Mike Tyson’s “I’ll Eat His Children” Speech

00:00:14 Speaker 1: When we think of warriors, it's understandable to imagine vicious, brutal fighters who are about that action. That's NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, by the way, But if you really want to hear a good story about him, then listen to the previous episode of Sports Dot MP three. Enough on that, though in truth, many of history's greatest warriors were also poets. I'll acknowledge my bias as an English major. To me the concept of a dude that will crush you on the battlefield and then write a somber ballad about it. It's kind of badass. This isn't a podcast about my weird historical takes. It's sports Dot MP three, and that brings us to the sport of fighting. Well, the days of warrior poets are long past. Some of their closest modern day counterparts are the athletes in combat sports, mixed martial arts, boxing, muay Thai, kickboxing, and more. I'm not trying to discount other sports, but two basketball players calling each other out just doesn't quite hit as hard as when it's two well trained fighters who are about to enter a ring one v one and literally throw hands and feet and elbows, and now more than ever, a big part of combat sports is bringing in viewers and selling fights, meaning more trash talk, more entertaining press conferences geared towards driving those high numbers, and more memorable post fight callouts. But long before Connor McGregor was dominating headlines and catapulting the UFC the Ultimate Fighting Championship owned by Dana White, to massive followings and huge investments, boxing was the dominant combat sport in the American consciousness. If you were to write down a list of the fifty best boxing quotes of all time, I'd be really impressed that you have that many that you could name. I'd also bet a lot of money that there's more than a dozen that came from a single man. Muhammed Ali, the People's champ, the greatest and not just one of the most influential boxers, but athletes of all time. Floating like butterflies, stinging like bees, and more than a few other lines and phrases He's coined can be both motivational poster phrases poems themselves, and also trash talk. I mean, I guarantee there's thousands of people that know and have used Ali's phrases, but don't know what southpost dance means or what a TKO is, and that's a left handed stance and a technical knockout. Well, today's episode isn't about one of Ali's quotes. In fact, it's about a post fight speech from a boxer much the opposite of Ali in a number of ways, a man known more for his brutal knockouts, all income rage, and propensity for violence both in and out of the ring, Mike Tyson. And yet Tyson's speech is oddly similar to a lot of Ali's. He makes references to historical figures, uses phrases like my style is impetuous, and even ends with the praise to Allah. One might even think it came from the wordsmith with fists of stone himself, well, at least until the last line about eating his opponent's children and all that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I'm Will Gatchell, and on this episode of Sports Dot MP three, we'll be talking about one of the greatest, most poetic, and most bizarre speeches in boxing history, Mike Tyson's spine tingling post fight speech in two thousand, where he called out Lennox Lewis paid homage to a departed friend, and much much more so. Without further ado, let's get into it. There's an old cliche about mixed martial arts and how the best fighters don't actually fight with anger. Mike Tyson directly contradicts that debates will rage on forever about who the greatest boxer of all time is. But it's hard to argue that Tyson wasn't one of the most feared boxers at his peak. If I was fighting Muhammad Ali in his prime, I'd get whooped. But with him, I'd be more afraid that he'd embarrass me in the ring and in the press conference is leading to the fight. With Tyson, I'd be afraid of dying. He seemed to radiate pure violence and anger, and you can see the fear in some of his opponent's eyes before the fights even began. Says if they know they'll soon be added to his list of victims knocked out in the first round. And I have to mention that he did indeed bite a guy's eer off, well part of a guy's ear. And yeah, and yes, being a heavy hitter with one punched knockout power wasn't a new thing in the world of boxing at the time. But Tyson brought a lot more than just power to the table. Right throw, right throw, that's the sound of iron Mike Tyson's fists hitting a punching bag. Just to hammer home that point one last time. But you see a heavyweight boxer, meaning fighters who were fighting at above two hundred pounds. Tyson only stood at five foot ten inches, which was a lot shorter than most of his opponents, but he used his size and frame to his advantage. Most guys packing as much power as Tyson are a bit slower or less agile. But Tyson was incredibly agile, quick, and precise, and he paired all of that with great technique in an extremely aggressive fighting style. So, in summary, Tyson was a genetic prodigy with natural born fighting abilities and unprecedented levels of anger. And there's one more thing. He was trained and later adopted by one of the greatest boxing coaches of all time, Cus Dematto. At just thirteen years old, Mike Tyson had already been arrested over thirty times. