Mike Tyson (02:07.82): So, it looks like the 2:10 submission from a while back just simply wasn't enough. It is identical to the 2:10 execution wise, but gets much better luck than that run while still pulling off all of the frame perfect punches required for the fight.

I had been working on improving my Mike Tyson PB pretty much the moment I started learning how to speedrun this game. Just beating him in round 1 was incredibly difficult considering you needed anywhere from 11 to 13 frame perfect hits just to see him hit the mat for the 3rd time in the first round. I slowly improved my times on him from the 2:50's, to 2:40's, 2:30's, 2:20's all the way down to my first sub 2:20 time, which was the 2:17 I had first submitted to SDA. I was pretty content with that for the time being, so I ended up leaving it alone for a while. Eventually, sinister1 and I were gunning for either matching or obsoleting every IL run we could that Matt Turk had on RedTom's leaderboards in hopes of each record having videos. We got to the point where the only two fights that remained were Soda Popinski and Mike Tyson, and since Soda Pop seems super unlikely to fall, we turned our attention to Tyson. Sinister got a 2:16, a 2:14 & a 2:13 shortly after that tied Turk's record on Tyson. I ended up doing some attempts a few days later on stream that I wasn't too happy with, so I ended up doing a bit of offline attempts for practice. I had eventually gotten the 2:10 fight on Tyson, which marked the first time that the optimal real-time strategy had ever been accomplished.

Anyways, onto the fight itself. Mike Tyson throws 10 uppercuts in phase 1 if you get a good enough pattern. You must match each of his uppercuts by dodging them and countering with a punch of the opposite hand. This deals 5 damage instead of 1, which is absolutely necessary for a 1 round fight. When you dodge and punch Tyson, it stuns him which leaves him open for a second punch. If you punch him again, it will deal 1 damage, but if you delay it to where it hits him on the latest possible frame in the stun, it will deal 5 damage instead of 1! Because Tyson has 96HP and you can cause either 6 or 10 damage per uppercut, you are allowed to miss one frame perfect punch in the first phase, so long as you hit the other 8. The pattern that I got was one of the fastest ever, and allowed me to score a 0:54 second phase 1; which was the 3rd time that had ever occurred on Mike Tyson ever. I had also landed every single frame perfect punch in the phase, so I was able to just buffer the final hit of phase 1 without delaying for max damage, which saves a couple of frames. A time anywhere from 0:54 to 0:59 makes it doable to get enough uppercuts in the next phase, so 0:54 is completely outstanding.

Phase 2 has Tyson get up with 56HP, which is enough to go down to 5 frame perfect punches with 6 uppercuts thrown. Getting a pattern where Tyson throws 6 in phase 2 is pretty strict depending on how fast you got Tyson down in phase 1. I missed the frame perfect punch on Tyson's 3rd uppercut, but the frames I lose from it actually doesn't matter in the long run (I'll explain that in a bit). He goes down at 1:28, which is only the 2nd time that has ever happened in a Tyson fight (first was from Matt Turk's 2:13 fight), and the one and only time that has been captured on video.

Phase 3 is the most difficult phase in this fight by a long shot. Tyson gets up with 40HP, but he no longer throws uppercuts since it is past the 1:30 mark on the clock when Tyson is fully centered, so instead you need to let him throw his hooks & counter it with a single frame perfect punch 8 times in a row. The frame perfect punches in phases 1 & 2 have pretty intuitive visual & sound cues that help out immensely, plus they're preceded by an initial punch so there's something of a rhythm to it, but the ones in phase 3 are different. You only throw one punch, so there is no rhythm to help you. There is no nice visual cue since Tyson is still for like half a second, and the sound cue isn't super helpful because Tyson's punch sound is going on continuously during the spot you need to punch, but I will say it's slightly more helpful than the visual cue you get here. Each successful punch deals 5 damage, so if every single one is hit, you save a cycle compared to missing one of the punches. The start of the phase begins with me slow dodging left and quick dodging right, which is a perfect buffer for the first frame perfect punch, but then I'm on my own for the other 7. It's worth noting here that I'm playing off of a 1:28 instead of a 1:30+ phase 1. You are able to do the buffer off of a 1:28, but only if the phase 2 time is a very high 1:28. The 1:28 I got was literally as early as it could possibly be while still working, so it's good I missed a punch in phase 2 or else this attempt would have ended here! I somehow pulled off the remaining 7 frame perfect hits in a row with the best pace I've ever had on this fight! Granted I didn't get the best luck in phase 3, the luck in phases 1 and 2 definitely give this fight an edge. To beat this, you would need a similar pace and incredible luck for phase 3, while equaling the execution from this fight & the 2:10 fight from before, which is no small feat. I'll include links to the live stream where I got this, as well as a link to all the attempts leading up to this fight.

Highlight of 2:07 only - https://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/v/8048403
Highlight of all attempts leading to 2:07 - https://www.twitch.tv/zallard1/v/8048512

I want to thank plenty of people. Dtysonator, DK28, Mr K, and Hurblat for cheering me on and believing that I can push records in this game too, McHazard for tirelessly testing things out for me for this fight, which ended up helping with finding the phase 3 buffer, Ouijawii for his 2:08 Tyson fight at the time, and of course sinister1. Back when I didn't even know anything about how to play Mike Tyson's Punch Out, let alone speedrun it, sinister really believed I could do well in this game based on my play in Super Punch Out. Ever since then, he has been more than helpful in showing me how to do strategies for everything in this game. If it weren't for him, I definitely would have never even thought about speedrunning this game.

Strategy credits: RedTom, McHazard, Zallard1