00:00If I mention Mike Tyson to you, and you say back to me,
00:03isn't that the guy who fought Jake Paul?
00:05You and I can't be friends.
00:07Or if I have a conversation about the most dynamic athletes of our lifetime,
00:12and I mention Mike Tyson, and you say,
00:15isn't that the guy from the Hangover movie with the Tiger?
00:18You and I are not going to be cool,
00:20and I'm turning around, and I'm walking out of the room.
00:23You and I are obviously not talking about the same Mike Tyson.
00:26There's the Mike Tyson that we know today.
00:28The one that put himself back into the limelight with the Hangover movies
00:32and the reality show about his love for pigeons
00:35and his brilliant one-man show on Broadway that was directed by Spike Lee.
00:40I was the youngest heavyweight champion in the world.
00:42Always angry, fighting.
00:44The Cartoon Network's highly entertaining animated series, Mike Tyson Mysteries,
00:48and more recently, his uneventful mega-event with Jake Paul.
00:54But the Mike Tyson that I know reached the height of popularity on June 27, 1988.
00:58In Convention Hall in Atlantic City,
01:01when Tyson was scheduled to fight the undefeated 30-0 former Olympic gold medalist,
01:07the Jinx, Michael Spinks, for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
01:11Tyson grew up on the main streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn, as we all know,
01:14and he was left to custody by his boxing trainer and manager, Custody Amato,
01:19after his mother passed away when he was 16 years old.
01:23As an amateur, Tyson won gold medals in 1981 and 1982 at the Junior Olympic Games.
01:29He made his pro debut in March of 1985, and he fought frequently after that.
01:34He was undefeated, and he won 26 of his first 28 fights by knockout.
01:39His short, powerful structure had these fast hands that proved to be too much for all his opponents.
01:47What really separated Mike from the other fighters was his fearless, aggressive style.
01:52He took the fight to his opponents, and he was never sitting back.
01:56He charged his opponents with these quick, short, powerful combinations that were just completely overwhelming.
02:03It was like a pimple on an attack with, like, a singular mission right to the center of your chest.
02:10Very, the fear and intimidation factor that Mike brought, I'd never seen in my lifetime.
02:17And the scary part was, he was only 19 years old at the time.
02:21Tyson's winning streak started to gain national acclaim as he was being touted as the next great heavyweight champion.
02:26Then, in November of 1985, Tyson's legal guardian and trainer, Kusty Amato, died at 77 years old.
02:36Many were concerned that Tyson's career may get derailed at this time.
02:40Kusty Amato was the only person in Mike's life that he listened to and kept him in line.
02:46Mike was now a savage animal, walking the wilderness on his own.
02:49The next couple of years, Tyson tore his way through the heavyweight ranks.
02:53In 1986, he defeated Trevor Burbick for the WBC title, with a TKO in the second round to become the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history at 20 years and four months.
03:03In 1987, he defeated TNT, Tony Tucker, to win the IBF title, and then defeated James Bonecrusher Smith to win the WBC title to become the unified heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson.
03:17And that later set the stage for the fight that everybody wanted to see, Mike Tyson versus Michael Spinks.
03:22As an amateur, Michael Spinks won the gold medal in 1976 Summer Olympics as a middleweight.
03:28But after the Olympics, he went back to work at a chemical factory in St. Louis, Missouri.
03:34Could you imagine wearing a gold medal and just mopping the floors at a chemical factory?
03:38See, Michael's brother Leon was on the verge of becoming a huge star in boxing at the time.
03:43By 1977, Leon Spinks was 6-0-1 and was gearing up for a fight against Muhammad Ali.
03:50After the two fights between Leon Spinks and Ali in 1978, each fighter winning one by split decision, it was finally time for Michael Spinks to start moving his way up the professional ranks.
04:02By 1981, he was 17-0 and won the WBA light heavyweight title.
04:07By 1985, he was a legitimate boxing superstar.
04:10He was 27-0 as a light heavyweight and held the WBA, WBC, and IBF light heavyweight titles.
04:17And he was taking a bold step in his career.
04:19He was going to move up in weight class to take on the undefeated IBF heavyweight champion Larry Holmes, who was 48-0 and trying to tie Rocky Marciano's record of 49-0 as a heavyweight champ.
04:34But it was the underdog Michael Spinks who made history that night, winning a highly controversial 15-round unanimous decision to become the first ever light heavyweight to move up to a heavyweight championship belt.
04:47Two years later, that set up the collision course with Mike Tyson on June 27, 1988, in Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and we got the ticket to that.
04:59So, obviously, very famous artwork in the middle, a beautiful piece.
05:04These boxing tickets are just spectacular because they really have great artwork, great graphic, great color.
05:12So, you know, you see Mike Tyson signs the back right over the Trump Plaza logo right there towards the bottom.
05:22Tyson and Spinks in the middle.
05:24And it says, Tyson versus Spinks once and for all, the undisputed world heavyweight championship.
05:30This is a really, really cool piece.
05:33What's really outstanding about it is it is a full ticket, and as you can see on the bottom, it says VIP Golden Ringside, $1,500.
05:45This ticket cost $1,500 back in 1988.