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and he was surrounded by extreme poverty. His birth father abandoned him and his mother when he was just two years old, and in that setting he survived. However, he could could, by his account, fight, so much so that he would actually fight older kids from nearby neighborhoods for money and win. Eventually, though, this life of petty crime caught up with him, and Tyson found himself at a juvenile detention center. His luck would have it, or fortune or fate. One of the prison's guards, Bobby Stewart, was a former boxer, and he recognized Tyson's natural born talent, taking him under his wing after teaching him what he knew. Steward, in nineteen seventy nine, introduced the thirteen year old Tyson to an Italian American boxing coach he knew, Cus Tomato, who had coached some of the greatest Golden Glove boxers of past generations, but was over seventy years old at the time. Cus saw the same immense potential in Tyson that Stewart did, reportedly saying that Tyson could be the heavyweight champion of the world one day. Not long after, Cus began training Tyson, and he would become a key mentor and father figure in Tyson's life, even adopting Tyson into his own family when Tyson's mother passed away when Tyson was sixteen years old. As Tyson himself states, quote, I was a bad kid, went to institutions. Then I met an old guy who trained fighters, and this guy gave me the blueprint for the rest of my life end quote. Over the next few years, this guy turned the boy into a boxing prodigy. He helped Tyson channel his fear and anger at the world into the ring and played a pivotal role in shaping Tyson into the legendary fighter he would become, but Cuss himself would not be there to see it. At seventy seven years old, he passed away in nineteen eighty five. Just over a year later, Mike Tyson would become boxing's youngest world heavyweight title holder ever at just twenty years and four months old. 00:08:58 Speaker 2: To ten. 00:09:00 Speaker 1: It's over. 00:09:01 Speaker 2: We've been a plan Heavyweight Champion, Lord Mike Tyson. 00:09:17 Speaker 1: It's June twenty fourth, two thousand and Mike Tyson is thirty three years old, almost thirty four, and he's standing in a boxing ring in Glasgow, Scotland, having just knocked out Lou Savarees in less than a minute. His second fastest knockout ever. It's been fifteen years since Cuss, Tyson's former coach, father figure, and role model, passed away. Fourteen years since Tyson became the youngest heavyweight title holder in the sport. Ten years since Buster Douglas shocked the world and knocked out Tyson at the time when he was an undisputed heavyweight champ the world and writing a thirty seven fight wind streak. Eight years since Tyson entered a high security prison in Indiana for a rape conviction, five years since Tyson was released from that Indiana youth center, three years since Tyson bid off part of Evander Holyfield's ear after losing to the same fighter the year before. And it's been one year since Tyson served three and a half months in a Maryland jail for assaulting two motorists. He's older, now, less agile, and a little less guarded. He's about to call out Lennox Lewis for a fight, and in the speech it shows glimpses of the other parts of Tyson, the parts that aren't just the anger of violence and fighting. He talks about his recently departed friend. He shows his interest in history and conquerors, of the past, and he uses poetic language and alliterative phrases, but at the end tyson speech chefs in an instant reminding us that an old lion is still a lion. 00:11:08 Speaker 2: Profit I dedicate this fight to my brother Dara Bahm, who died. I'll be there to see you. I love you with all my heart, Oh great Bud, to my children, I love you, Oh God. A man, what that's your shortest fight ever? 00:11:23 Speaker 1: Any time I'm at your professional ever, I. 00:11:26 Speaker 2: Still I'm a lake. I mighta I don't. 00:11:30 Speaker 1: Know, man, Yeah, yeah, lynnix lewyd Lynx. I'm coming for you like it's it frustrating to train like you did and then have this stuff with his fight. 