There’s no debating Mike Tyson was the most feared boxer of his time. He was a knockout machine. The former heavyweight champion of the world got a thrill each time his opponent hit the canvas. He recently admitted that whenever he knocked someone out or hurt someone, his life got better.

Mike Tyson was a knockout specialist

He packed one of the hardest punches in all of boxing. It’s what helped Mike Tyson become the youngest heavyweight champion of the world. When he was 20 years old, Tyson was on top of the world. He was mean and he was dominant inside the boxing ring.

Tyson began his professional boxing career when he was 18 years old. He knocked out Hector Mercedes in June of 1985. Tyson won his first 37 fights and he was 23-0 before he turned 20. His first 19 victories all came by knockout and 12 of those occurred in the first round.

ESPN ranked Tyson No. 1 on their list of “Hardest Hitters in Heavyweight History.” He finished his career with a 50-6 record. Of those 50 wins, 44 were via knockout.

Even Roy Jones Jr. seemed to have second thoughts fighting Tyson

At 54, Mike Tyson is stepping back into the ring next month. Tyson is coming out of retirement to fight another former heavyweight champion on Nov. 28. Roy Jones Jr., 51, will be stepping into the ring to fight Tyson in an eight-round exhibition bout. At one point, Jones Jr. seemed to be questioning himself about the decision to get in the ring with Tyson.

Jones said he may have made a mistake agreeing to the fight. “He’s still Mike Tyson, he’s still one of the strongest, most explosive people who ever touched a boxing ring,” Jones said, according to Boxing Scene. “If anything, I made a mistake going in with him. He’s the bigger guy, he’s the explosive guy.

“He’s going to have all the first-round fireworks, not me. I do have first-round fireworks, but he’s known for more first-round fireworks than anybody to ever touch boxing, other than maybe George Foreman. With him having the first-round fireworks, he’ll be against a guy smaller than him, maybe 40-50 pounds smaller than him. But who knows?”

Tyson admits when he hurt people ‘my life gets better’

During an episode of the Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson podcast, rapper Eminem was a guest of Tyson’s. Eminem said he believed Tyson knocked people out like no other. “Nobody knocked people out in the way that you did,” Eminem said. “People got knocked out by other fighters but it was like when they got knocked out by you, they got knocked the f–k out.”

Tyson was quick to respond, saying hurting people and knocking them out helped him. “Yeah, that’s how I looked at it,” Tyson said. “Everytime I hurt somebody and knocked them out, my life gets better. My life gets better and so I love hurting people.

“My life is getting better and I’m getting the f—ing girls and I’m getting the mansions. I’m getting the planes and I’m getting the boats. I’m getting whatever I want so hurting is beautiful. That was my perception of life at the time.”