If you’re reading this right now, Mike Tyson thinks you’re cool. That might not mean much to some of you, but to the rest of us, it’s a tremendous relief. Having Mike Tyson’s unsolicited verbal approval is an amazing feeling. You can add that to your resume along with “I’m just like a Diaz brother”. The workforce is rough right now. When Mike Tyson thinks you’re cool, that’s all the help you’ll need to insure the position doesn’t go to a new college graduate that still lives in his parents basement. No offense to 23-24 year olds, but Lil Weezy and the majority of your cultural icons would be working at McDonalds right now if Notorious B.I.G. were still alive. Some of you don’t fully appreciate how ruthlessly Mike Tyson dismantled fighters when Boxing was the most prosperous form of combat entertainment.
In a recent interview with ESPN, he discusses his MMA fandom continues to suggest that he would probably have been an MMA fighter if the sport had been around when he was coming up through the boxing ranks.
These days, with UFC being so popular, boxing isn’t necessarily getting the best fighters. If you were an 18-year-old kid now, would you still be a boxer?
That’d all depend on my trainer. When I came up, my trainer was a boxing guy. If my guy was in UFC, I’d probably go that way.
You’re into MMA, right?
Oh yeah, I love UFC, big time. How could you not be? They play UFC so much, you see it year round, and you just have to want to be a fan. If you’re not a fan, you’re not cool.
I think some young kids may think that in boxing you’re so restricted with just your punching power and your hand speed. In natural fighting, anything goes; you’re not restricted at all. Anything on your body is a weapon. I don’t disagree with that. Wouldn’t you like to have more than just your hands to fight with? You know how I feel; I got into a fight and bit Evander’s ear off. I didn’t plan to do it, that’s just how the mind thinks in that situation.
You sound like someone who wants to get in the octagon.
Yeah. I would love to do that stuff.
In an alternate universe, Mike Tyson did compete in MMA and won equally as many fights by submission as he did with knockouts. Granted, those submissions would still be due to strikes, but that’s only because in that alternate universe, he still bit Evander Holyfield’s ear off and nobody in their right mind wants to grapple with a guy like that.
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