Wisdom 1986-berbick_1410992i

February 24th, 2013

17

Mike Tyson On Fear

By

Mike Tyson was arguably one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Few boxers could match his combination of speed, power, and technique. Mike was knocking out grown men when he was just a teenager. He became the youngest heavyweight champion in history at the age of 20.

For those of you who remember watching his fights (or have seen his old fights on youtube) it was typical of him to score a brutal knockout in the first few rounds. Tyson had a very aggressive and unrelenting style. He beat many guys off of brute intimidation alone. In fact, the great Larry Holmes even admitted he was scared for the first time in his life when he stepped into the ring to fight Tyson.

But what a lot of people don’t know is that for the most part it was all an act. Tyson was far from the fearless and totally confident fighter he pretended to be. The confident, fearless attitude was something that was instilled in him by his trainer and mentor, the late Cus D’amato:

I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the difference between being yellow and being brave? No difference. Only what you do. They both feel the same. They both fear dying and getting hurt. The man who is yellow refuses to face up to what he’s got to face. The hero is more disciplined and he fights those feelings off and he does what he has to do. But they both feel the same, the hero and the coward. People who watch you judge you on what you do, not how you feel.

At a young age Tyson learned how to harness and control his own fear and project it on to his opponents. He kept up a fearless attitude to psych everyone out. In other words, Tyson knew the art of skullduggery:

The concept of a fearless warrior is a complete myth. We all feel fear. But as men we are not judged so much by what we say but rather what we do. A man separates himself based on his actions, not feelings.

I highly recommend watching the 2008 documentary Tyson for more great wisdom.

Read More: Do Men Fear Commitment?



About the Author

is a Canadian freelance content writer and fitness enthusiast.

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  • anon1

    Ditto on the tyson film. Really was interesting to hear him from his own words. All the crazy shit he did, the unrelenting rage inside. the fear, the love of the ring. His only real deep relationship being with his trainer and his pidgeons.

  • Rich

    Great post.

  • http://evilspeculator.com molecool

    Met the man once at a gym. He certainly makes an impression.

    • Intruiged

      More details required please

  • Man at Liberty

    Rad video. Watch a best of Mike Tyson interview compilation clip for some great humor.

  • Ozzo

    And Mike Tyson was a victim of feminism as well. He was put in jail because some stupid, model slut couldn’t handle being a one-night stand and called rape. You really think a 110 lb. girl is not gonna have a bruised vagina when getting fucked by the heavyweight champion of the world? (220+ lbs.)

    • taterearl

      Watch the documentary…his decline started when he married Robin Givens.

      • Eric_D_Read

        Earlier than that. It was when Cus D’Amato died and Don King got his hooks into him.

      • LASYL

        Yeap when Italian D’Amato passed away Tyson was a boat with no rudder

        Still thanks for the memories Mike:

        “How dare they challenge me with their primitive skills”

        YOU FAILED, the record is still held by Italian Rocco Marsiano

    • https://twitter.com/Teedub_5 Teedub

      After discovering the red-pill, it has made me view that incident differently. I used to think he was straight up guilty, now I agree with you.

  • space_monkey

    False. I fear nothing.

    • Sundance

      And yet you need to say it.

  • knuckledragger

    Mike Tyson, yeah, good boxer, unlucky jock that cut picked clean by his “friends” and jammed up by some skank.

    Still, as men looking for the straight shit on what it means to be “brave” or “strong”, or just “better”, we need to stop looking at the world the way bitches do. Bitches look at a guy like Tyson and see shiny lights, big paycheck, good in the very, very limited capacity we see him perform and figure he must be someone to emulate.

    But there’s about a thousand and one people we should be looking at before we look at a fucking athlete for inspiration. My two friends, now two of my many dead friends, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty are a good example. Heavyweight boxing takes a good bit of balls, no doubt; the conscious decision to run into a hail of gunfire to your certain death takes a fuckload more.

    While we’re talking about being fearless, shit, how about any American guy out there approaching women knowing that a misplaced word, a misconstrued consent, or a lengthy lapse in judgement could cost you your job, your kids, land you on the front page or even in the klink. Thats fuckin fearless, gents….let’s just don’t sell ourselves short.

    • Stuki

      I’d personally rather risk saying a few words to a woman, before I stepped into the ring with Tyson. That guy hit hard! I think most guys feel the same way :)

  • Steve

    Ali was the master of those psychological tactics. Tyson didn’t really need them because he fought a LOT of bums. The heavyweight division was riddled with low quality fighters (not unlike the past 15 years) when Tyson came on the scene.

    It would have been good if he and Holyfield would have fought when D’Amato was still alive. We’d have had a better gauge of how great he really was. IMO he’s in top ten best heavyweight conversation but Ali, Johnson, Louis were all better. You could even make a case that Holyfield and Lewis both would have beaten Tyson in their primes.

  • Mark

    Get in your car and drive to Mexico and hangout for a bit. Fear will stop most. We all have it. Deal with one and another will be round the corner.

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