Lennox Lewis recalls when Mike Tyson ‘tried to k.i.l.l him’ in a duel before the pair met in world title fight
Mike Tyson is back in the ring this weekend when he takes on fellow boxing legend Roy Jones Jr in an eight-round exhibition match.
The 54-year-old has been removed from the sport he once ruled for 15 years but through a combination of intense training and a vegan diet, Iron Mike is only a few pounds above the weight he was in his prime
Stories have emerged of Tyson knocking out the teeth of his training partners in the build up to his scrap with former four-weight world champion Jones Jr.
And fellow former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis can attest to just how ferocious Tyson is in sparring.
Lewis would win the Junior World Championships for Canada back in 1983 but was regularly told that he wasn’t really the best because he hadn’t faced America’s best – Tyson
Tyson and his then-trainer Cus D’Amato preferred not to fly at the time and that’s why he didn’t take part in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Lewis was encouraged to meet him and ended up going toe-to-toe in a sparring session, with the pair both teenagers at that time.
He recalled to Joe Rogan: “I won the World Junior Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and I remember the American team were saying, ‘Oh well you never fought the best’.
“I thought the Americans sent the best team? ‘Yeah but one guy, he doesn’t like taking planes and his manager don’t like taking planes either.’ So me and my trainer left Canada and we drove all the way up there.
“First day in the gym, bell went, he came across and he was trying to kill me. I did my Muhammad Ali thing obviously and stayed away from his power, but the first day was really hectic.“The second day was a little hectic but got better as it went along, and then the last day I actually got the better of him.
“I remember Cus D’Amato saying, ‘Mike! You’re gonna meet him some day, don’t you do that! ‘And that always echoed on my mind, ‘Will we ever fight?’. Because Cus D’Amato said we were going to fight, and it did happen.”
The pair eventually met in 2002, but Tyson was past his prime and on a downward spiral at the time.
Lewis knocked him out in the eighth round but the feeling they should have met during their primes in the 1990s still lingers.
