Say the name Mike Tyson to any boxing fan, and you'll get a story. Maybe it's the 91-second demolition of Michael Spinks, maybe the Douglas shocker, maybe the ear bite. This guide pulls it all together: his age, his record, his belts, and his biggest nights. Love heavyweight history? You'll also enjoy our piece on Muhammad Ali and his lasting boxing legacy.
Michael Gerard Tyson was born in Brooklyn, and life there wasn't exactly gentle. Crime was everywhere, money was tight, and he learned to fight very early. This Mike Tyson biography starts on those streets, because you can't understand the fighter without them.
The family started out in Bedford-Stuyvesant, then moved to Brownsville when Mike was ten. By thirteen, he'd been arrested dozens of times. Trouble eventually sent him to the Tryon School for Boys, where counselor Bobby Stewart, a former boxer, spotted his raw power and introduced him to trainer Cus D'Amato.
Plenty. D'Amato became his legal guardian after Tyson's mother died when he was sixteen, and he drilled the famous peek-a-boo style into him. Tyson won two Junior Olympic golds and the 1984 National Golden Gloves heavyweight title as an amateur. Then, at eighteen, he turned pro in Albany in March 1985.
He was born on June 30, 1966, so he's 60 right now. People keep searching for Mike Tyson's age for a good reason: he keeps returning to big events decades after his peak. Here's how old he was at six defining moments.
| Career Moment | Date | Age |
| Won WBC title vs. Trevor Berbick | Nov 22, 1986 | 20 |
| Knocked out Michael Spinks | Jun 27, 1988 | 21 |
| Lost to Buster Douglas | Feb 11, 1990 | 23 |
| Lost to Evander Holyfield | Nov 9, 1996 | 30 |
| Lost to Lennox Lewis | Jun 8, 2002 | 35 |
| Lost to Jake Paul | Nov 15, 2024 | 58 |

Fifty-nine pro fights over almost forty years, from 1985 to 2024. The Mike Tyson boxing record and career sum up neatly in the table below. It counts official pro bouts only, so his exhibitions, like the Roy Jones Jr. draw, aren't in there.
| Category | Result |
| Total fights | 59 |
| Wins | 50 |
| Wins by knockout | 44 |
| Wins by decision | 5 |
| Wins by disqualification | 1 |
| Losses | 7 |
| No contests | 2 |
Tyson's career splits into three very different chapters.
It happened fast. Tyson took the WBC belt in November 1986, then added the WBA and IBF titles in 1987. No heavyweight had ever held all three at once. Let's look at the record he set first, then every belt he picked up.
On November 22, 1986, he stopped Trevor Berbick in round two to grab the WBC title. Tyson was 20 years and 4 months old. That still stands as the youngest any boxer has ever won a heavyweight title. One columnist of the era wrote that boxing had finally found a heavyweight worthy of its greatest names.
Here are all the Mike Tyson heavyweight titles he collected across two separate reigns.
| Title | Opponent | Date |
| WBC | Trevor Berbick | Nov 22, 1986 |
| WBA | James Smith | Mar 7, 1987 |
| IBF | Tony Tucker | Aug 1, 1987 |
| The Ring (lineal) | Michael Spinks | Jun 27, 1988 |
| WBC (regained) | Frank Bruno | Mar 16, 1996 |
| WBA (regained) | Bruce Seldon | Sep 7, 1996 |
In total, he beat 11 different fighters for a world heavyweight title, the seventh-most in history. He's also one of just a handful of men to win a heavyweight crown back after losing it.
Power made Tyson famous, and the Mike Tyson knockout record backs it up. Forty-four of his 50 wins ended by knockout, roughly 88 percent. He also opened his career with 19 straight knockouts, and 12 of them were over in the first round. A few that fans still talk about:
Ranking Mike Tyson fights is a fun argument, and there's no perfect answer. We've weighed the stakes, the shock factor, and how long each fight stayed in people's memory. Want more classics? Check out our list of the greatest boxing matches that shaped the sport.
| Rank | Fight | Date | Result |
| 1 | Tyson vs Michael Spinks | Jun 27, 1988 | Win, KO round 1 |
| 2 | Tyson vs Buster Douglas | Feb 11, 1990 | Loss, KO round 10 |
| 3 | Tyson vs Evander Holyfield II | Jun 28, 1997 | Loss, DQ round 3 |
| 4 | Tyson vs Evander Holyfield | Nov 9, 1996 | Loss, TKO round 11 |
| 5 | Lennox Lewis vs Tyson | Jun 8, 2002 | Loss, KO round 8 |
| 6 | Tyson vs Trevor Berbick | Nov 22, 1986 | Win, TKO round 2 |
| 7 | Jake Paul vs Tyson | Nov 15, 2024 | Loss, unanimous decision |
Douglas is the big one. Tyson was a massive betting favorite in Tokyo, and he still got knocked out in round ten, one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports. Then came the Holyfield rematch, where he bit both of Holyfield's ears and was disqualified. Together they show a fighter who could look invincible one year and painfully human the next.
Wins and losses only tell part of the story. Tyson picked up plenty of hardware too, and these Mike Tyson career highlights and Mike Tyson boxing achievements are the ones worth knowing.
Tyson stepped into a pro ring again on November 15, 2024, facing Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The fight was meant for July, but an ulcer flare-up pushed it back. Paul took a unanimous decision over eight rounds, with scores of 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73.
It still drew the biggest boxing gate in US history outside Las Vegas. On paper, the loss moved his record to 50 wins, 7 losses, and 2 no contests.
Love him or not, Tyson's story has everything: talent, chaos, downfall, and comebacks. The numbers alone are wild, with 50 wins, 44 knockouts, and the youngest heavyweight title win ever. Bookmark this guide for the next time someone argues about his age, his belts, or his best fights.
Mike Tyson was born on June 30, 1966, so he's 60 years old in September 2026. That made him 58 when he faced Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Texas in November 2024.
He finished with 50 wins, 7 losses, and 2 no contests from 59 professional fights. Forty-four of those wins came by knockout, which works out to a knockout rate of about 88 percent.
Yes. He beat Trevor Berbick on November 22, 1986, and won the WBC title at just 20 years old. No other boxer has ever won a heavyweight world title at a younger age.
Jake Paul won by unanimous decision on November 15, 2024, by scores of 80-72, 79-73, and 79-73. It took place at AT&T Stadium in Texas and set a record boxing gate outside Las Vegas.
In his first reign, he won the WBC, WBA, IBF, and The Ring titles by 1988. He later won back the WBC and WBA belts in 1996, then lost the WBA title to Holyfield.