Mike Tyson is one of the greatest boxers of all time. At his prime, he was a force none could reckon with. Nobody wanted to be on the receiving end of Mike Tyson’s legendary power punches and it was harder for him to find partners to spar with.
He recently revealed that he spent thousands of dollars to get sparring partners in the ring with him. But he was often left disappointed because they weren’t capable enough to handle his legendary power.
While speaking with UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya on the recent episode of his ‘Hot Boxin’ podcast, Tyson revealed he used to fire sparring partners who couldn’t keep up with him in the gym.
“When I was champ, if you didn’t kick my a** and I paid you to kick my a**, you were fired. You came here to kick my a**, if my a** isn’t getting kicked you’re fired, that’s what you’re here for!
“Do your best, try to knock me out, do your best. I’d tell sparring partners ‘hurt me, knock me out’, I just told them to do their best. Nobody paid sparring partners like I did, I was giving them $2,000 a round.”
While Adesanya gave his views on Khamzat Chimaev as a potential opponent, Tyson revealed how he used to convince potential opponents to join his camp and become sparring partners.
“When I was champion, there were guys that weren’t ready but they were raising hell,”
“They were knocking out guys, saying ‘I want to fight you’, and I’d tell them ‘listen, you and me won’t make any money now but if you really think you’re that tough why don’t you just become my sparring partner’.” All my sparring partners were contenders, it was all about getting it all out there and telling them ‘try and knock me out’.”
Tyson’s former bodyguard once revealed that Tyson used to knock-out all five of his sparring partners in less than an hour just to go home and watch ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoons on TV.
Mike Tyson won his first 19 fights by KO and 12 of them came in the first round. He was undefeated for an unbelievable 37 fights and by the time he reached 37-0, fans thought of him as unbeatable and he was already considered one of the greatest of all time.