Lennox Lewis on First Meeting Mike Tyson | Joe Rogan

them but you don't ever work out boxing wise anymore yeah but you don't hit a bag my son's 15 and I know he wants to box so anytime we get a chance you know I'm always training him how big is he now six feet Jesus yeah it's taller than you Tyson son Tyson son is 16 Oh Miguel Tyson son was saying that he wants a box to Tyson's like listen no Miguel's not like that but he's also saying listen you you grew up soft and you know he's saying like you don't want to meet someone like me you know like the way he was yeah I know I know I don't want to meet some animal like me you know like when he was fighting like he like he thinks of what he would have done to his own son don't do that like he was talking about on the podcast and his son Miguel's a really talented kid like musician wise could play like seven different instruments Wow Spanish Wow the kids really and he's a really smart nice kid well Tyson's a smart guy he's not like he I think people mistake Tyson for being dummy he's very very very intelligent well read the boxing is in at least some levels a very very intellectual pursuit yeah there's you have to have a strong mind to be able to dodge those punches get in and get yours in that you have to you have to be able to sort out that problem there's a problem in front of you the problem is another man who's the same weight as you the same size as you he's got gloves on just like you do and he's trying to do what you're trying to do to him and you have to do that within seconds yeah boom yeah punches thrown at you what do you do what's what's the rebuttal yeah people don't understand they think just because someone doesn't have the best vocabulary or because they don't have a comprehensive education that they're not intelligent that's a big mistake no Tyson's intelligent I remember going to the Catskills when I was I wanted World Junior Championships in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic and I remember that American team was saying oh well you never fought the best I'm like didn't fight the best I thought Americans said the best team yeah but one guy he doesn't like taking planes in his magic don't like taking planes either so I'm like who's that and they told me it was Mike Tyson custom model so me and my trainer we left Canada and we drove all the way up there and while we were up there a razor-rutick was up there and they said oh razor-rutick came didn't spy with us okay I'll spy with you I'm here for four days so first time Tyson actually met me you know he was nice guy really nice guy took me in his room showed me some old flicks that I've never seen before of old-time fighters would tell me about each fighter like he studied them and then you know this is where he got his old style is his style of fighting from and first day in the first day in the gym Bell went he came across and he was trying to kill me like you know I did my Muhammad Ali thing obviously stayed away from his power but the first day was really hectic and then the second day was a little hectic and that got better as it went along and the last day is I got actually the better of him the last day and I remember custom models saying Mike you're gonna meet him someday don't you do that and that always echoed in my mind that will we ever fight will we ever fight cuz custom models said that we're gonna fight why and it did happen and there's footage of it yeah wow Lennox has the footage of it footage of the train sessions sparring how old was Tyson at the time Tyson was like a he was about 52 no no how old was he at the time Oh at the time 15 he was younger than me I was long so he's about 17 wow I was 18 no he was younger than that that must have been because it was 84 is before the Empire State Games and everything okay you would you went up there before you went to the 84 Olympics yeah yeah well it must have been crazy though knowing that you know you you guys were going to be a part of boxing history and knowing that all the way back then and being a teenager and standing front and hearing custom models scream that out that must have been intense it was intense because custom model wasn't that loud when he was when all of a sudden he became loud it was like everybody listened you know and then you know there's certain ways that you would get across the people and some some people take you have to shout at them did you ever wish that you fought them in his prime in essence I did fight him in this prime and you know when you say prime I was in my prime too you know you were definitely in your prime you were you were but I feel like his enthusiasm had waned before then you know oh you know this is my perception yeah how I look at that whole thing is Mike Tyson was an early bloomer I was a late bloomer so you know when when both of us meet you know there's never a perfect time perfect time for us is when we meet in the middle right right right and you know right and if he won maybe people would look at it differently right it's because you beat him and beat him so soundly right that people look at it like maybe his time had already been gone yeah Lennox turned pro after Mike had already had a defeat Wow no nice turn pro in 89 Wow I never even thought of that Mike lost in January look yeah this is us open up and look at you look at Kevin Rooney Wow that is crazy man God that's crazy he was built back then too he had a big neck yeah he was always doing those neck bridges but he also just had freak genetics I'm just a phenomenal genetic specimen you know I had Teddy Atlas in here and Teddy house used to take Mike to these smokers when he was 13 and he Teddy was joking around about it said everybody always lied about how old people were they would tell you the kid was 16 and really was 20 they always did that and he said he goes so how old is this kid he was 13 he goes what does he weigh he goes 190 pounds what the fuck Teddy come on he's like I'm telling you he's he's fucking 13 what do you want so you know nobody would believe it cuz he was such a specimen I watched that one yeah Teddy was great man do you think he should have stayed with Teddy should have stayed with Kevin and Teddy well he definitely was how you know he was so wild like how how could you tell him what to do back then that was part of the problem I mean he was never no one ever prepared him and this is one of the things we discussed on the podcast was that he was a 12 year old 13 year old boy and he was getting hypnotized he had we came from a terrible background it was there was no love he was abandoned and all of a sudden he's getting love and attention for something and this one thing was this man who was telling him you're gonna be a great fighter you're gonna be a world champion and he would hypnotize me saying you don't exist the task exists you know you're gonna work the body and destroy this man and he would tell he would put these thoughts in his head and Mike couldn't wait to just get out there fuck people up because that's where he got the love that's where he got the attention from but he never turned never told him how to shut it off he never I mean he didn't have time to work with him cuz he was on his way out he was dying when he met Mike and so he only taught him how to destroy he never taught him how to cope he never taught him how to understand that there's gonna be a lot of shit coming your way and you got to know what that is and don't get caught up in that hype train don't just don't get wrapped up in Hollywood and you know he wound up marrying Robin Givens and you know I don't think cuss foresaw all that other bullshit no how could he have no of course was around Mike would be totally different he would have been a different man if you've cussed lasted another 15 years even if Jimmy Jacobs had lasted another five years maybe yeah maybe it would have helped but I mean it's like once you were once removed from cuss it's like Kevin Rooney was once removed from cuss right and then Teddy Atlas was way more of a hard-liner you know Teddy Atlas you couldn't put any bullshit with you know and like those other guys you just gotta go you know then he got to Aaron Snowell and all those guys was a bum Richard Gia Kettie they just they just didn't they didn't they could have never brought Mike to the dance right they got there when he was already at the dance and they're just trying to like maintain things and he's not listening to anybody he's my they also weren't boxing people as far as I was concerned when he was up with cuss he was he was in a good situation you know there was a lady in the house cooking meals they had cuss cuss there being a father figure talk to him every day and that's what young kids need they need that you know to be spoken with by older people yeah and you know a lot of young people nowadays are not even respecting the older people but they can gain a lot of information from an older person you know how do you deal with this situation yeah well you know you hear from an older person it kind of makes your mind thinking saying you know you're right it works for them so anytime I get a chance to talk to kids about you know their life and where they're going or is take that opportunity