but the result wasn’t what they intended or expected.
Michael Spinks paid a big price for manager pranking Mike Tyson
Butch Lewis, Spinks’ manager at the time of the Tyson fight, went into Tyson’s dressing room to request that the heavyweight champ re-wrap his hands. It caused a lengthy delay and resulted in Tyson going into an all-out rage before even making the walk for the fight.
“He’s punching holes in the wall. I’m like – to myself – ‘Oh no!” Lewis remembered. (h/t talkSPORT)
Despite punching massive holes in his changing room wall, Tyson was physically unaffected by the incident and proceeded to move forward with the fight. What resulted was one of the most vicious knockouts of his illustrious boxing career.
Tyson took out his pre-fight rage on Spinks once they entered the ring. 91 seconds into the action, Tyson knocked out Spinks with a 1-2 combination that sent the former light heavyweight standout collapsing to the canvas.
Mike Tyson isn’t ruling out a return bout after Jake Paul loss
After being paid £13.5 million for the Tyson fight, Spinks’ knockout loss was the first of his career and led to his retirement immediately following the event. Before falling to Tyson, Spinks was unbeaten through his first 31 fights, featuring two wins over Larry Holmes.
Tyson returned to the ring earlier this year against Jake Paul, falling by unanimous decision. It was his first professional boxing fight since a loss to Kevin McBride in 2005.
Tyson returned to boxing in an exhibition bout against fellow legend Roy Jones Jr. in 2020, with the non-scored bout going the full distance. Despite the loss to Paul, Tyson hasn’t ruled out potentially returning to the ring at a later date and called out Jake’s brother Logan during his post-fight interview.
Following the victory over Spinks, Tyson knocked out Carl Williams and Frank Bruno before suffering his first career defeat to Buster Douglas in 1990. Despite an up-and-down end to his career, Tyson is considered by many as one of the greatest talents in boxing history.
Spinks learned a valuable lesson in 1988: whatever you do, don’t poke fun at Tyson, or you could end up paying a hefty price inside the ring.