Mike Tyson
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Mike Tyson trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history at 20, unified all three major belts, and knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds. Then came the Tokyo upset, prison, the bite fight, a cartoon, a Broadway show and, at 58, a Netflix bout with Jake Paul watched by 65 million people at once. Few sporting lives pack in more. These 50 questions follow the whole arc: Brownsville and the Tryon School, Cus D'Amato and the peek-a-boo style, the Berbick, Spinks and Holmes fights, Buster Douglas at 42/1, Evander Holyfield's ear, Lennox Lewis in Memphis, Punch-Out!! and Mr. Dream, WrestleMania XIV, The Hangover, Undisputed Truth, the pigeons and the exhibition with Roy Jones Jr. Easy questions stick to the famous moments; the harder tier asks who counted him out in Tokyo, who refereed the Ruddock controversy and which Nintendo executive put him in a video game. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for fight night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which New York City borough was Tyson born in 1966?
Brooklyn
Brooklyn. Tyson was born in Fort Greene and grew up in Brownsville, where he ran with street gangs before he reached his teens.
Q 02Alongside 'Iron Mike', what was Tyson's other early-career nickname?
Kid Dynamite
Kid Dynamite. Tyson turned professional at 18 and knocked out his first 19 opponents, 12 of them in the first round; 'the Baddest Man on the Planet' came later.
Q 03Whose 1956 record did Tyson break to become the youngest heavyweight champion?
Floyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson. He was 21 when he won the vacant title in 1956, and the man who trained him to it later took in the teenage Tyson.
Q 04Whom did Tyson beat in November 1986 for his first world title?
Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick. Floored for a second time in round two, the champion tried to get up twice and collapsed each time before the fight was stopped.
Q 05Which unbeaten champion did Tyson knock out in just 91 seconds in June 1988?
Michael Spinks
Michael Spinks. He had won all 31 of his fights and held the lineal title; after those 91 seconds he never boxed again.
Q 06In which city did Tyson lose his heavyweight title to Buster Douglas in 1990?
Tokyo
Tokyo. Tyson had stopped Tony Tubbs in the city two years earlier, but at the Tokyo Dome in 1990 he went down for the first time in his career and was counted out.
Q 07What odds did the Mirage casino give against Douglas beating Tyson?
42/1
42/1. So few people gave Douglas a chance that almost no casino would take bets on the fight at all; the Mirage's line was a rare exception.
Q 08Which promoter tried to get Tyson's 1990 loss to Buster Douglas overturned, claiming a long count?
Don King
Don King. He said Douglas had been down for 12 seconds in the eighth round, and two sanctioning bodies withheld recognition until a public outcry made them back down.
Q 09Which trainer became Tyson's legal guardian after his mother died?
Cus D'Amato
Cus D'Amato. He had guided two earlier fighters to world titles and took the teenager into his home, but died in November 1985, a year before Tyson won his.
Q 10Where was the young Tyson living when a counselor first spotted his boxing talent?
A juvenile reform school
A juvenile reform school. At the Tryon School for Boys in upstate New York, counselor and former boxer Bobby Stewart saw his promise and passed him on to a professional trainer.
Q 11What was the name of the high-guard defensive style Tyson learned from his mentor?
Peek-a-boo
Peek-a-boo. Holding his gloves high against his cheeks let Tyson slip under and weave around bigger men's punches while he closed in to counter.
Q 12Which longtime trainer did Tyson fire in late 1988?
Kevin Rooney
Kevin Rooney. Tyson was unbeaten in 35 fights when they split; critics said his movement and combinations faded afterwards, and he lost his title 14 months later.
Q 13Which assistant trainer was dismissed from Tyson's camp when the fighter was 15?
Teddy Atlas
Teddy Atlas. He had learned to train under the same mentor, and in 1994 he guided Michael Moorer to the world heavyweight title.
Q 21Against which Irish journeyman did Tyson quit on his stool before round seven in 2005?
