Mike Tyson would fire sparring partners, for whom he had paid thousands, because they weren't "kicking his a**" during his boxing prime.
Tyson was one of the greatest heavyweight champions in history, and held unified titles twice in his career. During that time, fans and fighters alike feared his legendary power, and he found it difficult to find sparring partners who would test him to the level needed.
So he would pay thousands to get sparring partners to come in, only to leave frustrated because they would struggle to give him the requisite challenge. He told UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in a recent episode of his podcast Hot Boxin' that he would fire partners who didn't beat him in the gym.
When Adesanya mentioned that he was "humbled" every day in training, Tyson told his own story, saying: "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."
And later, when Adesanya gave his thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev as a possible opponent, Tyson recalled that he would often tell fighters to join his team if they couldn't get a deal to fight him. "When I was champion, there were guys that weren't ready but they were raising hell," he added.
"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'."
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Tyson was not often hurt in sparring, and would even knock out all five of his training partners inside of an hour because he wanted to get home and watch TV. The former world champion won his first 19 fights by KO, 12 of which were in round one, and many felt that by the time he got to 37-0 he would be unbeatable.
His former bodyguard Rudy Gonzalez has spoken of how Tyson used to speed through sparring partners in training, telling The Sun : “When we trained in Vegas his sparring sessions were from 12 to 5pm.
"He would be the nicest guy beforehand asking the sparring partners: 'How you doing today, how’s the family?' Then he would just knock out five guys all out so within an hour so there was nobody left. So one day I asked: ‘Boss I am confused, isn’t this about working on techniques?' He replied: ‘If I keep it going we'll miss Tom and Jerry cartoons’."
He eventually lost his titles to Buster Douglas in a major upset. But he proceeded to win two of the three heavyweight belts back in bouts with Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon before eventually losing them again and retiring in 2005.
