Mike Tyson Revealed How He Punished Sparring Partners Who Snuck Out of Training

Published 12/06/2021, 6:03 PM EST

People can replicate his fighting style, his animalistic approach in and out of the ring, and even his style, but there will never really be another Mike Tyson. Everything about him is different and always has been. The boxing world has seen many come under the spotlight and then eventually fade away; however, even 16 years after his retirement from professional boxing, fans still love and look up to Mike Tyson.

Even at 55, Tyson still trains and hits the pads as if he is next in line to fight for Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight throne. Considering that ‘Iron’ Mike’s recent training clips show his trainer quite literally praying for his wellbeing during pad-work sessions, one can only imagine what his training partners must have felt when he was in his actual prime.

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In an earlier interview, Jim Norton once asked Mike Tyson if he ever had sparring partners who did not come back after one session.

“Oh, many times! When I was a young kid in Catskill, New York, you know, these professional fighters would come up there, you know they got their car and a nice suit. After a session of sparring, in the middle of the night, they would sneak out and go back to New York and not come back!” said Tyson.

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Tyson then described how he handled and punished those sparring partners who snuck out of training.

“And, Cus was like, ‘Wow, another one of them left again’, and me and my friend, Tom Perry would run up in their room go in their room, going through their bag, steal a shoe and grab all the stuff,” Mike Tyson added.

Mike Tyson was scared of his inner demons while walking out to the ring

On a Hotboxin podcast episode, Mike Tyson once described what walking out to the ring felt like.

‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ explained that he was never nervous before his fights. Instead, he was scared of himself. He pointed out that the youngest heavyweight champion came into being as a result of the hardships he faced in his youth.

The boxing legend felt he his experiences in life made him a dangerous man inside the ring. He called it a “natural fear of not being safe”.

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“It’s really orgasmic. I’m not nervous, I’m scared because I’m a scary guy; I’ve been picked on all my life, I’ve been abused all my life, people did anything they wanted to me.

“I have a natural fear of not being safe. That’s who I am naturally. So now I got this weird self-confidence and violence and stuff. Now I’m sadistic, I’m afraid I might get hurt. I’m an animal now,” said Mike Tyson.

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Which contemporary fighter do you think resembles Mike Tyson’s aggression, power, and ferocity?

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Written by:

Sanjit Misra is a boxing author at EssentiallySports. Sanjit fused his passion for writing with his love for jabs, hooks, and uppercuts and entered the realm of boxing journalism. The elegance, the sweet science, and the finesse of hand-to-hand combat was what initially drew him into the world of boxing.

Mike Tyson Revealed How He Punished Sparring Partners Who Snuck Out of Training

Mike Tyson was scared of his inner demons while walking out to the ring

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