Kevin McBride
Kevin McBride. Tyson stayed on his stool after the sixth round and announced his retirement; he did not box professionally again for 19 years.
Q 22Which platform streamed Tyson's fight with Jake Paul in November 2024?
Netflix
Netflix. A peak of 65 million viewers strained the service, and thousands complained of buffering and frozen screens.
Q 23At which venue did Tyson fight Jake Paul?
AT&T Stadium
AT&T Stadium. At the Dallas Cowboys' home in Arlington, Texas, the bout was sanctioned as a professional fight but cut to eight two-minute rounds.
Q 14Tyson said he bit Evander Holyfield's ear to retaliate for which foul?
Head-butts
Head-butts. A clash of heads cut Tyson over the eye in round two and went unpunished; he bit Holyfield in round three and was disqualified.
Q 15Which referee took two points from Tyson, then disqualified him, in the 1997 Holyfield rematch?
Mills Lane
Mills Lane. He was a late stand-in: Tyson's camp objected to Mitch Halpern, who had refereed their first fight, and Halpern stepped aside two days before the bout.
Q 16What was the 1997 Holyfield-Tyson rematch billed as?
The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury. Their first fight was billed simply 'Finally': a bout signed for 1991 had been shelved, first by an injury and then by Tyson's prison term.
Q 17In which city did Tyson lose his 2002 title challenge to Lennox Lewis?
Memphis
Memphis. Nevada refused Tyson a licence after he brawled with Lewis at a press conference, so the fight moved to the Pyramid Arena in Tennessee.
Q 18In which British city did Tyson beat Lou Savarese in 38 seconds in 2000?
Glasgow
Glasgow. At Hampden Park, Tyson kept punching after the stoppage and knocked the referee over, then said of Lennox Lewis: 'I want to eat his children.'
Q 19Tyson's face tattoo, inked days before a 2003 fight, borrows from the traditional tattooing of which people?
Māori
Māori. Tyson first asked for hearts on his face; the artist refused and spent a few days on the tribal design, which Tyson calls his warrior tattoo.
Q 20Which rapper was fatally shot in Las Vegas hours after watching Tyson beat Bruce Seldon in 1996?
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur. A friend of Tyson's, he had come to Las Vegas for the title fight; he was shot in a car later that night and died six days later.
Q 24What medical problem of Tyson's pushed his Jake Paul fight from July to November 2024?
An ulcer flare-up
An ulcer flare-up. It struck on a plane in May, and doctors told the 57-year-old to do only light training for weeks, so the fight slipped four months.
Q 25Tyson's 2020 exhibition ended in a split draw against which former champion?
Roy Jones Jr.
Roy Jones Jr. With a combined age of 105, the pair boxed eight two-minute rounds, and three former WBC champions brought in as judges scored it a draw.
Q 26Who replaced Tyson as the final boss of the NES Punch-Out!! after the licence expired?
Mr. Dream
Mr. Dream. Nintendo's licence to use Tyson ran out in 1990, so it reissued the game as plain Punch-Out!! with this invented champion in his place.
Q 27Tyson traded blows with Donnie Yen on screen in which film?
Ip Man 3
Ip Man 3. Tyson plays a crooked property developer who takes on the kung fu master himself; filming their fight left Tyson with a fractured finger.
Q 28Which actress did Tyson marry in February 1988?
Robin Givens
Robin Givens. Seven months after the wedding she told Barbara Walters on television, with Tyson sitting beside her, that life with him was 'pure hell'.
Q 29Tyson's first wife was known for which sitcom at the time of their marriage?
Head of the Class
Head of the Class. She played rich girl Darlene Merriman through all five seasons of the ABC classroom sitcom, which outlasted the marriage by two years.
Q 30Tyson's second wife, Monica Turner, is the sister of which politician?
Michael Steele
Michael Steele. When Steele ran for the US Senate in Maryland in 2006, his former brother-in-law offered to box an exhibition if it would help the campaign.