Henry Tillman won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics and went on to contend in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions as a professional. He was outpointed by Evander Holyfield in a cruiserweight title bid and saw an amateur victory over Mike Tyson avenged in the paid ranks. 

Tillman has served many roles in boxing, from a prizefighter to a trainer, and recently, a broadcaster for a Westside Promotions card in the Bay Area. BoxingScene caught up with Tillman to recall some of his memories.

BS: Who is the best that you've sparred?

Tillman: Michael Dokes and Tony Tubbs. Oh, and Mark Wills, he could punch.

BS: What made them so good?

Tillman: They had so much experience over me. The good thing about it was my trainer knew what he was doing, Mercy Smith, may he rest in peace. What I understand now is that he was just pushing me to keep going to the next level, and that's the only way to do it - you've got to continue to spar, run, and work out with people that are better than you, but have your best interests in mind. They were not worried about you becoming better than them or having to fight them because we were in different weight classes, but they were sincerely concerned and wanted you to do better.  

I was blessed to have a lot of people like that around me, like I said, Tony Tubbs, Michael Dokes, they helped me get ready for the Pan-Am games. I was an amateur, and I was just a peanut-size drop in the ocean compared to them, but they worked with me, but they didn't baby me with it, and they didn't try to ruin my confidence. That's why I tell people, don’t hurt a young kid that's trying to learn this trade, because you may be stopping a future world champion only because he doesn't have any experience, and you just took advantage of it. A lot of good people behind me, and pushing me, and working with me, and I attribute my success to them.

BS: You were brought in by some pros as a Larry Holmes sparring partner, right?

Tillman: Yeah, I think it was David Bey. Tony Tubbs was getting ready to fight Greg Page, because he was an excellent boxer. And I sparred Dokes and Tubbs all the time, because they both trained out of California.

BS: What is your advice to young fighters?

Tillman: I would suggest a young fighter gets around people with more experience than him, but are not afraid to help him because for whatever reason. Some fighters don't help another fighter because they don't want them to shine. I was blessed to be around a lot of guys who helped me that wasn't concerned about that. 

I think young fighters just need to stay focused more and stop letting so many outside entities get involved with their concentration and their focus, and today is more distracting than what we had. We had a girl try to go out to a nightclub or something. But other than that, it wasn't too much because we couldn't take our cars to training camp. We fly in. We are in camp. It was cars there, they drove us everywhere, to the doctor, to dinner, to whatever it is we do. It was a driver who took us. But today, these guys, not all of them, but a lot of these guys have more distractions now, with the internet, with the social media, the cars, the tires, the rims. I want to be the man. I want to shine. We didn't think about this stuff. They want to be an actor. They want to be a rapper. Never in my own life did I think about promoting my own fight. Never thought about it.

BS: What made you so successful as a fighter?

Tillman: I stayed focused and stayed away from the distractions. I would stay away from being involved with a lot of relationships and just like the Kendrick Lamar song, ‘They ain't like us.’ Nobody's like a fighter. Fighters can't do what you do, and you can't do what fighters do. It's just two different worlds. You’ve got to live in a fighter’s world. To be a tough fighter, you have to almost be a hermit that everybody wants to be around. You can't want to be around everybody all the time. That's what it was always like for me. Everybody wants to be around, but I can't be around. So I try to keep to myself around people who have goals, like I did in boxing. It kept me from being caught up in a lot of stuff. I think some of the fighters today get caught up in outside entities that have nothing to do with boxing.