Mike Tyson vs Larry Holmes

Date
Fri 22nd January 1988 (UTC)
Fri 22nd January 1988 (Local)

Timestamp
1988-01-22T00:00:00

Time

00:00:00 UTC (00:00:00 Local)

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League
Boxing

Season
1988

Round
0

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Description

Mike Tyson vs. Larry Holmes, billed as Heavyweight History, was a professional boxing match contested on January 22, 1988, for the WBA, WBC and IBF Heavyweight Championships.

Mike Tyson was entering 1988 having unified the three major world championships over the course of the previous fourteen months. In 1987 Tyson, who entered the year as the WBC champion, defeated James "Bonecrusher" Smith for the WBA championship, knocked out Pinklon Thomas in his first defense of both of those titles, won a decision over Tony Tucker to claim the IBF championship, and knocked out Tyrell Biggs in his first defense of all three titles. Despite this, Tyson had not achieved universal recognition as he had not faced or defeated Michael Spinks; Spinks had been stripped of the IBF championship for pursuing a fight with Gerry Cooney instead of making a mandatory defense versus Tucker, but was still regarded as the lineal champion.