Why Is Mike Tyson A Karate Master?

Everybody knows Mike Tyson as one of the greatest boxers in history. But did you also know that his boxing style comes from karate? He actually said so himself. He really discovered it from karate. He watched karate people do it. When I first heard this, my jaw dropped because I've been practicing karate my whole life and I've never learned anything that is even close to Mike Tyson's boxing style in karate. Apparently, I've missed something. Now to be honest, old school boxing looks very similar to traditional karate because they're both done without any protection, it's bare knuckle, and they don't use any real rules. That's why I've invited my friend Jay Elder today. Jay is the boxing trainer at All-Stars Gym, home of amazing combat sports athletes such as Alexander the Maller Gustafsson. And today, he's gonna help us find out why Mike Tyson might be a karate master. Mike Tyson uses what we call a peekaboo style. Okay. Where he has his hands closer to his chin. So traditional boxing stance is that I'm sitting and I have my hands to the side and my hands are further out from my body, from my shoulder. So when I'm standing, you only see this much of me, so I'm not square on. Okay. So that's traditional boxing. Right. Right? So when I throw a punch, I'm throwing it from here and I'm throwing with my hip. So I've only got this distance to your chin. Peekaboo, instead of being here, my hands are here. So this is why you see Tyson moving, he's gotta be quicker than the other person because he's further away, but he's rolling off his shoulders and his hips to throw. So instead of just going one, two, or one, two, he's rolling here and coming in with his hips and his shoulders. In normal boxing, if you just jab, I can knock your hand down and punch, right? But my hand is back here now. So I'm more catching. Yeah. Or I'm more slipping. Ah. So you're not using, you know, another thing is parry, punch, there. So knocking down and punching from here. You can do it with your hands here, but if your hands are here, they're closer to the face. So it's more that I'm moving. If you watch him, he'll roll round and come in here. Wow. Right? Instead of stepping forward to throw the punches. Interesting. So it's a lot more square. He's incredibly fast. And then if you watch, he's just bobbing, bobbing, and rolling and throwing shoulder and hip, dipping, throwing from here and here instead of the more traditional throwing from here. I've never seen this in karate. Me neither. And in karate, I don't see a lot of this. Head movement? No. Bobbing, weaving. So maybe if we try a couple of exercises, let's see if we discover a connection. Okay. Here's the plan. First, I will learn two kinds of head movement. I will then combine that with both stepping and jumping, along with punches and bunches. Bam! Yeah. Iron Mike Jesse type. Your job is to watch till the end and see if you can spot the karate connection. There. Right? It's just me. Let the lesson begin. So we're going to start in a normal stance with your hands up. And all I'm going to do is I'm just going to ask you to practice moving. So slip. Yeah. This way? Yeah. Then slip here. Then slip under. And then under. Right? So you're just moving, moving, round, round, round, slip, block, block, under, under, keep rolling, keep rolling. Round, roll, slip, slip, roll. Just roll and move and getting comfortable with that. And then you can put in the hands here. Yeah. Right? So you're rolling, moving here. And then we start throwing punches off it. Roll, small step. And then I'm going to punch as I'm coming up. Right? The mistake is that you go one, up, punch. I see. And that's going to be too slow because you're going to straighten up and then punch. So what you're going to try and do is you're going to try and roll and throw. And you stay straight. Okay. Okay. Okay. And your power will come off releasing the shoulder and releasing the foot. So it's the lag. It's good. You know, it's the torque. Right. You know the torque? Yeah. It's the torque. Okay. So just small step there. And then boom, step out, boom. Now we're going to do two. So you see my single one, two, boom. Because if I, if I'm boxing you and I come up and I'm rolling, rolling, rolling, boom. Okay. I'll go grab some gloves. You're going to go left, right. Nice and easy. Left, right, roll, yeah. Yeah. Nice. Okay. Now left, right, hook, roll. Right? Slowly first. Boom. Roll, step. A step. Yeah. Good. Don't move your head. Good. Beautiful. Right. Now we're going to do the Tyson double roll. One, two, three. Under one. Under two. Bam! Yeah. Iron Mike Jesse Tyson. All right. Good. Right. Don't think about your feet. Just move forward. Okay. Okay. Same again. There, good. So you're moving. I almost don't even have time to come up