Never seen a boxer with so much determination to win: Mike Tyson vs K!LLING MACHINE! This is not for the faint of heart… 

Under the definition of “knockout machine” should be placed a picture of Mike Tyson who, since the eighties, did not stop killing his victims in and out of the ring.

In this video we bring you a top of matches where Tyson didn’t always have it easy, but his strength and unbreakable warrior spirit made his fists open the way to some of the most amazing victories of his career.

We open our top with a fight that took place on January twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The referee was the legendary Joe Cortez, who was able to go home early that night.

Tyson was only twenty-one years old, which made him seventeen years younger than the thirty-eight-year-old Holmes, who, by then, had been out of the ring for twenty-one months. Because of the results of the bout, Larry’s choice to make his triumphant return to the ring could not have been more misguided.

Mike, the undisputed champion, was the aggressor throughout the fight, but it wasn’t until the fourth round that he gave Holmes the push, with the help of his fists, to retire, for a time, from the ring.

Tyson managed to put Holmes in trouble with a powerful right hand, which landed right on his chin and ended up dropping him on the seat of the trunk that was located in Mike’s corner.

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Thirty five years ago (on January 22, 1988), Mike Tyson defended his undisputed heavyweight championship with a fourth-round stoppage of Larry Holmes at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The 38-year-old former champ challenged the undefeated peak-form Tyson after nearly two years out of the ring and clearly wasn’t ready for the “Baddest Man On The Planet.” However, Holmes would make an extended comeback in his 40s.

This story by award-winning author Don Stradley chronicles the final world title campaigns by the all-time great. The article was originally published in the Larry Holmes special (the May 2022 issue), which is available for purchase at the Ring Shop.

A LOSS TO MIKE TYSON SEEMED LIKE THE END OF THE STORY, BUT HOLMES WOULD RETURN AFTER A THREE-YEAR BREAK TO BEGIN THE FINAL CHAPTER OF HIS CAREER

When he fell for the third time that night in Atlantic City, Larry Holmes was done.

Mike Tyson had scored a fourth-round stoppage. If the sight of Holmes on the canvas wasn’t a clear enough message for the audience, there was referee Joe Cortez swooping in to wave the contest off. The ending had been dramatic, the gallant Holmes trying to withstand a younger man’s speed and power, trying to summon the old magic one last time.

Holmes wound up on his back, yelling at his corner men to come help him up.

A 38-year-old, ring-rusty Holmes was outgunned by the savagery of Mike Tyson in their 1988 clash. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Later on, Holmes mentioned the loss in a memoir co-written with journalist Phil Berger. He admitted he had taken the contest on short notice and was in no way ready to face a youthful beast such as Tyson. Holmes actually considered canceling the bout:

“As I neared the ring, I had this weird thought: Why not be the first fighter to refuse to go into the ring? All those people watching on HBO, I’ll amaze all of them. I’ll tell the announcer, ‘I swear I’ll fight Tyson next month, right after I have a tune-up. Just not tonight.’”

Of course, Holmes put aside his unease and gave Tyson a few good rounds. At times he even appeared to be controlling the pace and tone of the fight. But once the bombs started landing in the vicinity of his head and chin, the reality of the situation was visible to all.

In the past, Holmes had been able to shake off the effects of punches. Not now, though. It was 1988 and he was pushing 40. He’d come back for the money being offered, a cool $3 million or so. He had plans to buy up some real estate, and there was no quicker way to make a big wad of money than by fighting Tyson. But Tyson did what young champions are supposed to do. He took the fight to the older man and overwhelmed him.

There wasn’t a writer at ringside not reaching back for references and comparisons. They couldn’t wait to link this bout to Holmes’ own treatment of Muhammad Ali back in 1980, or Rocky Marciano’s dismantling of Joe Louis a few decades before that. A younger, faster lion always displaces the old lion. That’s the law of the jungle, and the law of boxing.

“I hated the way I lost against Spinks,” Holmes had said earlier in the week. “Win 48 and then lose two like that. That’s why I came back. One way or the other, this time I will retire at peace with myself, and with honor.”

But despite the apparent finality of his loss to Tyson, Holmes wasn’t really done. Tyson had merely retired the first version of Holmes. In three years, a different Holmes would emerge, a grizzled character with enough savvy to beat most of the competition being offered. Holmes’ eventual return to boxing didn’t make as many headlines as the comeback of George Foreman at roughly the same time period, but it was remarkable in its own way. In fact, it was one of the longest and most fascinating comebacks in the history of the business.