‘Don’t blink, you might miss it.’
That warning would have apropos for virtually every prime Mike Tyson fight given the former Heavyweight boxing king’s propensity for blisteringly quick finishes.
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‘Iron Mike’ was a one-man wrecking crew during his peak in the mid to late 1980s.
The former ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ won his first 19 professional fights by knockout, 12 of which came in the first round.
There was a decent chance you’d miss the entire bout if you weren’t in your seat by the time the first bell rang – as NBA legend Charles Barkley found out the hard way.
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The Round Mound of Rebound once missed Tyson KO’ing an opponent ‘in 20 seconds’ because he decided to get some drinks for the rest of the 1992 Team USA men’s basketball Olympics squad.
Los Angeles Lakers icon Magic Johnson recounted the hilarious story during an interview with late night host Jimmy Kimmel.
The five-time NBA champion, who was a teammate of Barkley’s on the legendary ’92 Dream Team, said Sir Charles was so annoyed at missing the knockout blow that he threw the drinks in the air when he returned to his seat.
“The greatest moment happened when we went to a Tyson fight,” Johnson explained.
“Most of the Dream Team were all there together. And Charles Barkley stood up and said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna get drinks for everybody.’
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“So, he took everybody’s order. Well, the bell rang as he got in the hallway to order the drinks. And Mike went and knocked him out in 20 seconds. Charles Barkley comes back with all the drinks, and he said, ‘What happened?’ And we said, ‘The fight’s over.’
“He threw the drinks in the air. He stormed off. He was so mad.”
Chuck, famous for his outspoken nature and penchant for gambling, was a constant source of entertainment for his Olympics teammates.
The former 76ers, Suns and Rockets star walked around Barcelona, Spain in the summer of ’92 without bodyguards, telling starstruck fans his security was in his fists should things go south.
However, when it came to basketball, Barkley was no laughing matter.
Fellow Dream Team star Michael Jordan thought no-nonsense Charles was going to get kicked out of the Olympics in ’92 after elbowing a 174lb economics student in the US’s first game against Angola.
Charles eventually got it together and ended up being the US’s leading scorer at the ’92 Games.
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The 11-time NBA All-Star averaged 18 points per game in the tournament as Team USA steamrolled everyone en route to a gold medal.
The squad, widely regarded as the greatest sports team ever assembled, beat their opponents by an average margin of 43.8 points per game and famously never took a timeout.
Their 117.3 average total points are still the highest in Olympics history.
Barkley’s last act of the ’92 Games was to rebel against Reebok with MJ and Magic during the gold medal ceremony.
He returned to the Summer Games four years later, once again leading Team USA in scoring (12.4 points per game), as well as rebounds (6.6 per game) and field goal percentage (81.6 percent).
The 2024 version of Team USA will now look to emulate what Charles did in ’92 and ’96.
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The 2024 Paris Olympics get underway this week with LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant flying the flag for Team USA.
Their first group game of the 2024 Olympics will be against Nikola Jokic and Serbia on July 28, before group games against South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
talkSPORT will be be bringing you live coverage of the Paris Olympics this summer. We will showcase more than 250 hours of live coverage across our network, with Sir Steve Redgrave and Dame Kelly Holmes among our legendary line-up of pundits. Listen to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, via the app, or through your smart speaker.
