Mike Tyson has credited legendary trainer Cus D’Amato for allowing him to fully tap into his revered punching power in boxing.
The 56 -year-old boxing legend notched up an astonishing 44 knockouts in 58 professional fights across his illustrious career.
And former undisputed world heavyweight champ Tyson revealed that D’Amato told him to deliver soul-shattering punches each time.
He told GQ magazine: “I think I was born that way.
“But I developed [my knockout ability] through Cus D’Amato telling me repetitiously over and over again to do this movement and to punch with this type of bad intentions.
“And just to have ferociousness and mean intentions whenever you throw punches and stuff. And try and punch through your opponent, not at him.
“It was some nasty stuff that I would never tell my kids to do.”
Tyson became a formidable force inside the boxing ring for his devastating punching power coupled with his famous ‘peek-a-boo’ technique.
But ‘Iron Mike’ claims his former trainer helped him unleash his inner beast and live up to his reputation as the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet.’
“Cus fuelled my ‘I don’t give a f**k’ attitude,” he explained.
“Every fight I had, Cus would be talking about breaking ribs, exploding livers, pushing a guy’s nose into his brain.
“But he didn’t shout it — he delivered the message cooly and calmly.”
Teddy Atlas, who worked with a younger Tyson, told The Ring magazine last month that the ex-boxing superstar’s “God-given talent” allowed him to knockout men twice his age.
“As far as most pure, God-given talent, raw, from the earliest stage that you saw, it would have to be a 12-year-old Tyson, who was 190 pounds but no fat,” he said.
“He had to impress me and Cus; he had to box his first day with a 27-year-old man who was a professional fighter and he was able to do that.
“You can’t put him in with kids to spar because there are none and so you’re hiring sparring partners and they’re men and he’s hurting them and knocking them out.
“Anyone who could be knocking out men when he’s 12, 13 years old is a pretty damn good puncher.
“He learned the technique to make you miss and catch you clean but power’s power and punchers are born not made.”