If an avid Mike Tyson fan needed to be cheered up after sitting through the dismal sight of their boxing hero labouring his way through eight awful rounds with Jake Paul last week, chances are they got the hit, the lift they needed by watching, once again, Tyson’s truly terrifying annihilation of Trevor Berbick. It was 38 years ago today when Tyson turned Berbick into a human yo-yo, with “Kid Dynamite” wiping Berbick out inside two wholly one-sided rounds to become the youngest WBC heavyweight champion in history at age 20.
Tyson hit Berbick so hard, so sharply, so perfectly, that the older man fell not once, not twice, but three times from the same punch, this a wicked Tyson left to the temple. In that second round, Berbick, tagged by a Tyson right to the body followed by the left hook upstairs, fell in a delayed reaction. The sight of a glassy eyed Berbick, his senses obliterated, trying again and again to get up was chilling.
The first words Tyson said to Jim Jacobs after the fight/slaughter, were “Do you think Cus would have liked that?”
The late D’Amato certainly would have approved of his young fighter’s lethal performance. Tyson also stated post-fight that he would go on to become the oldest heavyweight champion ever, not merely the youngest. As we all know, this didn’t happen, Tyson’s reign of terror being of the short and explosive variety, not the long and dominant type. But Tyson sure thrilled us all in majestic fashion over the course of around three memorable years.
Tyson was seen as invincible, with him going on after the Berbick win to clean up and clean out the division. By June of 1988, Tyson had nothing much left to fight. Michael Spinks had been dealt with in 91 seconds, this fight one that some experts felt might be Tyson’s toughest test. James Smith had hugged his way to the finish line, his WBA belt gone after 12 tedious sessions. Tony Tucker did better, but he too was the loser via wide decision; although Tucker caused a minor sensation by briefly wobbling Tyson early, this with an uppercut to the chin.
Yes, there was a time when the sight of Tyson getting hit by a punch was headline material. Tyson was bored after the Spinks fight, and he went on to have the longest layoff of his career at that time, this eight months, before he returned to flatten Frank Bruno. But the cracks were showing, and Tyson was getting hit more. Still, it was a momentous shock when Buster Douglas did what he did in February of 1990.
38 years ago today, Mike Tyson arrived on the world stage in truly epic fashion. All these years later, and Tyson’s knockout of Berbick ranks as the one many fans call their favourite. Berbick, quite literally did not know what hit him.
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