Mike Tyson Says He Avoided KO’ing Tyrell Biggs Early So He Could Hurt Him

Mike Tyson claims he avoided knocking out Tyrell Biggs early so he could hurt him as he truly didn’t like him.

Before their 1987 world heavyweight title fight, Tyson made an interesting comment that he wasn’t searching for an early knockout. Instead, he wanted to give Biggs a lesson and hurt him badly.

“I never really hated anybody. I think I hate Tyrell Biggs,” ‘Iron Mike’ snarled before their world title fight in 1987 (via TalkSport). “I want to give him a lesson, I want to hurt him real bad.”

The fight was a total beatdown that ended in the seventh round. However, the rounds before that were pure domination and Tyson says he could’ve ended it earlier as he knew Biggs wanted out of there in the third but he wouldn’t finish him so he could prolong the punishment.

“In the third round I knew I had him,” said Tyson post-fight. “He was crying. When I was hitting him to the body, he was making noises, like a woman screaming. I could have knocked him out any time after the third. But I wanted to make him pay for what he said.”

After the fight, Tyrell Biggs said he wasn’t sure why Mike Tyson was angry at him as all he said before the fight was he was confident he would win.

“I didn’t say anything that should have angered him… All I said was that I was confident I could beat him,” Biggs said.

Mike Tyson (50-6 and two No Contests) last fought professionally back in June of 2005 as he lost to Kevin McBride. He ended his career on a two-fight losing skid as he was knocked out by Danny Williams. He did return for an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. in November of 2020.

What do you make of Mike Tyson saying he wanted to hurt Tyrell Biggs?