Mike Tyson, Empire State Games, 1980's

[inquiringmind]

I'm doing research for a documentary. I am trying to find out if Mike Tyson was ever knocked out in the first round when he was a young teenager during the Empire State games by a Native American (Mohawk) boxer named Tyler Sunday. Thanks for any help.

[ReggieDiggs]

I think Mike was only stopped once, to Al Evans in the 2nd round in 1982. Never even heard of this Tyler Sunday cat.

[inquiringmind]

Thanks, Reggie!

[mike222]

Pedro Cabrera has Mikes full record on http://www.geocities.ws/pedrinet/tyson/html or search geocities pedrinet.
His losses were
Nov 81 Ernie Bennett Pts
Dec 82 L Al Evans RSC 2
Mar 83 L Craig Evans Pts
Dec 83 LDQ Kimmoel Odum
Jun 84 L Henry Tillman Pts
Jul 84 L Henry Tillman Pts
The Tillman losses were dubious

[inquiringmind]

Thanks so much, Mike; don't know how long it would have taken me to find this, if at all.

[locoxelbox]

Pedro Cabrera's record of Tyson is incomplete as it lists 41 of Tyson's claimed 54 amateur fights. It lists six losses but if Tyson had a seventh he would hardly be the first boxer to forget one or two losses of his amateur career.

[inquiringmind]

Thanks for the clarification. Just for the record, (and this is a record archieve, right?), Tyler Sunday does not claim to have knocked out Mike Tyson. I interviewed Tyler for a lacrosse documentary. Sunday is from a large, but rather isolated, upstate NY Rez. As a young teenager someone "discovered" him and took him to different places in NY to box, maybe an organization having to do with the Junior Olympics? In any event, he said he doesn't remember the names of the kids he fought, though he does remember that many of them were African Americans.
He didn't even know how and why people started saying that he knocked out Mike Tyson. (Seriously, if you drove up to that Reservation and asked anyone if they knew Tyler Sunday, they would all answer, "Yeah, the guy that knocked out Mike Tyson in the first round.") I also learned that anyone who has ever left the Rez and worked in other places, and then returned, seems to have some tag line associated with his name. But I digress.
Being a documentarian/journalist, I decided to investigate the source of the rumor. I was told from one of the elders that Mike Tyson, shortly after knocking out a famous boxer in the first round, was invited on Johnny Carson, or one of those late night shows. Apparently, the host asked Mike Tyson if he himself had ever been knocked out in the first round, and Tyson's alleged response was, "Only once, when I was young, by an Indian kid named Tyler Sunday."
So I tried to find any proof of this interview, with no luck, which is why I turned to this forum. I'm thinking here that maybe I should stick to the lacrosse story and edit out the boxing stuff......but I am intrigued by this "myth," and inquiring minds always want to know the real story..

[ReggieDiggs]

There was another Mike Tyson who had a less than illustrious career. Idk if he had any amateur fights or not or if he lived in NY @ any point. Jerry Halstead ko'd him.

[inquiringmind]

Thanks again, Reggie; I am going to investigate that right now...

[Bob]

If you want to send me an email address I can send you what I have on Mike's amateur record, as it is more complete than what you see here or on Pedrinet...

[AndyMatts]

I was a participant in the Empire State games through all of the 80s as an athlete from the western region of New York State. I watched all the heavyweight boxing bouts from 1982 through 1984. Mike Tyson competed in 1983, he did not lose any of his matches. He won the gold medal.

His flights pretty much went away that his early pro boxing fight went with him slipping punches to get inside and then his opponentso going down.