between them, right? It was super fast. Yeah. I think he practiced. I think he did it more than once. And I think maybe, was his body uniquely suited for this type of fighting? Yeah. Because he fought as a heavyweight. Yeah. And he wasn't much taller than me. And you look at the people he fought. So what he'd do is, he'd be tight here and he would roll in. So that's why you see him here and you see him here. Roll. Okay. So just try it. Now do it with power. Okay. There, beautiful. What we can add to that. Okay. If you want, just for shits and giggles. Yeah. Right. Is you can go under, under, and then body shot. Boom. On your... Yeah. Here. Okay. And then head. Same arm. Dip, dip. Yeah. Dip here. Dip. Yeah. Your head. Keep your head down. Yeah. Yeah. You got to do it one more time. You got to get it right. You're a black belt. You're right. Good. That's like a karate habit. Like, because you want to keep her head back. Yeah. Exactly. So the chin is a little bit up. Yeah. Yeah. It's a huge difference, karate and boxing. Yeah. What we'll do, we'll actually do a Tyson move now. So when you come in. Okay. All right. You're going to roll under and you're going to go body and then you're going to go uppercut here. Now, watch my, watch my, here, right? The power comes in boxing. Your power's coming from your feet, through your hips. Right? So as I go here, my hips bent. I'm in here. This hand here. Then down with the hip. From here. There. Right? It's just from here. Yeah. Right? So don't think about your hand. Okay. Keep it tight. All right. Okay. One, two, three. One, two. There. Good. All right. Let's do it fast. Okay. One, two. And back. Watch my foot. I'm going to, bam! There. Wow. So he jumps into his punches. Bam! There. Yeah. And then you've got to go back. Oh, okay. Or you've got to keep going. All right. Like karate. Yeah. Throw your punch and then you stand there. It's like, it's, bam! Bam, bam, bam, bam. Back out. Bam! There. Jump forward and up. You're hitting high. Okay? Bam! Think here. Don't think hand. Think here. So your hand is following you here. Bam! There. Yeah. Good. Okay. We'll try it. So, one, two, bam! There. Good. All right. Now fast. Bam, bam, bam! There. Good. Beautiful. But once you've thrown that. Yeah. Okay. So stop here. You're going to go under. And you're going to, you're going to go under and spin your, spin this way. There. Yeah. Good. You got that? One, two. Bam! Good. This is so awkward. I know. Yeah. We were talking before. Is that, cause you're kicking karate. Yeah. You have to have a more upright body. Cause you need the space to kick. Yeah. Whereas boxing, I'm not going to throw my legs. No. So I'm going to keep. So it is difficult. You've got to, you've got to almost sit. Boxing's almost. Right. Almost a sitting. Here. Whereas karate's more standing hands out. Like this. Yeah. Okay. Last one. Okay. Bam! Hey! Us! There you go. Beautiful. Thank you. Let's say somebody wants to adopt a little bit of this Mike Tyson spirit in their karate. What should they mainly be thinking about? That you've got to work hard and practice is number one. Yeah. I was saying it a bit earlier that everyone wants a quick fix. And in fact, you know, it took you years to learn to stand in a karate position. Yeah. So to adjust that, your muscle memory, you have to change, you know, you have to think differently. And that takes practice and practice and practice. So you'd have to do this move again and again and again. The other thing, my experience kind of as a coach, is that if you are a kind of person that listens to the theory, you'll get it. So if you start understanding what a torque is, how we shift our weight, how we throw from different positions. I start understanding your distance. I understand patterns. For example, understanding that, you know, the reason I go low is to bring your hands low. So that I can throw high. You know, that when you hook here, I can go under. And if I want a clean shot, I just catch you here. Right. So that I can bring your hand down. Yeah. And if you start, if you start listening, when a coach is talking about why you do things, then it's much easier for it to become part of you. Whereas if you just do what you're told, it takes longer. Yeah. Because your brain isn't, your brain doesn't understand. Right. So you're waiting for a coach to say, do this, do that. And you can't work it out yourself. The more we can work stuff out ourselves, the more relaxed our body is with the movement. As I like to say, don't be a martial artist, be a smartial artist. It's cheesy. Brilliant. Thank you so much. Thank you. For sharing your time, expertise with all of us today. Yep. From now on, you're a sensei, JL. Okay. Because Mike Tyson is a karate master. Of course he is. Yeah. Always. Thank you. Right. Great. It's a wrap.