Mike Tyson's net worth has experienced some ups and downs over his career. Mostly down. At one point, Mike Tyson's net worth was $300 million. Did you know that now only one percent of this fortune is his current net worth? Let’s find out what happened to the other 99%.

Mike Tyson earned over $700 million during his fight career. According to Forbes, he was the 14th highest-paid and richest athlete of all time. Tyson should be the highest net worth athlete or at least one of them, but he is not.

Now, Mike Tyson's net worth is nowhere near the highest net worth athlete like Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan? Shaq’s net worth is $400 million. Michael Jordan’s net worth is $1.9 billion.

The lowest of the top ten richest athletes net worth group is around $200 million. The highest net worth of an American in the richest athletes net worth category is Michael Jordan who is one of the richest athletes of all time.

Tyson is no longer in the same league as O’Neal or Jordan. In 2023, Mike Tyson's net worth is only a measly $10 million, which is 1/100th of what it was at its peak. But his cannabis business makes his net worth grow.

Mike Tyson's Earnings And Endorsements

Mike Tyson's net worth came from his fight earnings and endorsements during his heyday. He could win up to $30 million for a prize purse for a single fight such as his infamous fight with Evander Holyfield that captured a record-setting $100 million in total revenues.

Tyson got paid to appear in movies and television. Tyson was able to get endorsements until his behavior became so erratic that corporations did not want any association with him.

Mike Tyson's Investments

Mike Tyson's net worth was never helped by him making wise investments. Instead, Tyson’s lavish spending included crazy things like keeping exotic animals, like tigers, as pets that were very expensive to keep and did not improve Mike Tyson's net worth at all. He didn’t know how to invest his money in some kind of business. Everybody need to learn money management skills. Even Mike Tyson. He could have, at least, saved his money. Savings is a good chance to reach financial goals.

Mike Tyson's Bankruptcy

Mike Tyson's net worth went to below zero in 2003. When he completely ran out of money, he had $23 million in debt including an unpaid divorce settlement of $9 million that he owed to his second wife Monica Turner. He also owed the IRS $13.4 million in unpaid federal taxes, and he owed the UK government $4 million unpaid taxes.

It seems almost unbelievable that Tyson earned and spent over half a billion dollars. He spent everything he earned over 20 years during his boxing career from 1985 to 2005, with a few years off for serving time in prison.

Earnings From the Top Mike Tyson Fights

Mike Tyson's net worth got a boost from each of his big fights. The paydays for these fights were extraordinary. Over his career, Mike Tyson had 58 fights. He won 50 fights, lost six and tied for two. He won by a knockout 44 times out of the 50 wins. Of the six losses, five were knockouts and one was a disqualification for The Bite Fight. Tyson got the moniker of “Iron Mike” because it was nearly impossible for his opponents to knock him out. Tyson prefers his own chosen nickname of the “Baddest Man on the Planet.” All of these definitely helped him become one of the richest athletes of all time.

Money-Making Tyson Fights

The biggest fights for Mike Tyson happened between 1988 and 2005. In total, these fights sold 14,320,000 pay-per-view tickets at the average cost of $125 per ticket. This means Tyson fights brought in about $1.8 billion in gross revenues just from pay-per-view (PPV) ticket sales. The PPV money is on top of what the venues brought in from the ticket sales to the people who wanted to attend the boxing match in person at the event center.

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Mike Tyson’s Fighting Success

Mike Tyson’s birth date is June 30, 1966. Tyson won his first professional fight on March 6, 1985, with a technical knock out (TKO) of Hector Mercedes in the first round. He went on to win his next 18 professional fights with a knockout and 12 of these knockouts happened in the first round.

Tyson holds the record as being the youngest person, at the age of 20, to win the title of the heavyweight champion. He is an undisputed world champion. He held the heavyweight champion title from the WBA, WBC, and the IBF at the same time. He was almost unbeatable, having lost only six times out of his 58 professional boxing matches. His success in the boxing ring is amazing; however, his personal life was completely out of control.

Major Fights That Improved Mike Tyson's Net Worth

Tyson vs. Spinks

This fight on June 27, 1988, was billed as Once and For All. It sold 700,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Ruddock

This fight on March 18, 1991, was billed as The Fight of the Year. It sold 960,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Ruddock II

This fight on June 28, 1991, was billed as The Rematch. It sold 1,250,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. McNeeley

This fight on August 19, 1995, was billed as He’s Back. It sold 1,600,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Bruno II

This fight on March 16, 1996, was billed as The Championship Part 1. It sold 1,400,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Seldon

This fight on September 7, 1996, was billed as The Championship Part 2. It sold 1,150,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Holyfield

This fight on November 9, 1996, was billed as Finally. It sold 1,600,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Holyfield II “The Bite Fight”

This fight on June 28, 1997, was billed as The Sound and the Fury. It sold 1,990,000 pay-per-view tickets. This is the fifth-highest-earning boxing match of all time according to CBS. It earned over $100 million in gross revenues from the ticket sales at the MGM event center. The purse for Tyson was $30 million. The purse for Holyfield was $35 million.

It is the most talked-about fight and was nicknamed “The Bite Fight” because, in this match, Tyson bit off part of Holyfield’s ear. Tyson was fined 10% of his purse by the Nevada Gaming Commission, which was the largest amount of fine that was allowed under boxing rules. Tyson lost $3 million because of this and also lost the fight for being disqualified by the rule violation.

