Tysons sparing partners.

When he was champ in the 1980s, before the first Bruno fight, ESPN did a profile on Tyson's sparring partners. The chief among them at that time were Jesse Ferguson and Gary Lightborne. Ken LaKusta was a main sparring partner for Tyson in Tokyo before the Tubbs fight. There's video of Tyson sparring LaKusta on Youtube. Lakusta's daughter is among those in the comment section talking about what great memories she had as a girl of that time when the whole family got to go to Tokyo.

 

Jimmy Young was Tyson's sparring partner at one point.

 

Nate Tubbs

 

James Broad.

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I'd buy it. (LOL)

In addition to being one of Tyson's sparring partners, Lakusta fought George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Frank Bruno, Tommy Morrison, Razor Ruddock, David Tua, Trevor Berbick, Michael Dokes, Frans Botha ... crazy.

 

A cruiserweight named Oscar Holman was apparently one of Tyson's main sparring partners in 85-86. He and Mike Jameson were in Tyson's camp for the Berbick fight.

Oliver McCall was his main sparring partner for the Spinks fight.

Greg Page and Derek Williams for the Carl Williams fight.

 

For Michael Spinks, for obvious style similarities, Tyson used Mike “The Bounty” Hunter among others.

EDIT: I know this from a Kevin Rooney interview at the time. He said Tyson was sparring with Mike “The Bounty Hunter” and I wasn’t familiar with him so I was thinking, Mike “The Bounty Hunter” Who? What’s his last name?

 

Just saw an old article on Tyson's camp for the Tucker fight. It seems like Broad was his main sparring partner (he got the most money anyway--$1500 a week plus room and board). The article also named Oscar Holman, Warren Thompson, and Anthony Witherspoon (Tim's older brother).

 

Just looked it up. Apparently Tyson and Hunter had bad blood because of their sparring sessions (Hunter said Mike was very dirty). Hunter worked with Tyson for the Spinks and Williams fights, before Ruddock's people hired him away in 1989 for the first Tyson fight (the one that ended up getting canceled).

 

Jimmy Clark was one.

 

And Ken s still walking around!!!

 

James Broad looked much slimmer in that video than I would have expected. Even for real fights in 1987 Broad weighed in between 257 and 269 so he was probably 270 plus in the video. Broad looked to have a nice left hand, his jab, uppercut and hook were quick, and he had good all around skills. He looked like a giant compared to Tyson. Broad looks like one of those guys who if motivated (conditioned down to 230-35) could possibly do a "Buster Douglas" on a big name fighter.

 

Melvin Epps
Mike Williams