spoke w/ kevin r this morn about tyson routine

asked kevin rooney today what tyson's routine was in his prime


5 days a week

4am (mental thing for discipline) - run 3 miles

get home and go back to sleep

mid-late morning - get up and eat oatmeal

noon - technique/tactics

get home to eat steak, pasta and fruit juice every day (mental thing for discipline)

early-mid afternoon - sparring

late afternoon - more exercises (jump rope, dip bars, push ups, sit ups, leg raises, neck braces)

early evening - steak, pasta and fruit juice every day

at 8-9 - go to health centre and do half an hour on stationary cycle (optional)

at 9-10 - watch tv and go to bed


notes -

the basic principles of technique and tactics were moving the head after the last punch, using numbers for each punch and drills using specific combinations-all deviced by cus d'amato. he'd do things like shadow boxing, heavy bag, pads, hit the 'willie bag' with numbers and some slip bag. no set rounds. throwing punches non stop was useless to mike because that didn't happen in a ring, the opponent hit back. specific technique and tactics would be worked on for the specific opponent or spar partner or weakness seen in mike

sparring sessions always a war and never less than eight rounds. they were real fights because anything else would be useless, it didn't happen in a ring. if he had a 10-round match coming up, two or three days before he'd go 12-13 hard rounds. for a 12-round match coming up, 14-15 hard rounds a few days before just so he knew he could go the distance well (a mental thing). some of the guys who could live with mike in sparring and come back another time included oliver mccall, carl williams, mike williams, craig payne, jesse ferguson, james broad, glen mccrory

all mike did in spare time during this time (apart from looking after pigeons) would be either studying the greats, studying his next opponent or studying his sparring sessions

he says mike's muscles were big because he punched from the foot and hit a 175-pound bag and when your legs grow the rest of your body has no choice. he never touched weights until post 1988

he says mike's power came from a combination of three things-the above, natural, and every punch thrown with bad intention. but he also says mike's power was over rated. that it was a combination of three things that was most stunning-speed, accuracy, and timing. also how he was most destructrive when putting punches together rather than one big shot

if he thought mike was dangerously hungry (angry) he let him eat captain crunch, his favourite food, by the box load

after a fight he ate everything he wanted, cut back when a fight was announced until he got down to 225 (with light training) and then on the steak, pasta and fruit juice diet again for discipline measures and full training

i told him about most of the routine printed on here and he said 'bull****'