Why was Mike Tyson called ‘Iron’? The story behind his nickname

Known by the instantly recognizable nickname “Iron Mike”, the former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson returns to the Boxing ring this week, as he takes on YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul in a much-hyped bout in Texas.

The clash will be Tyson’s first professional fight in nearly two decades: while the 58-year-old New Yorker has since appeared in exhibition clashes, this will be his first officially-sanctioned pro boxing bout since 2005, when he was beaten by Kevin McBride in Washington, D.C.

Where did “Iron Mike” nickname come from?

Twenty years before that defeat to McBride, Tyson’s sensational emergence on the Boxing scene - in 1986, the then-21-year-old became the youngest ever world heavyweight champion - led him to become known as “Kid Dynamite”. Later, he would also be dubbed “the Baddest Man on the Planet”. However, it is the moniker “Iron Mike” that is his most iconic nickname.

Tyson appears to have earned the title for the simple reason that it reflected his ferocious, powerful punching ability - one that saw him earn knockouts in the first 19 fights of his professional career.

Speaking in 2020, Tyson looked back on the birth of the nickname. “Somebody started calling me ‘Iron Mike’, a gentleman that hung out with a friend of mine, Carlos Santos,” he told an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “And he said, ‘Man, I’m going to buy you a T-shirt that’s going to say ‘Iron Mike’. I didn’t even know what that stands for, and now everybody calls me ‘Iron Mike’.”

“Try and punch through your opponent”

In his autobiography, Tyson described how he worked with his former manager and trainer, Cus D’Amato, to cultivate the hard-hitting Boxing ability that was behind his famous moniker.

“I developed [it] through Cus D’Amato telling me repetitiously over and over again to do this movement and to punch with this type of bad intentions,” Tyson said, per Give Me Sport. “And just to have ferociousness and mean intentions whenever you throw punches and stuff. And try and punch through your opponent, not at him. It was some nasty stuff that I would never tell my kids to do.”

Logan Paul vs Mike Tyson: when and where?

Paul and Tyson meet at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Friday November 15. The main fight card will be streamed live on Netflix from 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT. The bout was originally scheduled for July 20, but was postponed after Tyson suffered an ulcer flare-up while on a flight.