Deontay Wilder claimed that he would knock out Mike Tyson if the pair had ever fought in the ring, whilst at the Showtime boxing upfronts event this week.

Tyson held a record of 50 wins and six losses in 58 fights, and became the youngest boxer ever to become heavyweight champion of the world. 

Wilder, meanwhile, holds a perfect record of 39 wins in 39 fights, the last of which lasted one round in Brooklyn against Bermane Stiverne. He is the 19th longest reigning heavyweight champion of all time.

"Me vs Tyson in 86, I'd kick the hell outta that guy," claimed Wilder.

"Listen, I've got to keep it real I know people always go back to the old school or look at the new school and there's no school where I'm not no. 1 on earth."

Tyson won his first 19 professional fights by knockout, 12 of them in round one. He clinched the WBC title in 1986 after stopping Trevor Berbick in two rounds, and added the WBA and IBF titles having disposed of James Smith and Tony Tucker in 1987.

Tyson became the first heavyweight boxer to hold the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles simultaneously, and the only heavyweight to successively unify them.

Wilder has held the WBC title since 2015 and won bronze at the Beijing Olympics competing for America.

Wilder, 32, faces a test against Luis Ortiz on March 3, 2018, but is talking in much more ambitious terms as a warning to his future opponents.

It's rumoured that an Anthony Joshua v Wilder bout is on the cards for later in 2018. The Alabaman already claimed: "December, I want to fight Anthony Joshua, but Eddie Hearn doesn't want to risk his gravy train."

He's maintained he will upset the currently prosperous state of British boxing and wants the fight to be held in America because there is 'more money' in fights across the pond.

Conor McGregor took a purse of at least $30 million from his bout with Floyd Mayweather last year, whilst the latter took around $100 million.