Video: Mike Tyson Talks Pacquiao vs Mayweather, Klitschko Brothers, UFC vs Boxing
by Scott Christ on Jun 10, 2011 5:59 PM EDT
in Boxing Video
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PrintMike Tyson will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this weekend, and recently he sat down with Graham Bensinger to discuss boxing. Here's a bit on Tyson's feelings on Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, and whether or not they'll fight:
Mike mentions something that we were talking about in a recent thread: So far, rust has never hurt Floyd Mayweather Jr to any noticeable degree. Even considering Juan Manuel Marquez was fighting heavy and all that, Mayweather showed almost zero signs of ring rust in that fight, which came after nearly a two-year layoff. That's incredible to come in and show no sign of the fact you haven't fought in almost two years, against what was at the end of the day still a world class boxer.
Tyson also says that today's game is doing fine in his opinion, and weighs in on the Klitschko brothers not getting the respect they deserve, and compares the game today to the way it was when he was in his prime. "In my era, everyone wanted to accomplish greatness," says Tyson. He also compares today's boxing to UFC. It's a good video. Watch it. Tired of telling you what he says.
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Mike doing his Jekyll and Hyde rountine again
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
Good video
Tyson sounds tired, maybe a bit depressed/disillusioned, but then he’s been through a rough time lately.
I read that his weight has fluctuated from a high of around 300lbs a year or 2 ago to his current low of about 180lb.
That’s too low for someone with his frame. In a picture i saw in BN his head looked too big for his body. He said he was going to the gym every day, but he didn’t look very healthy to me.
He looks old in that video.
His eyes seem "softer" too
Maybe it’s also because of his age but there seems to be less rage and angst and more…sadness? Can’t put a word on it, but great video.
When Bensinger asked him about the state of boxing and his response was “mine’s doesn’t even matter at all” my heart kinda broke. It saddens me to think that he feels his opinions on a sport that is so closely associated with his name don’t matter. It seems like the person he’s been hiding behind all the aggressiveness of his youth is starting to show.
I think he’s just getting older and saner. Without rage to preoccupy you, depression is likely to set in—they’re two sides of each other. Re his health, he’s just got a disproportionate size head, imo, I always thought so. He’s 45. He’s better off thin. Often when really big people take a lot weight off much past their 30s, their skin is too old to snap back as flush to their frame as it would with youth on their side, and it does make them look older fast, but they’re still better off thin.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
Maybe
but not going so high, then so low in the space of a year or so.
BTW, the weights i mentioned may seem hard to believe but they come from a Boxing News article the other week, and that’s a very respectable source who don’t often get the facts wrong.
Also, to say he was in great shape when at his peak, and he weighed around 220lbs, to now be weighing around 180lbs is way underweight, imo.
You didn’t see the picture i saw in the UK magazine. He looked like he was wasting away, and he looks too thin in that video to me too.
Losing fat is good, losing muscle mass is not, generally speaking.
You’re probably right then, I didn’t see that picture, I was going by this video. You’re certainly right about losing muscle mass. It doesn’t come back so strong as it was if it comes back at all.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
I think for women it’s better to be slim, but a guy who’s thick set like Tyson was, and puts muscle on pretty easily, will still be very healthy even though his body mass index would probably show him to be “obese”. Personally i think all that BMI stuff is crap as people have different bone densities, etc, but that’s just my opinion.
Thin saves your life. Been thin my whole life (5’6", 106lbs), got deathly, really deathly 2004—there was no excess to support, and I made it. Not one single medic thought I would, and I sailed right through, no extra ballast on the boat. Seen two different pudgy guys, early 40’s, and one pudgy woman, mid 50s, get rid of Type 2 diabetes—numbers back to normal, no need for meds—by losing the weight, which I thought was just amazing. I believe in thin; it saves lives, I’ve seen it and I’ve lived it.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
That's interesting, BoxAnne
and i take it onboard.
I’m 5’10" and 200lbs and would have been a super middleweight/possible lightheavy in boxing terms. I could do to lose a few pounds but i don’t have a belly or anything and haven’t been to the gym in a while.
My dad is about the same height and about 230lbs,and yes, he has a belly and could do to lose a bit, but he used to be a pro sporstman (rugby) and when he goes to the doctors for a checkup, they tell him his blood pressure is fine and his cholesterol is a bit over normal.The diabetes thing is something different though, i understand that.
We are both pretty muscular too though and i know guys in our family and who are my dads friends who are big guys and are living reasonably healthy into their 70’s (my dad is 64).
I have also heard of fitness fanatics who have dropped dead of heart attacks while training and skinny is not always the best option, imo, especially if you are not naturally slim.
In general i keep a healthy diet and exercise pretty regulalry, but i also like to enjoy myself and eat a bit of junk food now and again (or would life be worth living? :).
I don’t intend to let my weight rise too much though, and have to keep it in check, as my dad’s side of the family tend to put it on easier.
I think someone of Tyson’s size would be better around 210lbs, but when you get older and stop training, i guess it might be different.
One thing that’s true, is that Mike was very much an amateur historian of the game. He could occasionally pull some really good stuff out of the past. And while Mike is crazy, he’s not crazy in the way most people think, or the way he sometimes presents himself.
Not sure about his theory about “everyone in his era wanting to accomplish greatness.” He did and Lennox did and Holyfield did. Bowe, Dokes, Witherspoon, Cobb, etc, etc, not so much.
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
Do I need to?
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
I just don’t see how you have this “inside scoop” on the man which the rest of us don’t see.
He’s been on anti-depressants for years, grew up with no parents for the most part and has seen higher highs and lower lows than most people ever will.
