I think the main reason there aren't a lot of boxing games on handhelds (or even good ones for that matter) is the fact that they aren't fun unless they are 3D. If I wanted to count all of the 3D games that have been released for the GBA I'd have to eat paint chips from a house that happened to be under power lines next to a nuclear power plant so I could pick up enough radiation to grow ten hands. Mike Tyson Boxing would be another of those games to count on my freakishly disfigured fingers. While there have been some game engines in the past that do a poor job of representing 3D on a handheld, this one is not one of them. While fighting, the only part of your character that you see is his back. Instead of the character rotating, what happens is the ring rotates. Of course you might first think that this seems unnatural, it really is the best way of doing it. This allows you to always have a view of the fight - no blind spots. While it may seem like true 3D, the only real polygons are used to make the ring. The character models are sprites, and although they are animated nicely, they look too cartoonish and just end up looking juxtaposed against the background of polygons. The fights are announced through newspapers and promotional posters. These are really cool. Even they're just still images with text inserted, the fonts match which gives it a realistic feel.
If you don't already have headphones for your GBA, don't bother buying a survival kit for this game. There is very little music, and when you do happen to hear some, it usually isn't worth listening to. The sound effects don't fare much better, but are suitable none the less. In addition to the usual punching noises I would have like to hear some OOF! noises coming from the fighters when they landed a blow.