Tyson vs. Botha

This fight on January 16, 1999, was billed as Tyson-Botha. It sold 750,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Golota

This fight on October 20, 2000, was billed as Showdown in Motown. It sold 450,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Lewis vs. Tyson

This fight on June 8, 2002, was billed as Lewis-Tyson Is On. It sold 1,970,000 pay-per-view tickets. The Pyramid Event Center in Memphis charged $2,500 per live-event ticket and earned $112 million in revenues for this fight. This is the fourth-highest-earning boxing fight of all times according to CBS.

Tyson vs. Etienne

This fight on February 22, 2003, was billed as Back to Business. It sold 100,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. Williams

This fight on July 30, 2004, was billed as Return for Revenge. It sold 150,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Tyson vs. McBride

This fight on June 11, 2005, was billed as Tyson-McBride. It sold 250,000 pay-per-view tickets.

Mike Tyson's Went to Prison

Tyson has a history of abusing women. Tyson’s first wife was Robin Givens. She claimed she suffered from Tyson’s physical abuse and divorced him over this in 1988. This was a bad period in Tyson’s life.

After his divorce, Tyson lost a 1990 fight for his heavyweight boxing title to James “Buster” Douglas. This happened even though Tyson was the favorite to win. Tyson was knocked out by Douglas in the 11th round, which was extremely rare for Tyson. This match is one of boxing’s greatest surprise upsets.

In July 1991, Tyson met a contestant at Miss Black American pageant, Desiree Washington. He took her to his hotel room. The next day, she checked in the emergency room at the local hospital claiming “date rape.”

Tyson was tried for rape. The trial became a media circus. He claimed the sex was consensual; however, he was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years. Tyson got an early-release on parole after serving only three years. After Tyson got out of prison, he made a series of comeback fights to regain his stature as a world heavyweight champion.

The Bite Fight — Two Bites

Mike Tyson's net worth went up from “The Bite Fight.” This famous match is an incident where Tyson bit off a part of Evander Holyfield’s ear in a match during 1997, held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This over-the-top aggression costs Tyson $3 million for a fine and potentially many more millions in future earnings for being banned from boxing for a time.

During this fight, Tyson became furious from being illegally head-butted by Holyfield. In the first round of the fight, Tyson got a cut over his right eye from a head-butt. Then, he was head-butted a second time in round two. The referee did not penalize Holyfield for the illegal head-butts.

This caused Tyson’s anger to go out of control. He decided to fight back by illegally biting. He bit Holyfield twice during the fight. In one moment, he bit a piece out of Holyfield’s right ear during the fight and spit the piece out of his mouth and onto the mat. The blood gushed from Holyfield’s injury making a gory bright red stain on the canvas.

Holyfield recounted later that he thought his ear fell off and that the pain was intense. Holyfield’s instant recoil from the bite made it obvious to everyone what happened. The referee deducted two points from Tyson for the bite. After a four-minute delay, with the blood still pouring from Holyfield’s injured ear, the fight continued.

At the beginning of round three, Tyson spit out his mouth shield to prepare for another illegal biting attack. He bit Holyfield’s left ear on the second bite. At the end of the third round, Tyson was disqualified in this fight for breaking the fight rules. The fans in the arena nearly rioted over this.

Holyfield needed eight stitches to repair his ears. Tyson was fined $3 million of his $30 million purses for the fight and banned from boxing for 18 months. Holyfield was declared the winner by Tyson’s foul, which caused Tyson’s disqualification. Holyfield took home Holyfield’s purse of $35 million.

A year later, during 1999, Tyson would be back in prison for an assault conviction. This was due to a road rage incident where he punched the driver of another car. The man caused an accident when Tyson’s wife, Monica, was driving. Tyson received a one-year sentence for the assault.

A Less-Famous Third Bite

After getting out of prison for the second time, Tyson went back into training for boxing. In 2002, Tyson would fight his last fight for the world heavyweight champion against Lennox Lewis. At a press conference promoting the fight, Tyson got into a brawl with Lewis, and he bit Lewis on the thigh. Still, the fight went on as planned.

During the boxing match, Lewis won the fight by knocking out Tyson in the eighth round. The fight was the highest-grossing pay-per-view fight at that time will revenues of over $100 million.

Although Tyson would fight a few more times, his career as a world champion heavyweight was essentially over.

Conclusion

Mike Tyson earned his reputation as the “Baddest Man on the Planet” through his intensity and skill as one of the greatest boxers of all time. He is also one of the craziest people of all time who continued to have problems throughout his career with legal troubles, marital troubles, being abusive, spending money without any self-control, and drug/alcohol addiction. He got a diagnosis of having bipolar disorder, which has bouts of manic behavior mixed with episodes of severe depression. He says that he regrets most of his life when he did such crazy things.

Now, he is retired and lives on his modest net worth of $10 million. He lives in Seven Hills, Nevada with his third wife, Lakiha "Kiki" Spicer, and his kids.

Tyson is chilling out and taking it easy at the age of 56 years old in 2023. Nevertheless, no matter what, he will always be remembered for biting off Holyfield’s ear. The two have since become friends in their mutual retirement since there is no reason to fight each other anymore.

Mike Tyson's Net Worth is a Knock Out