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1223
1224

Iron Mike nearly takes a head off with uppercut (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by AJS1991

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[–]OneTwoThreeFourteen 199 points200 points ago

Yep, that definitely would have killed me.

[–]ItsaGDtravesty 48 points49 points ago

It used to kill me all the time when I played Punch-Out!

[–]Chuggo 17 points18 points ago

It was so demoralizing. I'd bust out of the gate and work Mike's ass with the left, then the right, then more of the right. Suddenly, he would flash and even though I knew it was coming I would slightly misjudge it and one fucking punch would knock my ass out. I guess what I'm saying is that I always had a plan until I got hit.

Edit: Typo

[–]magnus91 -1 points0 points ago

lol, well said.

[–]christoscamaro 8 points9 points ago

I still have PTSD type flashbacks of this.

[–]flyprdu 2 points3 points ago

A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A

[–]Sagavera- 14 points15 points ago

007-373-5963

[–]hurtstobreathe 2 points3 points ago

NEVER FORGET

[–]Nostroloppoccus 21 points22 points ago

It kinda looks like his soul is escaping there at the end.

[–]Chartone 108 points109 points ago

Watching his old fights makes me sad how boxing is just fading away.

[–]DonDriver 102 points103 points ago

It's tough. The two best heavyweight in the world are brothers who speak poor English and won't fight each other and nobody else is close. Meanwhile, the two most exciting fighters on the planet have spent the last 4 years NOT fighting each other; one just got screwed out of a win and the other is in prison.

[–]Dagur 63 points64 points ago

The organizations also need to get their shit together. There are so many titles and the stench of corruption is overwhelming. They need to unify and breathe new life into the sport.

[–]nrbartman 33 points34 points ago

Just a hunch, but if they organized the sport the way the UFC has approached it, we'd probably see boxing make a come back.

Instead of one massive monster fight every 3 months, where average Joe has never heard one of the fighters names and has no idea what belt is held or being contended for, it would make sense to cultivate fandom of boxers BEFORE they get to the title fight.

Have one belt - a top tier - the WBC, and then break the WBC into a clear set of belts. The best boxer in the world at 165lbs is the WORLD BOXING CHAMPION at that weight. He holds that belt.

But then, in the 4-6 months between the TITLE DEFENSE, every couple of weeks, you have a Pay-Per-View event where every weight class has one or two matches amongst the up-and-comers to determine who gets the next shot at the belt.

I know this sounds similar to the way they do it now, but with different belts and so much time between fights and no real structure, they're leaving people in the dark about who might contend a year from now.

If HBO were smart (and I think they are) they'd start an Ultimate Fighter ripoff that helped build some up and coming names in Boxing.

Only it should be less reality-show like Ultimate Fighter and more REALITY show like Hard Knocks.

I'm not a huge boxing fan but I'd watch the shit ouf of that.

[–]DonDriver 10 points11 points ago

That's a great idea in theory but in reality the economics don't work out. There is no dominant brand and once a fighter has reached that pinnacle, they have too much control over their own fights. The only way it would work is if a brand went out and fished up every young promising boxer to their brand under very long term contracts. You say 'they' a lot as if there were some great entity involved but nobody has any controlling stake in the sport. ESPN's Friday Night Fights would be a great starting point for that but

Boxing is an individual sport and fighters are their own brand. In UFC, the brand is bigger than any fighter. This is key because the nature of MMA is that a lucky shot can win a fight because a stunned opponent can be overpowered so easily. Boxing, since it allows a recovery time for a knockdown, allows suffering a lucky shot to be overcome.

It has nothing to do with belts, by the way. Belts are nice but you're right, they've become meaningless but there are still respected rankings systems out there that fans could turn to if they wanted.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points ago

They already did the reality show with The Contender. Fizzled out.

[–]mostprobably 3 points4 points ago

maybe I'm talking out of my ass, but it seems like UFC already peaked, and maybe even losing a lot of fan interest these days?

