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Stacy McKinley worked as a trainer for Mike Tyson for ten years. That’s a lot of time spent with the living legend heavyweight champion. That’s a lot of knowledge and understanding. McKinley recently spoke about his experiences with one of the most prolific figures in the history of sport. Cutting right to the chase…
“I told Lennox in Miami. I told everybody I could for Mike Tyson to not fight Lennox Lewis. In spite of what I said at the press conference was basically, we try to run a psychological game on an opponent. Everybody in the camp knew that I had said Mike shouldn’t fight Lennox Lewis. I didn’t think Mike could beat Lennox Lewis. Only time I thought Mike could beat Lennox Lewis is when he fought Golota. At that time he was weighing about 225. His hands were fast. At that time I think he stood a good chance against Lennox Lewis. But after that Lennox continued to fight, he was sharp.”
“I saw when he fought Francois Botha, his combinations were quick, he had a lot of power behind his punches. And Tyson was sitting on his ass, wasn’t fighting, wasn’t doing anything. And go in the ring with a big, hard puncher like that…I suggested to Mike, You need a tune up. But because of the money and the pressure and Tyson being Tyson, the public was demanding the fight. So it was a business decision to go in there and fight. But I never thought he could beat him.”
“I told Lennox. I saw him in Miami at Lucky Street Gym, I said, I want to tell you something. The Tyson fight – I did all I could to persuade Mike not to take the fight. I think Lennox was surprised that I said that.”
If you remember back in 2001, 2002, McKinley was talking quite big for Tyson. “You got to talk big for your man. Because you got to keep your man’s confidence up. See, I wanted to stop that fight after the sixth round. I told Ronnie Shields, Stop the fight. But he was in charge, he was the head trainer. And after that I didn’t work with Mike any more. Because there’s other people around Mike, they took it personal, they said, Stacy was with you, he should have stopped that fight. But I had to explain to them, Look, I didn’t have the right to stop it. Only chief trainers can stop it. So don’t put that on me. Because I asked Ronnie Shields to stop it and he said no. I knew that Mike didn’t stand a chance. He was hurt real bad. And I didn’t want to see anything ****** happen to him real bad. That was the wrong fight at the wrong time. The Tyson that went to prison and the Tyson that came out of prison was two different people.”
“I knew he would tell the truth by what he said when I was wrapping his hands before fights. Once he told me, Stacy, When I was a kid my mother told me that I would never amount to anything. He said, I became heavyweight champion of the world but she died before I became champion. This is why this **** don’t mean nothing to me. That’s what he told me. I go by what the champ told me. Every time I wrap his hands – it took about three years before he started talking to me like that. You know when a fighter tells you the truth by what he says when you’re wrapping his hands before the fight. Because he knows that he’s going to war and he’s just depending on you. He lets it out. He said, I don’t care about this ****. I don’t care about cars, I don’t care about money. This is what he said.”
“And we’d come back and say, Well, she’s looking down on you. You know. That’s the only thing you can say. But that’s something that’s really deep and personal, that he only told me. Every time he would tell me that, he said, I don’t care.”
“And people don’t understand him like I did. That’s why I was with him for ten years. He has about nine personalities. It took me about a better part of a year to realize the different personalities and I had to learn those different personalities. And once I learned his different personalities, I got along with him perfect. That’s why I was there longer. You look at Kevin Rooney, Don King, I was there for ten years, longer than everybody. Because I understood him fully. And I understand when he would say things, like, You can’t live in my world. I live in a different world. People don’t understand, he really did. It was true.”
I kind of understand this. Mike Tyson was one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, every where he went, people knew him. They treated him differently. This kind of interaction most definitely deforms a person’s growth process. This happens to a lot of superstars, consider Elvis, Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson. Add in the fact Tyson was falsely accused of ****, went from rags to riches, was exploited and robbed of millions by his trusted colleagues, you understand his life was quite different than anything most people have ever come close to experiencing.
“He did live in a different world altogether. And I recognize that and respect those different worlds that he’s living in, you know. At times he acts certain ways. Talking about how he’s gonna eat Lennox Lewis’s kids and eat his heart. People don’t understand where he got all that stuff from. That started in training camp. That whole thing started in training camp. He’d come to the gym and say it’s 115 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona. You know what? He walks in the gym and says, We got it too easy. Today from now on, nobody rides the car to the gym. We walk from the gym back home. It’s 115 degrees now [laughs]. That means it’s hot. And so I said, What Mike? We gonna walk.”
“Napolean. Now he started talking about Napolean. Napolean used to walk to his destination five and six months at a time. Yeah, I said, But by the time he got there his soldiers were dead [laughter]. So we did that for a couple of days. Ronnie called me. Stacy, Mike’s gonna get sick. I said, Don’t worry, let him keep walkin’ in the hot sun. He’ll fall out. Don’t worry about it. Then, Napolean said himself, when he destroyed a person, he would always eat a part of their body parts. So that’s what that was. That’s when he was living Napolean like that. There’s a lot of things people don’t understand.”
Stay Tuned for Part II
Scoop Malinowski’s book “Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle” was called “A smashing success,” by Emanuel Steward, “One of the two best boxing books I ever read.”
