Tyson: How does Rousey not say ‘I am a God’?
Mike Tyson: “How does she stay focused with all of this? How does she not say, ‘I am the $#!^. I am beautiful. I am a God.’ I’m serious.”
He was once the baddest man on the planet, and is now as bad as he wants to be. He was once the biggest name in boxing; Rousey is now the biggest name in combat sports. Mike Tyson recently arranged to watch Rousey train, and then discussed it with Kevin Iole for Yahoo Sports.
Ronda is a lady and she’s bright, kind, sweet and adorable, said Tyson. But her whole barometer [as a fighter] is, she’s the killer. She has that killer aura, meaning anything is capable of happening. Whoa! That’s exciting before the fight even starts.
All of us are here to see her, and how does she stay focused with all of this? How does she not say, ‘I am the s—. I am beautiful. I am a God.’ I’m serious. Listen, if you want to become anything close to being a God, the first thing you’ve got to know how to do is know how to decimate. If you’re a God, you have to know how to decimate, and that’s what she does.
It would be very easy for her to have a big head – ‘I can beat anybody in this world.’ I don’t know. Maybe she’s a likeness of a God.
Am I impressed? asked Tyson in mock indignation. Let’s see, is it extraordinarily impressed? Or should it be exceptionally? Or incredibly? One of those should be right. Or all of them. That lady is one tremendous fighter.
Ronda Rousey fights Bethe Correia at UFC 190 on August 1, 2015 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And Kevin Iole will there cageside to cover it for us.