[–]nrbartman 4 points5 points ago

They may have peaked in terms of star power - with Liddell, Rampage, Tito, and Lesnar gone, and the star power of Hughes and Franklin fading, and St. Pierre sidelined for a year, for example...but thanks to deals with Fox and strong buyrates on their Pay-Per-View events they're enjoying some of the best viewership overall recently.

I think they peaked in terms of creating the brand, but in terms of drawing new fans to the sport WORLDWIDE, Dana White is in an amazing position. Getting the WEC, Strikeforce, and Pride all aligned has really built a great system for cultivating top class fighters and giving them an avenue to stardom in the sport.

They're doing it right so far.

[–]electricmice -2 points-1 points ago

adding to that i think dana white has to lose some weight as the figurehead. he looks ridiculous as a chubby guy.

[–]nrbartman 0 points1 point ago

YER a chubby guy.

[–]JudgeHolden 2 points3 points ago

The UFC has reached a bit of plateau now that Zuffa has bought out all of its potential competitors, but there's no way its peaked in terms of viewership or participation. One need only look at the huge proliferation of MMA gyms throughout the world in order to sense a fundamental shift in how the world views combat sports. I myself am a Muay Thai guy and for years I've followed professional kickboxing, but even though I think kickboxing is more exciting than regular boxing, I'll be the first to admit that it's largely been sidelined by MMA.

[–]gizmo1024 0 points1 point ago

Rocky already tried it a while back. It flopped.

[–]3th0s 5 points6 points ago

Their english is not poor at all... Listen to any of their interviews or their appearances on podcasts. Not only are the Klitschkos incredibly brilliant boxers, but human beings as well. They both have post graduate degrees and speak several languages.

The only knock on them is that they will never fight each other as long as their mother is still alive.

[–]DonDriver 3 points4 points ago

You're right. They are very smart and their English isn't poor in a grammatical or syntactic sense. Rather, it is that English isn't a natural tongue for them so there is no charisma when they speak to the English audience.

[–]Dukelicious 50 points51 points ago

Mike Tyson ruined boxing for me. Who wants to watch 2 big, slow meatheads feel each other out for 10 rounds when you grew up watching a caged animal attack from the opening bell?

[–]thecapitalc 13 points14 points ago

Ahem.. Tyson was a lot of things, but he was definitely not slow

Edit: Before you respond I think I mis-interperated your comment to mean Mike was slow. You were actually meaning he was so fast and exciting that everyone else is boring. My bad. I'll leave the comment though so others can see the awesome video.

[–]ggk1 4 points5 points ago

I love watching athletes that are so good that even people who know nothing about the sport can watch and say "....holy shit"

michael Jordan

Peyton Manning/Tom Brady

Mike Tyson

Tiger woods (in his prime)

who else?

[–]xyqxyq 3 points4 points ago

Barry Sanders.

[–]frankbunny 0 points1 point ago

Anderson Silva

[–]tsissing 0 points1 point ago

Roger Federer
Michael Phelps
Usain Bolt
Lebron

[–]mr_fro2000 1 point2 points ago

bo jackson

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

Ahem.. Tyson was a lot of things, but he was definitely not slow

That's what Dukelicious was saying.

[–]kongde 1 point2 points ago

gif is taken from round 2 in a fight that went 10 rounds....

but yeah, most early tyson fights didn't last past the first.

[–]rotll 4 points5 points ago

Michael Spinks still has nightmares, I bet...

tl;dw - it's a 90 second fight...watch!

[–]adx 0 points1 point ago

I was at my cousins house during Tyson/Spinks fight and we were so excited to watch it. When it was over in less than 2 minutes everyone was so disappointed.

[–]congelado 3 points4 points ago

It is sad, but ultimately all sports evolve, and boxing is just one element of an umbrella of sports, combat fighting.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

boxing is the shittiest sport known to man, and this is coming from someone who used to be a hardcore fan. thanks for ruining for everyone, don king.