Published by Scoop Malinowski on September 21st, 2009
http://www.*************.com/headlin...raight-part-1/
“I told Lennox in Miami. I told everybody I could for Mike Tyson to not fight Lennox Lewis. In spite of what I said at the press conference was basically, we try to run a psychological game on an opponent. Everybody in the camp knew that I had said Mike shouldn’t fight Lennox Lewis. I didn’t think Mike could beat Lennox Lewis. Only time I thought Mike could beat Lennox Lewis is when he fought Golota. At that time he was weighing about 225. His hands were fast. At that time I think he stood a good chance against Lennox Lewis. But after that Lennox continued to fight, he was sharp.”
“I saw when he fought Francois Botha, his combinations were quick, he had a lot of power behind his punches. And Tyson was sitting on his ass, wasn’t fighting, wasn’t doing anything. And go in the ring with a big, hard puncher like that…I suggested to Mike, You need a tune up. But because of the money and the pressure and Tyson being Tyson, the public was demanding the fight. So it was a business decision to go in there and fight. But I never thought he could beat him.”
“I told Lennox. I saw him in Miami at Lucky Street Gym, I said, I want to tell you something. The Tyson fight – I did all I could to persuade Mike not to take the fight. I think Lennox was surprised that I said that.”
If you remember back in 2001, 2002, McKinley was talking quite big for Tyson. “You got to talk big for your man. Because you got to keep your man’s confidence up. See, I wanted to stop that fight after the sixth round. I told Ronnie Shields, Stop the fight. But he was in charge, he was the head trainer. And after that I didn’t work with Mike any more. Because there’s other people around Mike, they took it personal, they said, Stacy was with you, he should have stopped that fight. But I had to explain to them, Look, I didn’t have the right to stop it. Only chief trainers can stop it. So don’t put that on me. Because I asked Ronnie Shields to stop it and he said no. I knew that Mike didn’t stand a chance. He was hurt real bad. And I didn’t want to see anything ****** happen to him real bad. That was the wrong fight at the wrong time. The Tyson that went to prison and the Tyson that came out of prison was two different people.”
“I knew he would tell the truth by what he said when I was wrapping his hands before fights. Once he told me, Stacy, When I was a kid my mother told me that I would never amount to anything. He said, I became heavyweight champion of the world but she died before I became champion. This is why this **** don’t mean nothing to me. That’s what he told me. I go by what the champ told me. Every time I wrap his hands – it took about three years before he started talking to me like that. You know when a fighter tells you the truth by what he says when you’re wrapping his hands before the fight. Because he knows that he’s going to war and he’s just depending on you. He lets it out. He said, I don’t care about this ****. I don’t care about cars, I don’t care about money. This is what he said.”
“And we’d come back and say, Well, she’s looking down on you. You know. That’s the only thing you can say. But that’s something that’s really deep and personal, that he only told me. Every time he would tell me that, he said, I don’t care.”
“And people don’t understand him like I did. That’s why I was with him for ten years. He has about nine personalities. It took me about a better part of a year to realize the different personalities and I had to learn those different personalities. And once I learned his different personalities, I got along with him perfect. That’s why I was there longer. You look at Kevin Rooney, Don King, I was there for ten years, longer than everybody. Because I understood him fully. And I understand when he would say things, like, You can’t live in my world. I live in a different world. People don’t understand, he really did. It was true.”
I kind of understand this. Mike Tyson was one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, every where he went, people knew him. They treated him differently. This kind of interaction most definitely deforms a person’s growth process. This happens to a lot of superstars, consider Elvis, Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson. Add in the fact Tyson was falsely accused of ****, went from rags to riches, was exploited and robbed of millions by his trusted colleagues, you understand his life was quite different than anything most people have ever come close to experiencing.
“He did live in a different world altogether. And I recognize that and respect those different worlds that he’s living in, you know. At times he acts certain ways. Talking about how he’s gonna eat Lennox Lewis’s kids and eat his heart. People don’t understand where he got all that stuff from. That started in training camp. That whole thing started in training camp. He’d come to the gym and say it’s 115 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona. You know what? He walks in the gym and says, We got it too easy. Today from now on, nobody rides the car to the gym. We walk from the gym back home. It’s 115 degrees now [laughs]. That means it’s hot. And so I said, What Mike? We gonna walk.”
“Napolean. Now he started talking about Napolean. Napolean used to walk to his destination five and six months at a time. Yeah, I said, But by the time he got there his soldiers were dead [laughter]. So we did that for a couple of days. Ronnie called me. Stacy, Mike’s gonna get sick. I said, Don’t worry, let him keep walkin’ in the hot sun. He’ll fall out. Don’t worry about it. Then, Napolean said himself, when he destroyed a person, he would always eat a part of their body parts. So that’s what that was. That’s when he was living Napolean like that. There’s a lot of things people don’t understand.”
Stay Tuned for Part II
Scoop Malinowski’s book “Heavyweight Armageddon: The Tyson-Lewis Championship Battle” was called “A smashing success,” by Emanuel Steward, “One of the two best boxing books I ever read.”
Published by Scoop Malinowski on September 21st, 2009
http://www.*************.com/headlin...raight-part-1/
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