Mike Tyson talks about his dedication to boxing from childhood, his daily routine, and how mentorship shaped his career. He discusses facing adversity and the discipline that built his success in the ring.
My question, my first question is because we're talking to millennials mostly, and they think there's an easy button to life. And I want to hear what. What does it take to be a champion?
It's basically, Mike, you know, you just got to dedicate your whole life to your goal. Whatever goal you, you want to accomplish, you've got to dedicate your whole life to it. I've been doing this since I was 12 years old, and that's my dedication.
So let's talk about it. 12 years old, like, what do you do until you start your career? I guess at 12 years old, right?
12 years old, I meet this older man named Amato, and he starts teaching me how to box. So I come to this place, I see this old white guy, and I said, what is he going to teach me about fighting? And later I find out I didn't know anything. And he took me, and my mother had passed away, he had adopted me. And then we went on this tour and becoming the champion.
What was your typical day? Let's say 12, 13, 14 years old. What was your typical day like then? And then let's bring that up to like 24, 25. And like, how does that all work? What do you, what do you have to do? What's the kind of commitment and mindset?
Never change from 13 to 30? Never change? No. You get up at 3:30 in the morning, you start running every morning you.
Got up 3:30 in the morning?
Yes. Okay, so you go 3:30, you come back home, you get into your hot bath. You got to get into a hot bath, especially if you're cutting weight. You get into the hot tub.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Hang on.
You said 3:30. What do you do at 4 o'? Clock? What are you doing at 5? What are you doing at 6?
Getting in the hot tub.
Oh, first thing you do at 3:30 is you get in the hot tub.
No, I'll get. I run after I finish running.
Okay.
And get into the hot tub.
How far do you run?
What would you eat in the morning?
Four miles. Excuse me?
Four miles. What would you, what would you eat? You have breakfast or anything or. What do you usually eat?
I was running. No food. I had an empty stomach.
Empty stomach. And then you do that. And then after that you did the hot tub. And then what came next?
Then we ate. After that I went to school.
And then after school, what'd you do?
I came to the gym.
Wow. And how long would you stay in the gym for after school?
Three hours.
For three hours. And when you got older, did that routine change at all? Because now you're, you're what, 18 years old, you're no longer in school, you're a professional boxer. What did that training day look like?
It was the same thing exactly.
Training, but instead of school, you're in the gym that whole time?
Yes.
What would you do in the, like, what would you do? Would you study films and watch a.
Lot of films before I went to bed, but mostly sparring, I spoiled a lot. So a lot of contact fight fighting.
A lot of contact fighting. When you watch these, these films and videos of other boxers, how much time would you spend doing that?
I would do that for a couple hours a night.
Couple hours a night. So you're studying, you're working your ass off physically and then you're studying for another two hours?
Yeah. Yes, yes, study. It's still studying. Like you're looking at the old fighters, what they're doing, what, what you can take with and what you don't want to. It's that, that is a commitment. And anyone who's listening here, if you think that you're going to be successful and it's going to be an easy ride, it's going to be one of the toughest rides in your life to be a champion or to be top of your game.
You can't get discouraged. Excuse me? You can't get discouraged if you lose or something happened.
Hard times come across to everybody. So when you go through difficult times, it's got to suck it up, just keep going.
So what did you, what did all that training and that discipline, what, what did it teach you that you brought into your business life and your personal life?
On my dedication.
Go deeper on, on dedication, though, Mike. Like when you're 12 or 13 and you're working that hard, when you see other kids are out having fun and goofing off and you're in the gym and you're working, like, what do you tell your kids? Like what advice? Because that's a huge price to pay.
My kids are a lot different than I was. They, they have food, they have nice house. They have. So if they don't do good in the gym, they're going to move to a nice home. Yeah, that was different with us. You know, you have to win every time you win the step getting out.
Of the hood in a lot of ways, like you're self made, like, right, like Mike and I are both self made, but you're self made. Like you put it on your back and you made it happen.
Well, I'm self made, but, you know, someone helped me, somebody guide me.
Yeah, sure, you're mentored. All of us were like, Chris has mentored. I've been mentored. You've been mentored. That's one of the keys to success.
How important is a. Is a mentor and somebody to believe in you at a young age.
Every day in the world have somebody to believe in you. Because I was very insecure that one time believed in.
Kid and.
Talking about this guy.
