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via Imago

via Imago

Mike Tyson is an icon. The youngest heavyweight champion of the world was also arguably the most popular boxing champion to date, second, perhaps only to Muhammad Ali in terms of his popularity and fame. His terrifying presence and persona are still scary to watch today, even knowing the person he is today.

On Joe Rogan‘s JRE podcast, Francis Ngannou and the podcast host discussed ‘Iron Mike’, who is training the Cameroonian for his boxing debut against heavyweight champion Tyson Fury next month. During the course of the conversation, they discussed what made Mike so good.

Francis Ngannou tells Joe Rogan how Mike Tyson trained

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Francis Ngannou said that Mike Tyson had legs like tree trunks. He told Rogan this was because of the kind of training ‘Iron Mike’ used to do in his boxing days, and asked Ngannou to do as a trainer. This included doing duck walk going all the way down to strengthen his legs.

“He showed me how he was training his leg. Like go all the way down and do like this, duck walk and stuff. I’m like ‘Man, come on’. And that’s what he did all his career, [but] people don’t see that. They just say like ‘Oh, he hit hard, he’s strong,’ you know. No, he’s technical and he’s hard work[ing],” the former UFC heavyweight champion told Rogan.

‘Predator’ told the Boston native that this hard work and technical proficiency was not seen by fans, who thought the New Yorker was successful as he punched very hard.

Joe Rogan explains what made Mike Tyson such a good boxer

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Rogan, for his part, pointed out that not only was Mike Tyson technically proficient and worked hard, but also had incredible speed, and impeccable technique as a heavyweight. Plus, he hit hard, which is what made him so incredibly lethal and dangerous for opponents.

“Technical, hard worker, tremendous speed, perfect technique, everything. All the above. And he hits hard. Everything.”

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Ngannou agreed and pointed out that it was almost impossible to not hit hard given all of these qualities and hard work Mike had put into the sport. And Ngannou fans will be hoping that some of the youngest heavyweight champion’s qualities and fight IQ would rub off on the Cameroonian. After all, he is taking on not just any heavyweight, but the historically great Tyson Fury, who, interstingly was named after ‘Iron Mike’. What do you think about Rogan and Ngannou’s analysis of Mike Tyson? Let us know in the comments section below.

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