05:50It's in Section 112, Row 9, Seat 10.
05:54So I don't know who this ticket belonged to, but I'm sure it was a big shot.
05:57Because once you start getting to Row 9, that's where a lot of people like to sit.
06:02Everybody likes to sit in the front row because they like to be seen.
06:06That's where Donald Trump sat during this match, Don King and what have you.
06:10A lot of people sat in the front row.
06:12But normally around Row 7, 8, and 9 is where you really want to sit if you're a real boxing fan
06:18because it gets you up off the floor a little bit and gets you a better perspective of the ring.
06:23So obviously the 7, 8, 9, and 10 are probably the best rows in the house for a boxing match.
06:29So we know some sort of big shot had this one at $1,500 a ticket.
06:34It wouldn't be me, but I'm lucky enough to own it now.
06:36So when Spinks was walking into the ring, he appeared to be pretty confident.
06:40He was jawing at the crowd, and he had a little bounce to his step.
06:45But, you know, that's when he was just kind of walking.
06:48That was his little entrance.
06:49But when he entered the ring, you know, when he entered the ring, he looked good.
06:53His corner was raising the IBF belt, the chin was up high, he was moving around good.
06:59And then we started to hear some strange, loud metal music flaring in the arena.
07:06It was Mike Tyson's entrance music, and it was really strange and eerie.
07:13So Mike Tyson was making his entrance to the ring, led by a large group of handlers and security.
07:20There was no robe, there was no gesturing to the crowd, there was no fuss, no must.
07:25This is all business.
07:27This is Mike Tyson, and it's very, very intimidating.
07:31And as soon as Mike steps into the ring, the crowd roars.
07:35The star gladiator has entered the Coliseum.
07:38Don King and Donald Trump were in the ring, as was Muhammad Ali, but the star of the night was Mike Tyson.
07:44And at that moment, you could almost feel all of the confidence that Michael Spinks had, just a few minutes earlier, just completely disappear.
07:56By the time his name was announced, you could see some of that swagger already gone.
08:02And by the time they tapped gloves, you could just see it in his eyes.
08:06He was done.
08:07Tyson comes out, as furious as always in the first round.
08:13After a few quick exchanges, Tyson proved his dominance immediately.
08:17Tyson pushes Spinks against the ropes, and Spinks circles to the right.
08:22Left uppercut, and right body shot.
08:25Spinks goes down.
08:27Spinks goes down.
08:28There's a standing eight count for Spinks.
08:30He doesn't look good.
08:32Tyson knocked him down with a body shot.
08:33The ref asks if he's okay.
08:37Spinks nods, and then heads to the center of the ring.
08:40As soon as he heads to the center of the ring, bam!
08:42Tyson hits him with a right uppercut.
08:45Spinks is down.
08:46He falls underneath the ropes.
08:47It doesn't look good.
08:49He doesn't look like he's getting up.
08:50He's unable to get up.
08:52One minute and 31 seconds into the first round, and Spinks is done.
08:56Spinks almost fell back.
08:58As we go back to look at this ticket again,
09:00you can see that Michael Spinks writes, when he autographs the top,
09:05he writes Mike Spinks, and he writes 32-1, which was his career record.
09:13He came into this fight undefeated at 32-0.
09:17He writes 32-1 on this ticket.
09:19And now we look at the label at the top.
09:21The PSA label says Tyson versus Spinks.
09:24Tyson first-round KO.
09:27Yellow variation.
09:28This is the very, very difficult full-ticket yellow variation.
09:34Very, very tough to get this ticket.
09:39And signed by Spinks on the top, signed by Tyson on the bottom.
09:44This is one of the most desirable tickets for any Mike Tyson collector.
09:51So after this fight, Spinks retired.
09:55Like I said, he autographed this ticket with his 32-1 career record.
09:59You know, I have video here of Spinks signing.
10:02He was very nice to sign this ticket for me.
10:05A very, very gracious man.
10:07Since his retirement, he's mostly remained out of the boxing scene and out of the public eye.
10:13Mike Tyson signed the bottom of this ticket with his very distinctive autograph.
10:17What made this special is that Tyson is not permitted to sign tickets of any kind through his representatives at the Fitterman Sports Group.
10:25So having a boxing ticket of any kind signed by Tyson is very rare and very valuable.
10:31I have one because I have my sources.
10:34So after this fight, the complicated whirlwind spiral, which was known as Mike Tyson, began to take shape.
10:41There are way too many unfortunate instances, triumphs, downfalls, tragedies, and comebacks to mention here.
10:48But just remember that after he knocked out Michael Spinks in 1 minute and 31 seconds, Mike Tyson was the baddest motherfucker on planet Earth.
10:55And with that comes a series of book deals and video games and cartoons, documentaries, Broadway shows, movie appearances, and so on.
11:02I mean, Will Smith even made a song about him.
11:05But let's not forget that at one point, for a long period of time in history, he was not only the most dangerous man in a boxing ring,
11:13he was the baddest motherfucker on planet Earth.
11:16This is Dave Katt. I'm the Ticket Bastard. Iconic Sports Media. We love you, Mike.
11:23I'm Mike Tyson!
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