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In the mid-80s, a young Mike Tyson exploded onto the professional boxing scene like a shotgun blast into a watermelon. He knocked out his first 19 opponents - 12 in the first round. By age 20, he was the youngest heavyweight champion in history - a record that still stands.
In his prime, Tyson was a force of nature. A full-grown male lion in gloves and shorts - powerful, quick, and ferocious. He made towering titans look like trembling toddlers.
Tyson's early life was difficult. He lived a life of crime, and at 13, he was a familiar face in juvenile detention facilities. But his trajectory changed when he met Cus D’Amato - an elderly Italian-American boxing trainer who saw something special in young Mike and took him under his wing. It was D’Amato who turned Tyson into a boxing god.
Before teaching Tyson boxing techniques, D’Amato focused on what he believed to be the foundation of a champion - a fighter’s mind. The first topic D’Amato covered was fear. He drilled into Tyson that if you weren’t afraid, you were crazy. Nature gave you fear to survive. Without it, you’d do something stupid and die. But it needed to be controlled. Like fire, it could destroy or be a powerful tool.
D’Amato told Tyson:
“Your mind is not your friend, Mike. I hope you know that. You have to fight with your mind, control it, put it in its place. You have to control your emotions. Fatigue in the ring is ninety percent psychological. It’s just the excuse of a man who wants to quit.
The night before a fight, you won’t sleep. Don’t worry, the other guy didn’t either. You’ll go to the weigh-in, he’ll look much bigger than you and calmer, like ice, but he’s burning up with fear inside. Your imagination is going to credit him with abilities he doesn’t have. Remember, motion relieves tension. The moment the bell rings, and you come in contact with each other, suddenly your opponent seems like everybody else, because now your imagination has dissipated. The fight itself is the only reality that matters. You have to learn to impose your will and take control over that reality.”
D’Amato made Tyson read a book by Peter Heller called “In This Corner . . . !” that contained interviews with all-time great fighters. Tyson was surprised to learn that all of his boxing icons were, despite their ferocity in the ring, as scared as he was. Tyson’s favourite was the story of Willie Ritchie, a boxing champion from the early 1900s. Ritchie took a beating during one of his fights, which (to Ritchie's surprise) was called a draw. At the weigh-in for the rematch, Rithie was so scared he thought he was going to vomit. This situation was made worse by the opponent’s manager slapping Ritchie on the back and saying, “Okay, we took it easy on you last time. Tonight, we’re knocking you out quick.” But Ritchie didn’t show his fear and climbed onto the scale. When it was his opponent’s turn, he never showed. It turns out he was even more petrified than Ritchie was.
Tyson recounts:
“When I read that story I knew I had that advantage, I knew how they felt, and they didn’t know how I felt. Even though I was afraid when I was fighting, I thought, They’re more afraid of me than I am of them.”
When Tyson turned pro, fear wasn’t an emotion, but a weapon. To scare his opponents, D’Amato taught him not to show humanity before a fight: no handshakes or other sportsman-like gestures. Even after crushing an opponent, there was no excessive celebration. Tyson wanted prospective fighters to see that the whipping came as no surprise to him.
On the night of June 27, 1988, Tyson fought Michael Spinks in what was then the richest fight in boxing history. Both fighters were undefeated, and the anticipation for the championship fight was compared to the clash between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Tyson entered the arena to the sound of funeral music. He recalls:
“I walked slowly up to the ring. I looked at the audience like I wanted to kill them. I just wanted to create this whole ominous atmosphere of fear. I was one-hundred-percent aware of the audience when I was moving. My every thought was to project my killer image. But I also wanted to be one with the audience. I started doing my out-of-body stuff so I could be one with them, so when I got into the ring I could just lift my arms and the audience would go nuts. Then I would see my opponent’s energy leaving him slowly.”
Tyson knocked Spinks out within 91 seconds of the opening bell.
The moral of the story:
Are you the master of your fear, or its grovelling servant?
Whether in boxing, business or family life, we’re all scared. Your rival is scared. Even Mike Tyson was scared. But be rational about fear. Let it motivate you. Let your control over it give you an edge.
Be like Mike.
*The quotes above are from Tyson’s books, Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography, and Iron Ambition, My Life with Cus D’Amato.
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