Punch-Out speedrunner SummoningSalt has spent half a decade focused on the goal of beating Mike Tyson in under two minutes. It took over 75,000 attempts, but he's finally beaten one of the most notoriously difficult bosses in video game history in just one minute and 59 seconds.
If you've ever had any interest in speedrunning, you've probably seen some of SummoningSalt's popular YouTube videos on the scene, documenting world record chases across various games in great detail. He's also an accomplished speedrunner in his own right, holding numerous records in Punch-Out and dominating the NES classics overall record since 2016.
But the big challenge is the single level record for beating Mike Tyson, Punch-Out's final challenge. SummoningSalt has held this world record since 2017, and has been actively trying to take the record under two minutes since 2020. An ideal run against Tyson requires not just frame-perfect precision, but absolutely absurd luck, which is why this has taken such a long time to accomplish.
"This is the greatest gaming achievement I have ever accomplished," SummoningSalt says in the description of the YouTube video documenting this record. "It took 75,000 attempts over nearly 5 years. The Mike Tyson fight requires an incredible amount of luck and execution. I hit all 21 frame perfect punches (1/60th of a second), hit 10 perfect dodges and ducks, and got luck that has somewhere around a 1/7,000 - 1/10,000 chance of occurring."
SummoningSalt says on Twitter that he was "in shock" when he set the record, which is why his reaction is pretty low key. "It's over," he calmly said when the final time became clear. "I thought I'd be a lot more excited about this." There's a bit more celebration afterward, but it's not quite the pop-off you'd expect after a five-year journey.
"I have no plans to ever improve this time," SummoningSalt concludes in the video description. "It will be beaten by somebody one day, likely by matching this fight and then getting better luck in phase 3. I have no interest in competing for that, but am extremely proud to have gotten the first sub 2 ever on Mike Tyson." So proud, in fact, that he tagged Mike Tyson himself on Twitter with the news. Tyson has yet to respond.
