By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Hall of Famer Mike Tyson had to control his fear when he stepped into the ring and still works out each day to stay in shape. “I never thought I could handle being a fighter. It just was. I’ve never been able to handle it. You always get nervous. I’m nervous now. That’s just part of life. I believe from my experience that the feeling is a natural defense mechanism. You rise to the occasion or you freeze. You learn to deal with that,” Tyson said to actor Kenan Thompson.
“What is a normal person? It has nothing to do with being an athletic person, it’s about your morale. Fighting has a lot to do with morality too. It’s not about taking it, it’s the willingness to die, that’s what life is. When you stand up to it you no longer have to fear it,” Tyson said.
“I’m working out, I’m getting up every day. I do an hour on my bike, an hour on my treadmill, then I do some light weights. I’m getting ready to go there, another week or two and I’m going to start hitting the bag.”
Exercising and eating right are the two hardest things to do in most of our lives when we get older. Why? It takes consistent work to do it. Pretty tough to do when delicious “bad” foods sit around that we all love to eat and getting out of the house to workout is like clocking in at work! LOL…….
Tyson looks fitter and more in shape than most of the current active heavyweights.
Find a routine and stick with it.
You don’t need to be a gym member.
– Yard work counts as exercise.
– Walking the dog counts as exercise.
– Buy a few bands and you can do all of your pushing/pulling exercises.
– Crunches while watching TV
– Pushups during commercials.
Iron Mike is also a big pot advocate and smoker. Of course it’s legal now in many places, but I’m not sure of the health benefits for people 50+.
As a 50 something, moderate cannabis use is incredibly helpful for exercise. I actually started using when I was a competitive distance runner over 30 years ago (turned on by a world class runner). Sativa heavy variants seem to increase blood flow and enhance endurance.
People who smoke heavily are a different matter. But a hit off the pipe and a cup of coffee are great for the gym.
Now we’re cooking 🙂
“It’s about your willingness to die”….from a guy who quit three times.
Well, somewhat quit in the ring AFTER he was way past his prime. And that was after taking a shellacking in two of those fights. Big difference after you’ve already staked your place in the history of heavyweight boxing. Not to mention how many fighters he made quit early in his career.
Many of those opponents had quit prior to stepping in the ring. Mike Tyson’s greatest attribute was that killer mystique. Nobody will ever forget that terrified look in Michael Spinks’ eyes or how about the much larger Bonecrusher Smith holding on for dear life until the final rounds when he decided throw a couple punches and nearly knocked Tyson out.
Mike Tyson was as dominate a champion as any, but once Buster Douglas took away that mystique there was only a good contender left. People forget how bad the Division was when Mike cleaned it out. Go back and look at his best wins and tell me how great his competition was. (A way past his prime Larry Holmes is by far his best win name wise.)
You sound like every bias sports reporter or documentary. Like word for word.
Come to a Tyson article and push “Douglas took his Aura of fear” and have zero upvotes. Clear why
3? 2 yes his last 2 fights. By that time he was done anyways.
Tyson lived by the sword and died by the sword. No idea what your talking about.
His last 2 losses where he ‘quit’ were when he was extremely past his prime and had 1% interest in fighting.
A few years back I bumped into a guy I used to box with as a kid who went on to become a big time amateur boxer. He fought in the ’88 Olympic trials, but never went pro. I asked him if he still boxed at all for fun and he said with all the pride in the world- “No but I’m a member of 24 Hour Fitness!”, as if the two were comparable. I thought that was pretty funny.
Kudos to iron Mike. If I had known hes been taking his health serious I would have kept him off my celebrity death pool the last 5 years.
Don’t criticize Tyson….Ever.
Tyson seems to be part of a new movement in the world (actually it’s as old as man) that includes being your best self spiritually, financially, pyhsically, and intellectually. A lot of this is aided through the use of psychedelics, which Mike Tyson is involved in. A lot of people, especially in Sillicon Valley, are into microdosing Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and going on Ayhahausca and DMT trips. They claim to cure addiction, ptsd, and highly effective in breaking down your ego. Remember-your ego is not your amigo! There’s a video of floating around of Tyson describing taking DMT. Interesting stuff!
A willingness to die and yet he quit anytime he was presented with a great challenge. Holyfield & Lennox Lewis for instance.
Mike Tyson is a heavy habitual pot user and not in a recreational way. I really think if Mike somehow could not get enough weed he would act out and be very scary and dangerous to be around. Mike was and is very hardcore into thug life and he admires pimps and dealers like I would admire someone educated or really knowledgeable about business and markets. Mike has really shrunk down in mass which is unusual and suspicious…