Mike Tyson: Last Great Heavyweight Champion

     Maybe it's cause I was raised on Rocky movies, but I lately can't stand boxing. Every time one of those over-priced, over-hyped pay per view events comes around, I am completely underwhelmed. Watching Floyd Mayweather dance around while dodging (insert name of overmatched Latino boxer here), while ducking any fighter who has a chance of beating him, isn't my idea of a good time. I don't really enjoy watching a bunch of middle weights dance around playing patty cake with each other. However, these days you don't really have a choice. The heavy weight division sucks. So they don't promote it. It's full of 7'5 Russians with no hitting power. But back in the day, there were real heavy weights. In those days, a guy wasn't going to the club after a boxing match. He was going to the hospital. When I was growing up, I thought every fight looked like this.

      But as I grew up, I figured out shortly that real boxing matches don't go like that. Nobody was capable of delivering a vicious knockout that leaves somebody wobbly and dazed for hours, if not days. Nobody except one guy. Kid Dynamite. "Iron" Mike Tyson. Watching Tyson hit people was like watching a wreaking ball hit wet toilet tissue. If you never got to see him in his prime, you missed out. I'm not talking about just released from prison Mike Tyson. I'm not talking about Las Vegas nightclub entertainer Tyson either. I'm talking about the dude that used to walk to the arena wearing a cut up YMCA towel with a death stare that would scare the bejeezus out of the toughest dude you know. Tyson was my only childhood hero, that if I saw him in public, I wouldn't ask for an autograph. I would just put my head down and try to avoid making eye contact. The man was capable of violence that was next level in the eyes of guys that were themselves capable of violence. Not only would he destroy people but it was quick! Show up 2 minutes late for a Tyson fight, you probably missed the fight.

  Not to mention that he was the one of the best interviews ever. Between his uniquely high pitched voice, and  his penchant for using big words, he was entertaining. But what made him one of the greatest interviews was that Mike had absolutely, positively no filter. Here's to you champ. There will never be another like you.