fbpx
Skip to main content

Mike Tyson: Trainer had me hypnotized as a teenager before fights

Mike Tyson
Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The life of Mike Tyson is full of fascinating details, and the former heavyweight champ added some crazy details to his story in an interview with Joe Rogan.

During a recent appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” Tyson said his old trainer Cus D’Amato used to have him see a hypnotist before he fought as a teenager.

“You relax. You go in there and totally focus on blackness, nothing,” Tyson explained (h/t  Mike DeStefano of Complex.com). They tell you, ‘You’re going to be a savage, an intelligent animal, you’re working, you’re going to do this, you’re going to be a ferocious animal, you’re going to fight both hands to the body, use your jab in ferocious fashion,’ They sinked all that into me when I was younger.”

Given the way things turned out for Tyson in the ring — the Evander Holyfield ear-biting incident being the first memory that pops to mind — this answers a lot of questions. He really was the epitome of a “ferocious animal” and was utterly ruthless in the ring.

There’s more, too. Tyson told Rogan he experimented with LSD, and that his first experience occurred when he “probably” 11 years of age. Yikes.

One of the greatest boxers of all-time, Mike Tyson finished his career in 2005 with a record of 50-6, 44 of those victories coming by way of knockout.

More About: