So the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on Netflix is around a week old and people have pretty much forgotten about the fight. Despite all of the hullabaloo surrounding the bout, everyone has moved on as no one seems to be talking about how Mike Tyson had a poor showing against Jake Paul. There isn’t much talk about how Netflix just couldn’t stop the stream from getting interrupted. All of that hype has just evaporated in a span of a week. That’s just the way things are today. Some things dominate the social zeitgeist but, in just a few days, it’s all but forgotten.

Well, there is one thing about Mike Tyson will never be forgotten and that’s how he was one of the most difficult bosses of the 8-bit console generation. I’m, of course, talking about him being the final guy you face off in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! And, like most kids who grew up playing on Nintendo‘s 8-bit system, I have a lot of fond memories playing it, including how I actually beat it!

So, for those who don’t know Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! is the NES port of of Nintendo’s successful arcade games of the same name. The game has you playing Little Mac, a young and diminutive pugilist determined to climb to the top of the ladder of the World Video Boxing Association. However, once he does reach that goal, Little Mac still has one more challenger: a Dream Match against Mike Tyson himself.

Besides being an incredibly fun game, Punch-Out! is known for being a very difficult game to beat as you need quick reflexes to dodge or block the devastating punches from the likes of Bald Bull, Mister Sandman and Mike Tyson himself. There’s also a lot of pattern memorization involved as each of Little Mac’s opponents do follow a specific moveset and them performing unique attacks at specific times. Now, all of the patterns for each boxer has already been noted down by experts. So it’s very easy to pull up a guide and pick up some tips and tricks to take them out.

But when I was playing Punch-Out! for myself all those years ago, I couldn’t rely on the Internet. It was also pretty hard to find out things back then as all I had to go on was word of mouth, which could be unreliable at times. I’ll talk more about that later but, what I do want to say is I had to play through Punch-Out! and figure out things myself mostly! This meant I didn’t know about even the simplest stuff, like how Little Mac could duck by pushing down on the D-pad twice. Heck, I didn’t even know earning stars would give Little Mac access to a devastating uppercut when you pushed the Start button until much later! This meant I had to go through each fight the long way by dodging my opponent’s punches and then punishing them with punches of my own. So, no speed runs on my part!

I will have to give thanks to some of my friends who had played Punch-Out! before as they did give me some tips on how to beat some of the earlier fights. For the longest time, I could not figure out how to beat Great Tiger because he would whup me when he did his Magic Punches. I tried dodging them all but, thankfully, my friend at school informed me all I needed to do was block the punches! Very simple solution and I was rather upset at myself for not figuring it out on my own.

Then again, I did hit another wall after beating Great Tiger as the next opponent was Bald Bull. This isn’t the first time Bald Bull would cause me problems but, for this instance, I would go through the match against him with no problems until it came to the 2 minute mark as this is when Bald Bull would start doing his Bull Rush special. Dodging the Bull Rush was not an issue. The problem was he wouldn’t stop doing it! So, once again, I have to thank my friend for informing me you could punch him in the gut with the right timing to get an instant knockdown on Ball Bull’s Bull Rush. Finding the timing was a bother but I did get it eventually. And I didn’t even need to know about the camera flash notification.

Now, while my friends would give me advice on how to deal with Punch-Out’s! cavalcade of contenders, they would also give me bad advice or talk about unfounded rumors. For every time they would tell me things like you can only knock down your second match against Ball Bull with a star uppercut (which is when they also told me about how to use the star uppercut), there would be the errant tip on how to avoid Soda Popinski spitting in your face to blind you or King Hippo would sometimes get up after getting knocked down. All of these were fantasies but, for the longest time, I really believed the one with Soda Popinski despite having beaten him several times and never seeing him hock a loogie at my face.

The tip well did dry up by the time I made it to Mister Sandman since, as I found out much later, none of my friends could beat him! They did tell me you had to punch him in the face and then go for the body afterwards but that was the extent of their help. However, I did beat him through sheer reaction training and something I discovered by myself: the quick dodge. This involves dodging an incoming punch by moving to the side and then quickly pushing the D-pad to center Little Mac immediately to counter punch. This is the only way for Little Mac to actually counter punch all of Mister Sandman’s attacks. Once I focused, I was able to dodge all of Mister Sandman’s attacks, even his triple Razor Uppercut flurry, and counter punch him the right way, he was toast!

We then got to Super Macho Man, technically the final boss of the main game as, remember, the battle with Mike Tyson is just a Dream Match. Here’s the thing: I do find Super Macho Man harder than Mike Tyson but that’s mostly due to unfamiliarity and general lack of information. At this time, the pass code to fight Mike Tyson was known by everyone who’s played Punch-Out! The code to go directly to the Super Macho Man fight? Not so much! So, the only way I could fight Super Macho Man was to go through run the gauntlet against all of the World Circuit boxers just to face him! The biggest problem I faced was caused by me as, by this time, doing the quick dodge was embedded in my muscle memory. This meant whenever Super Macho Man would do his multiple Super Spin Punches, I would do a quick dodge and this would lead to Little Mac to get walloped by the follow up punch! I had to “unlearn” the quick dodge to eventually beat him.

Finally, we get to the Dream Match against Mike Tyson and, like I said, I found him easier than Super Macho Man but that doesn’t mean he’s not tough! The scariest thing about Mike Tyson is during the first part of the first round as, during the first minute and a half, he’ll throw out very quick uppercuts which will instantly knock down Little Mac no matter how much health he has! So, this is the most nerve wracking part of the fight.

Once you do get past this, Mike Tyson isn’t that hard as he does become another boxer wherein he telegraphs what he’s going to do. There’s also a little trick I figured out that you can do because I saw some of my punches weren’t doing any damage to his life bar. I then noticed if I punch him on the same side he threw his punch, I would get that extra pixel of damage.

Now, here’s the funny thing back then. Beating Mike Tyson in Punch-Out! seemed highly improbable for a lot of people. So, when I did tell my friends I beat the game and not just Mike Tyson in one sitting, they didn’t believe me. It seemed unfathomable to them I ran through the entire gaggle of boxers as well as Mike Tyson as the game is super hard. So, telling them I beat the game without using any codes to skip levels just seemed impossible. Then again, when I told them I beat Contra without entering the Konami code to get those sweet 30 lives, they didn’t believe me then as well.

Now, I wasn’t some savant when it comes to playing old NES games back then. But I did know how to hunker down and learn patterns as well as focus on reacting to what’s on screen. So, it wasn’t like I was bragging or anything as I thought this was just something anyone could do. I mean, if I could do it, so can everyone else, right? In retrospect, beating Punch-Out! was a huge accomplishment because it turns out not everyone can do it. Heck, as my reflexes are slowing down (thanks, aging!), I don’t think I’ll be able to beat the game now!

Considering I did it before all of the tips and tricks on how to beat everyone was made readily available online and I had to beat the game using my own made up strategies and skills, I can safely say this was a bigger deal than I thought back then and, many years later, it’s still something I’m really proud of. Like Jake Paul, I beat Mike Tyson. Unlike Jake Paul, I also beat the first Punch-Out! mostly on my own.

Do you have any memories of playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! on the NES? Let me know what they are in the comments section below!