Joe Rogan & Killer Mike on Mike Tyson's Legacy

We were talking about how weird it was to meet Mike Tyson. You know, it's so strange to hang out and talk to him. Like, party, he was so iconic that whenever you're around him, there's like 10% of you that has to go, Holy shit, it's Mike Tyson. No matter what else you're saying, 10% of your brain is going, Holy shit, that's Mike Tyson. When you showed the clip of the 51-year-old Mike Tyson hitting the bag, I remember it as a child. He was the first person I see. I have two dads. I was a non-bio and a bio dad. And he was the first person I saw him hit my dad. You know what I'm saying? He hit with such vicious and evil intent. It was amazing. Yeah, he could still do it. Yeah, that's what I saw when he was hitting the bag. It's still terrifying. If he was a young contender coming up, you would look at him and go, Wow, this guy is getting punched. He doesn't have nearly the hand speed that he had when he was young. Look at that, man. Yeah, that was the peak. He's an amazing story though, man. Listening to him describe his childhood and how customado had hypnotized him. That was amazing because I had never heard him talk about that before. And that's what people need to understand, like who he was. People want to say, oh, he was hyper aggressive and he did terrible things and he was violent. Think of how this kid grew up. He was an orphan. Yes. He was literally orphaned. Taken in by this one guy, the first time in his life where anything is positive and it's all about fighting and being a destroyer. And he gets hypnotized by this guy to be a destroyer. And he's a physical specimen. He really is. You put your hand, you grab just his hand, like his whole body is carved out of a large block of rock. He's a tank of a man. Wow. Still to this day, he's a tank. Absolutely. And when he was young, they saw that right away. Teddy Atlas said on this podcast that when Mike was 13, he weighed 190 pounds. And they didn't believe he was 13. They thought he was sandbagging. They put him in at 16. He said, okay, say he's 16. Nobody would believe he's 13. And they're like, come on. You're saying this fucking kid's 13. They didn't want to believe it. And he just let him have it. Okay. Okay. He said people were always lying about how many fights people had. They would always say he's only had 10 fights. And you see the guy move immediately. I'm like, oh my God, this guy's had 50 fights. Yeah. You can see watching him. And Teddy was saying that that was always the hustle that everybody always lied a little bit about someone's record. And when they saw Mike Tyson at 13 weighing 190 pounds, just a fucking specimen. There's some people that are just built perfect for certain things. And he was built to be that. He was built perfect for bobbing and weaving and getting in tight. And he was so fucking fast. His hook and the uppercut. He saw an ass. Which fighter has that uppercut? Lennox Lewis had a tremendous uppercut. Yeah. Yeah. There's some fighters today. Anthony Joshua has a tremendous uppercut. Yeah. There's some, you know, amazing talent today. But it was like what Mike had done was revitalize the entire country's image of the heavyweight division. Yeah. He's a heavyweight division. He got boring for a while. Absolutely. And no disrespect, but there was guys that just like Pinklin Thomas, who's a champion and Tony Tubbs. They weren't the kind of guy that you like look forward to seeing as being the champion of the world. He didn't believe it. Like, I don't believe that's the toughest guy in the world. He might be a tough guy. I'm sure he's a tough guy. He's a professional boxer, but I don't think that's the best guy. And then Tyson came along and like, there he is. Yeah. Mike had the perfect name. He had the perfect look. He had the perfect body, the perfect image. And he came at the perfect time. Yep. Mike, when you look at hip hop and where it was and where Mike was at the time, it was a perfect synergy for him to become a hero. Mike Tyson, Mike Jordan, like these people became icons at a time where the United States, like in the 80s, after getting opaque, kicking ass in the debt crisis, fucking up the 70s, I ran shit at the end of the 70s, early 80s, steel. I remember my grandfather worked at Hall Steel. I remember Steel, my other grandfather, Steel leaving America. I remember like, it just kind of being like, it wasn't as proud. Yeah. And he was one of those things that made you feel bad ass and the times feel dangerous. And he wore black in those little boxes. He didn't wear the boots. He wasn't flashy. Like, he was a perfect villain at a time where villainy, NWA, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. It was celebrated danger. I think he was perfect for the times. And I think he's perfect for now. Like what Mike is, when I hear him interview and I really talk and people make fun of his list or whatever, and I think that gets in the way of you hearing the real wisdom he's saying a lot of times. Yeah. Like Mike has repeatedly talked about change and about growth and about how he doesn't see things the same. And I think if we actually listen to that, it kind of challenged us to do the same shit that we really don't want to do. Yeah, he's one of the rare guys that you'll talk to that accomplished an insane amount, literally became one of the most famous boxers in the history of the sport. And you talk about him now and all he wants to do is dismiss that past life. He wants to, it's like, I was silly. Look at me. I'm a silly person. Yeah, like he's a real warrior. Like he's like in a classic kung fu film, he's the reluctant teacher almost. You know, you do a movie. Mike is the guy who is a student go to beg to teach you to fight and you want to know why he won't teach you and it's because you find out later your teacher killed someone, you know, in the ring or something. Like he is really that character. He is a, you could tell even with the pigeons back in the days that there's kindness and love in there somewhere. And now he gets to express it to human beings. You just see he's a happier person, you know what I mean? Until you bring up Don King's name. Yeah, don't do that. Yeah, and then you get scared like he's going to fucking beat me up in my dad too. The crazy thing about him selling weed now is that he, they charge, what did they charge him? $300,000 I think for a tested positive for the Andrew Galata fight for weed. So they find him $300,000. They just stole money from him because he had weed in the system. Wow. Now he sells weed. What are you going to let NFL guys talk to him about weed with? They should let everybody smoke it. It's good for your brain. Especially if you're doing something like slamming into each other, running 30 miles an hour. It's probably good to give them something to calm them down. True.