[–]ggk1 -1 points0 points ago

boxing is like if there was a golf sport where competitors got up and saw who had the best backswing. There's so many facets to fighting, but boxing ignores most of them.

[–]Gold_blooded -5 points-4 points ago

boxing is not fading away though....casual fans need to stop making such comments on the sport

[–]just_this_guy_zaphod 22 points23 points ago

Looking at this really drives home how .gifs are great for sports moments like this. I can watch Tyson throw that punch for hours.

[–]kirkderp 2 points3 points ago

Amen to that my friend.

[–]mackdaddyy 19 points20 points ago

someone else mustve watched the mike tyson documentary on espn classic today.

[–]smokinJoeCalculus 13 points14 points ago

The "Behind the Glory" doc is outstanding. I have yet to see something better. When I first watched it I came away looking at Iron Mike in a completely different light. I felt pity for the guy, he was basically taken advantage of for most of his life by most everyone he knew except for a trainer of his that died when he was still pretty young.

[–]Mayzenblue 24 points25 points ago

Cus D'mato. When he died, Mike died with him. I'm 40 years old and there is no one I have seen more dominant than Tyson was up until the Buster Douglas fight. He was UNSTOPPABLE. He took care of Michael Spinks in 90 fucking seconds. The heavyweight champion of the world. I think I paid about $50 of my hard earned pizza delivery tips to watch it live at the Capital Centre and made my money back plus dubs betting older boxing fans around me who thought Spinks was going to dominate.

Once the promoters squeezed every drop of blood they could out of him, and the she-devil known as Robin Givens just hung him up to dry on national television, and then took half his money for a sham of a marriage, he was a shell of his former self.

You can talk up Ali, Louis, Frazier, Patterson, Marciano, Foreman all you want. They were all great champions but none of them dominated like Mike Tyson and I don't think we'll ever see anything like him again.

[–]wardsac 40 points41 points ago

Growing up, Iron Mike was the baddest motherfucker on the planet. Guy was absolutely destroying guys, most of them in the first couple of rounds.

RIP Boxing :(

[–]cweaver 14 points15 points ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FgS3kCv79I#t=1m11s - obligatory compliation video of Tyson in his prime, just taking people apart.

[–]thecapitalc 3 points4 points ago

I'm a bigger fan of the defense video. No one could touch him.

[–]mr_fro2000 2 points3 points ago

His movement is simply amazing... one of the MOST underrated qualities about iron Mike.

[–]Murkuree 2 points3 points ago

That was brutal.

[–]Kuusou 1 point2 points ago

6:52 Mike was all skill. He really didn't just throw punches. Hes a monster, honestly.

[–]easyantic 0 points1 point ago

Not so much throwing as driving them through his opponents.

[–]wmarcello 2 points3 points ago

Whenever I watch boxing highlights it's usually two confident guys just ready to do battle. Whenever I watch Tyson highlights, more often than not you can actually see the ungodly fear in the opponent's face.

[–]krazycraft 2 points3 points ago

I refuse to respond with a shitty reaction gif but the one that pops up in my head when I saw this video is from Arrested Development "I've made a huge mistake." It seems that is what is going through a lot of those boxer's heads when the bell sounds and they are like "oh fuck I really got fight this beast."

[–]lotictrance 1 point2 points ago

God, that last fight. I remember watching that a while back and just feeling so sorry for the other dude, struggling his ass off to get back up and finish the fight but he just can't.

Mike was a scary, scary fighter. I read something (or saw an interview? can't remember) where he talked about basically, he goes into the ring looking to kill. A lot of it was intimidation for him. He wasn't looking for a fight, he was seriously looking to kill.

[–]harryLOL 0 points1 point ago

I will never get bored of watching that.

[–]ggk1 0 points1 point ago

was the guy at 4:53 actually saying words or was his brain jacked and he just speaking gibberish? I can't understand what he's saying

[–]AvoidingIowa 8 points9 points ago

It looks like he shot him with a gun. Did anyone check his boxing gloves for a gun?

