Muhammad Ali was 39 and past his prime when he lost to the late Trevor Berbick in the “Drama In The Bahamas” in 1981. Five years later, Berbick lost his World Boxing Council {WBC} title to a 20-year-old from Catskill, New York . Mike Tyson had arrived.
The following March, James “Bonecrusher” Smith, the World Boxing Association {WBA} Heavyweight champion would go the distance with Tyson at the Las Vegas Hilton. Tyson won every round. Two months later, Pinklon Thomas, would have no answer for a flurry of 6th round punches that floored him. He got up, but he was finished.
On this day in 1987, Tyson faced Tony Tucker. The final act in the HBO organized unification tournament to bring about the World's Undisputed Champion. After Michael Spinks vacated his International Boxing Federation {IBF} title, having refused to fight Tucker, Tucker would face James “Buster” Douglas. Tucker and Douglas had sparred previously and had a feel for each other. Tucker knew it would be tough.
Douglas began the stronger and was ahead early on. But ultimately he would run out of momentum and power. This meant that Tucker and Tyson would meet in Paradise. Paradise, Nevada; at the Las Vegas Hilton.
With only a couple of months between both men’s last fights and this unification decider, it would be understandably presumed that both men were single-minded in their approach. However Tyson, disappeared from his training camp and partied for two weeks in Albany. During this extended blow-out, he told friends in a nightclub that he was going to retire from boxing.
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Jim Jacobs, a renowned handball player in his day and a boxing historian, was also Tyson’s co-manager. Fighting lymphocytic leukemia for several years, he would be dead within seven months of the fight. When Jacobs did eventually get in touch with Tyson, he explained that if he backed out of the fight, they would have been sued. He talked him out of it. But in his 2013 memoir “Undisputed Truth”, Tyson said “I should have retired then but I didn’t have control of my own life.”
Ticket sales for the bout were sluggish in the lead up. Tucker may have won 35 of his fights – with thirty by knock-out – but his odds varied in the build up from 7-1 to 14-1. There were criticisms as to how he had arrived at the top position in the IBF rankings.
Tucker, however, was not lacking in belief. Athletic and quick, able to take it to the chin and considerable punching power. And it transpired, he was right to have had confidence in himself.
The fight, originally scheduled for 15 rounds, was agreed to be reduced to 12 by the three governing bodies. 7,419 people came to view a fight that Tucker opened well in, starting with aggression and winning 2 of the first 3 rounds. Tyson though, grew into the fight and started to connect with more precision. Tucker became more withdrawn, later putting his defeat partially down to a broken hand he received before the fight in training. That aside, he still gave Tyson one of the hardest fights of his career.
Tyson’s next six fights he would win by knock out, including the landmark victory over Michael Spinks – then lineal champion and also undefeated - becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