00:11:40 Speaker 2: I only trained probably two weeks or three weeks for this fight. 00:11:43 Speaker 1: I had to burry my best friend, and I dedicated this fight. 00:11:46 Speaker 2: I wasn't gonna fight. 00:11:47 Speaker 1: I dedicated this fight. 00:11:48 Speaker 2: Then I was gonna rip his heart out. 00:11:50 Speaker 1: I'm the best ever. I'm the most brutal and visits and the most ruthless. 00:11:53 Speaker 2: Champion it's ever been. If no one could stop me, Legs is the conquer No, I'm Alexander, He's no Alexander. 00:11:59 Speaker 1: I'm the best ever, They've. 00:12:00 Speaker 2: Never been anybody's I'm sunny. Listen, I'm Jack Dift and if no one like I'm from their FORWF, no one to can match me my style of them PETU, my defifth is impregnable, and I'm defeructioned. 00:12:11 Speaker 1: I want your heart. I want to eat his children. Pray be a rom Tyson would go on to fight Lennox Lewis and lose, and in fact, after that speech, he actually lost three of his next four fights before retiring with a record of fifty wins and six losses. And well, it might seem silly, I think the fact that Tyson said this particular speech right before he had the worst stretch of his entire boxing career actually makes sense. His entire demeanor and persona was built on being ferociously violent and intimidating, and although that anger flares into view towards the end, it's faded. It's less intense than years before. And Tyson himself has even admitted that he was beyond nervous before every one of his fights. Yes, Iron Mike Tyson was terrified every time he stepped into the ring. And that's not to say Mike Tyson is a sympathetic character. I mean, I don't have to go into some of his crimes and other things he's done. There's a cautionary tale somewhere in Tyson's fear of fighting and relationship with anger. He grew up with almost no support at all, surrounded by crime and a lack of strong role models. And when he finally found something he was truly good at, something people showed him love for and recognized him for. It was fighting. And to be good at fighting, to be good at boxing, to receive that love from others like Customatto wired Tyson to channel that very angry, violent part of himself. And so Tyson embodied that anger, but he did it in a destructive way, and with all that pressure on him to perform, it seems like he fought with an almost animal like fear, the terror of being backed into a corner with no option but to fight. And fight he did, but motivated by the fear of failure and disappointing the one who believed in him when no one else did, the man who saw a thirteen year old boy as the future heavyweight champion of the world. And that is a lot of pressure. Since his retirement, Tyson has talked about how he's avoided intense training because he's afraid of reawakening that beast inside him from his fighting days, And while obviously I'm not Tyson, I can't help but think that might be the wrong approach. We don't all have the same beast or beasts within a ourselves. We all come from different background settings and influences, but we can all understand the fear of ourselves, or the fear that our emotions and desires will take too much control. Anxiety, addiction, anger, rage. But you can't face what you fear by ignoring it, and you have to take in all the good and the bad parts before you can even begin to think about making that change. And that's the idea I'd like to end on today. The final line of Tyson's speech, you know, the eating children part. It reveals the thing that made Tyson what he was, for better or for worse, his anger. But it's just one line. The full speech weaves from one emotion to the next, from a friend's death to long dead conquerors and future opponents. It's complex, hard to define, and definitely bizarre, but definitely more than just anger. 00:16:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you all, Praid bitter all love much love to my brother Darn Barrow. 00:16:06 Speaker 1: That was your friend who died last week. Yes, thank you, thank you for recognize him. 00:16:10 Speaker 2: Hope if what he wants me now I'm rusty, I want I want him when when I'm right, but I can go in and rip out his heart and feed it to him. 00:16:29 Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. I'm Will Gatchell and this is Sports at MP three. Please follow the podcast on whichever platform you're listening to this on and be sure to follow us on socials at Sports Underscore MP three. I know it's confusing. It's not a dot, but okay, not all places allow dots and use her name, so don't blame me. Yep. That's Sports Underscore MP three on all social platforms and I'll see you in two weeks and please have a good one, please lad