[–]botts 18 points19 points ago

What I want to know is how the actual boxing appears in slo-mo but the fucking ticker is plaid speed.

[–]smokinJoeCalculus 14 points15 points ago

The Schwartz is strong with this one.

[–]setphen1 12 points13 points ago

I'd have to guess that it was taken from a replay on ESPN, not slowed down after the fact. Thus, slow-mo replay...real time ticka™.

[–]rmw6190 6 points7 points ago

reminds me of rock em sock em robots.

[–]wizbam 1 point2 points ago

You expect the head to just rise up on a steel ratchet and hear that telltale pinging of the pawl striking each ridge in succession!

[–]wolftrouble 5 points6 points ago

I know nothing about boxing and couldn't care less about it, but I've watched videos of Tyson in his heyday and holy fuck. I've never seen anyone fight like that, before or since. The man was, and is, an absolute beast.

[–]Laminar 5 points6 points ago

Man, that shot landed on the green....

[–]9ipsykin9 3 points4 points ago

"The guy ripped the head off my pigeon. This was the first thing I ever loved in my life, the pigeon.” The enraged Tyson responded by throwing his first fist in anger.

Mike Tyson has been taking heads off ever since. link

[–]johnahoe 3 points4 points ago

Bookmarked and shared. Iron Mike was the shit once upon a time.

[–]JudgeHolden 3 points4 points ago

Tyson was one of the deadliest inside fighters of all time because of his excellent head-movement and footwork which allowed him to slip and get in close and put guys away. That said, as is traditional in pro boxing, they did feed him a lot of cans back in the day, I have no idea as to whether or not this gif is of one of them.

[–]dubsac012 2 points3 points ago

My mom and dad took a very expensive trip to Vegas once that included ringside seats for a Tyson fight. They sat next to Michael Jackson's dad. It ended in the first round. I wonder if the experience was worth the cost.

[–]wjg10 6 points7 points ago

Maybe not worth it from a cost to experience standpoint, but pretty good for story telling purposes. They can bring that tale up every time Tyson, Jackson, or probably even Vegas is brought up im conversation.

[–]ur2cool 0 points1 point ago

This dude was like...the baddest dude.

[–]ggk1 0 points1 point ago

in that one conference where he tells someone they're not man enough to fuck with him is one of the only times I've thought.. "ya know...if he had said that to me I would've just had to sit the hell back down and admit that he was right"

[–]RussianTurnip 2 points3 points ago

I believe this is Jose Ribalta, pretty sure he gets up from this punch. Tyson knocked him down a few times, at one point the ref asks him if he wants to continue and he says "yeah, hell yeah!" ...tough bastard!

[–]kongde 2 points3 points ago

yeah dude...ribalta went for eight more rounds after eating that shot.

[–]RussianTurnip 1 point2 points ago

Craziness, I'm gonna go find this fight on youtube right now

[–]stfnotguilty 2 points3 points ago

A lot of people don't grasp how downright amazing Tyson was, and that's an absolute shame.

[–]Mmmm_WhiteCastles 2 points3 points ago

The Pre-Don King Mike Tyson was the best boxer ever.

[–]thatguy73 3 points4 points ago

No one metheth with Mike Tython!

[–]Botchness 0 points1 point ago

there is a reason he was called the baddest man on the planet.

[–]NSFW 0 points1 point ago

Who is that? I wonder how his brain is holding up these days...brutal sport.

[–]kongde 2 points3 points ago

Jose Ribalta, here's the whole fight, dat punch in the round 2.

[–]Avien 1 point2 points ago

Yup, just spaced out for 5 minutes with this .gif looping.

Friggin reddit.

[–]pacman404 0 points1 point ago

Yeah, after the first minute of watching this, my brain started to "hear" the punch. Crazy

[–]ChiefBrody 1 point2 points ago

The pink mist.

