Mike Tyson has documented some of the troubling aspects of his childhood which most likely led to his career in boxing.

Regarded as one of the greatest to ever enter the boxing ring, “Iron Mike” was on another level to the rest; he was the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title, the first heavyweight to hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles simultaneously and the only heavyweight to successfully unify them.

He tasted defeat only six times in his 20-year career, with 50 wins to his name and a remarkable 44 wins via knockout.

But where did it all start for ‘Kid Dynamite’?

When talking about his childhood, Tyson said: “I must’ve had three or four [street] fights a day. From like age nine… I was 200lbs at age 12.

“I was fighting the kid, then fighting their fathers. They were crying, went home and got their father. Then I would fight the father.”

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Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York, and it’s known that his father had left before he was even two years old. He also sadly lost his mother when he was only 16, and his sister in 1990 when she was 24.

And it’s likely that all the pain Tyson had to endure growing up was what spurred him on to make a name for himself.

In 1981, he won a Junior Olympic Championship gold medal against Joe Cortez, and again in 1982 against Kelton Brown.

His real professional break, though, came when he knocked out Hector Mercedes in the first round on March 6, 1985.

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ENTER GIVEAWAY

It was after this fight that Tyson would begin his record-breaking and successful boxing career, as well as garner the media attention that turned him into the global star he is today.

Last year, Tyson made a highly-anticipated comeback against Roy Jones Jr in an exhibition fight, which generated $80 million from 1.6m pay-per-view buys, and it’s believed the boxing legend is actively looking for a new opponent since the fight to get back into the ring again.