It’s fair to say that Mike Tyson has had an interesting life outside of just his boxing career.
A man willing to divulge more details about his life than most.
His boxing career was one of legend too of course.
You only need to look up some of his old knockouts on YouTube to realize that although his best days were short in length and mostly came when he was young, they were still perhaps some of the most explosive days ever seen in a boxing ring.
As a young amateur growing up Tyson was very big for his age and a fearsome young amateur fighter before he ever walked into a professional boxing ring.
Speaking on his podcast ‘HotBoxin with Mike Tyson’ he admitted he was just 14-years-old and still an amateur when someone paid him for a fight:
“I got paid probably 50 cents and a hot dog. Yeah like when I was a kid, when I was like 14. Then I was was an amateur (boxer). The Spanish people (in New York) used to pay us with food and bet on us, and if we won they gave us food.”
On where his famous fight style came from with the high guard and bobbing and weaving moments — Tyson confirmed that it only happened under his mentor Cus D’Amato:
“Only (under) Cus. I never boxed before (that), never played sports before until I met Cus. We just trained, trained and trained all the time.”
Tyson would go on to win the heavyweight title not long after D’Amato died and still to this day is the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.
