MIKE TYSON w rsf 2 TREVOR BERBICK
November 22, 1986; Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas
TYSON entered the ring against WBC heavyweight titlist Berbick after the lengthiest layoff of his professional career to date: A whopping two-and-a-half months. But he dominated from the start. Tyson (who would later claim in his autobiography he had ‘the clap’ in this fight) was in rip-roaring form. So dominant was he in the first round that British judge Harry Gibbs scored it 10-8. In the second, with Berbick hellbent on getting the 20-year-old’s respect, Tyson scored one of the most famous KOs of his career. Berbick went down three times from one shot as commentator Barry Tompkins famously announced, “We have a new era in boxing!”
DID YOU KNOW? Tyson’s first words after the fight was stopped were to Jim Jacobs. In a tribute to his late mentor he asked, “Do you think Cus [D’Amato] would have liked that?”
WATCH OUT FOR: The stunning finale aside, Berbick’s ludicrous approach and the fury it generated from his trainer, Angelo Dundee, at the end of the first round. “I made a mistake,” Berbick said afterwards. “I tried to prove my manhood with him.”