[–]kequila 0 points1 point ago

Why is the scrolling text going so fast?

[–]pacman404 0 points1 point ago

Text was probably moving normal speed and the punch was in slow motion. The gif sped it back to normal and that's the result

[–]noseonarug17 0 points1 point ago

"Aaaand POW! Heh heh h - ohhhh shit..."

[–]kirkderp 1 point2 points ago

I consider him to be the most entertaining athlete I've ever seen. There was no one so consistent at putting on a spectacle than Mike. That is until Tupac got shot. :( There is a fantastic 30 for 30 film on Mike and Tupac.

[–]bjjcripple 1 point2 points ago

annnnnnd that's why I don't box

[–]mjc1027 -1 points0 points ago

He hasn't been 'great' for 20 years, but still...by far, the Greatest boxer who could knock you the fuck out.

[–]VTFD 0 points1 point ago

If that's a slo-mo gif, how fast was that ESPN crawler going?!

[–]focusing 1 point2 points ago

*cracks neck

[–]PhantomCaesar 0 points1 point ago

And this is why he is the greatest of all time.

[–]ItsManSpider 0 points1 point ago

Rock em sock em robots.

I just wish boxing was still good.

[–]thecaits 0 points1 point ago

Mike was a beast back in his heyday. Too bad he went all crazy.

[–]stemgang 0 points1 point ago

He used to beat his opponents too quickly. Sure, he won the match, but the entertainment value was lacking.

He was a great fighter, but I wouldn't want to pay $1000 for ring-side tickets to a 2-minute match.

[–]ROBTOMIC -1 points0 points ago

HADOUKEN!

[–]The_Crow 0 points1 point ago

Notice how he set the opponent's head with his left hand before he threw the upper cut? Vicious.

[–]mfskarphedin 0 points1 point ago

That guy looked just about done, anyway. Pretty damn needless physical damage, IMO.

But then again, the guy might be braindead, but he's still got both ears.

[–]kaiseresc 0 points1 point ago

everytime I see Mike I remember Bill Hicks' description of him. The man was indeed a beast.

[–]DelTrotter 0 points1 point ago

Is that Frank Bruno? Poor guy's never been the same since his Tyson fights.

[–]doubledeus -1 points0 points ago

I've come to the conclusion that Mike Tyson was overrated. Great fighters are defined by fights with other great fighters. Mike Tyson looks like a killing Machine when hes fighting mediocre fighters, but against other great fighters (Holyfield and Lewis) he was thoroughly dominated and knocked out. The Mike Tyson we all loved and were in awe of got knocked out in Tokyo and never got back up.

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points ago

goat

[–]k1ngmad 0 points1 point ago

http://i.imgur.com/d7TBk.gif

[–]Cactis 1 point2 points ago

Don't forget Nat Turner's Punch Out!!

[–]swiffyD 0 points1 point ago

My favorite part about this gif is the list of Michigan State football players being suspended for their bowl game in 2007 on the ESPN crawl. Oh the good ol days...

[–]ShamanicHellZoneImp 0 points1 point ago

There's some guys channel on youtube that has all his amateur and pro fights up through like '95. Im on the phone so I can't find a link but man, his early pro fights were just clinics on being the baddest human to walk the earth.

[–]PaulHajns 0 points1 point ago

houli.... crazy mada faka... :) this is too fucking heavy shot!!!

[–]enroxorz 0 points1 point ago

He was a master in his art.

[–]rwingvr6 -1 points0 points ago

Oh the Iron-y.....

[–]og_sandiego -2 points-1 points ago

Iron Mike was an animal. Oh yeah, he chewed on Evander's ear....yup, an animal alright

[–]horticulture 0 points1 point ago

And I did one million push-ups in minute! I ain't lying, I did it!

[–]FreakinB -3 points-2 points ago

A couple of my co-workers were just telling me that they saw him on the street earlier today. Now this. Huh.

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