He made a lot of his own problems but also had a shitty start to a life which would have landed most people in prison for life or in the graveyard.
I don’t think much of what he says is an act, and i certainly don’t see a reason to criticize him in the video.
He was asked questions and he answered them.
It wasn't a "criticism"
And I don’t claim to have the “inside scoop.” I describe what I seen and heard and read of him, and have said it many times before. Tyson has created many personas over the years, and this is one of them: Mike the Humble. The one constant through the years and personas has always been his manipulative streak, which is several miles long, and which enables lots of passionate ignoramuses in the media to leap to his defense.
This is a guy who knows people, and how to game them. He has shown himself to be very good at it. The fact he’s so good at it is why it sometimes doesn’t seem like an act, I think. He reminds me of a lot of gangsters I would see growing up: charming when they needed to be, sinister when they needed to be, playing whatever card got them through the next hand.
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
Well his first wife Robin Givens (the evil one) described him as a “manic depressive”. I think that condition would explain some of the stuff you mention.
The mood swings, the changes in personality.
Maybe he has put some of it on, but i’m sure most of it is genuine.
Unless you had lived his live, or at least knew him well, it’s hard to describe as you do with any real conviction, imo.
Doctors reports have also described Tyson as being “depressed and lacking self-esteem.”
He did some bad things, and i am in no way excusing him for that.
I just don’t see why or how he deserves criticism for this video.
What does he have to gain by putting an act on here?
What does he have to gain by putting an act on here
Smpathy and respect (= $ and cents in appearances, signings, etc.). And that’s fine. And I no longer really hate him, and wish him well. but this wonderful description:
He reminds me of a lot of gangsters I would see growing up: charming when they needed to be, sinister when they needed to be, playing whatever card got them through the next hand.
is so true. I’ve known those people, we’ve all known those people, sometimes it’s even worth it. But it’s also an almost a letter perfect discription of psychopathy —which is fine too, since he’s 1. controlling it and 2. —no one can be “cured” of it, but sometimes at least partially things remit, which seems maybe to be happening for him. So that’s great and I take nothing from him for that, and, finding him suddenly more charming, am willing to be charmed. But not fooled.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
We are talking about one of the most filmed, quoted, recorded and written about boxers of the century. You’re damn straight I have an opinion about him. Since when do you need to know a guy personally to have an opinion about him? Do the opinions of guys who “knew him personally” count, like Teddy Atlas, Kevin Rooney, Cus D’Amato, Robin Givens matter? Because I include them in my own.
In any case, be sure I will remember your impossible standard for having an opinion in any future posts you might have about Floyd Mayweather’s personality or whatever.
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
You be sure to do that.
The difference here is that Floyd often does and says dumb stuff, as Mike has in the past. And besides, if you read my posts you’ll find that i don’t often get personal, unless it’s some unproven big mouth like David Haye talking himself up. I tend to stick to chatting about boxing, which is what the site is for after all.
My whole point here is that you are criticising him for no real reason that i can see. He said nothing in the interview that was worth jumping on him for.
Do you know David Haye personally? How do you know it’s not an act? Are you using your experience and your best judgment to figure him out.
Because, that’s what I use for Mike Tyson.
Bad Left Hook
"My God, kids today think that the laces are for tying up the gloves."
-- Fritzie Zivic
No
But if Mike had said some dumb thing (as Haye often does) i could understand the criticism of him.
But he didn’t.
Yeah, he may have been pretending to be extra humble about his standing in the sport but it was no big deal.
Some of the stuff he’s done and said in the past he rightly deserves the criticism for.
Anyway, whatever. I don’t think it’s really worth a major debate about, to be honest. And that’s why i said you are entitled to your opinion. I wasn’t trying to be funny.
IMO he has always, despite his craziness ad arguably illnesses, had and still has an incredible grasp on his place in the world and the boxing world in particular.
I love the way he said UFC basically sucks but they offer a better entertainment package. I also agree that boxing is one heavyweight star away from another day in the sun.
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
I love the way he said UFC basically sucks
Where exactly did you get that from?
Tyson is a big MMA fan. Has said so himself, he has been to some MMA events and even volunteered to ref one as well.
The character of a man is always proven after faillure - not after success.
Yeah, he never said that PP. He’s a UFC fan and is regularly courted by Dana.
I think you might have misunderstood what he meant.
I misunderstood
I think he said even if the MMA fight sucked the sow would be worth attending because of the entertaining format
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
I like the ‘new age’ Mike. He seemed honest about the questions being asked. Most people dont get to talk openly about boxing on this high of profile. It’s mostly people saying boxing is dead etc depending on which way they want to be taken. He said what most of us would of
"A hero has faced it all: he need not be undefeated, but he must be undaunted." - Andrew Bernstein
Call me nuts
but I’ve always been impressed by him. Even during his most psychotic period(s), he always seemed more self-reflective than most fighters, or than many people in general for that matter. And, although this interview is not a particularly good example, I think his articulateness wasn’t really appreciated.
I also think he was a hell of a fighter for a time. His combination of power, speed, and punching versatility was, I think, unusual.
Ah, the ‘80s: The Cars, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, the Talking Heads, etc.
Even during his most psychotic period(s), he always seemed more self-reflective than most fighters, or than many people in general for that matter. And, although this interview is not a particularly good example, I think his articulateness wasn’t really appreciated.
I agree with that. I always liked his introspective side and he was always interesting to listen to when he was calm and talking rationally.
He is a reasonably intelligent guy, imo, especially when considering where he came from.
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