Mike Tyson has the same speed and power as a 21-year-old heavyweight, his new trainer Rafael Cordeiro told ESPN on Monday.
Tyson, 53, tweeted a video last weekend which shows him throwing a six-punch combination at Cordeiro’s chest protector and hand pads, sparking comeback rumors.
Cordeiro said Tyson hadn’t hit mitts for almost a decade but after taking him through a few drills, saw “the same speed, same power as guys 21, 22 years old.”
Tyson said last month that he wanted to return to the ring and compete in exhibition bouts, and during that time he has been training 60 to 90-minute sessions with Cordeiro.
Cordeiro said for ”three weeks in a row, [Tyson has been doing] cardio, mitts, bags. Like I said before, 53 years old but when he puts his mind to it, his body inside the ring — he changes.”
Tyson said he is considering fighting three or four round exhibition bouts, and Cordeiro told ESPN a comeback is not out of the question.
“It’s not a joke,” he said.
The prospect of one of boxing’s most famous names has excited a number of prominent people within the industry even though the American suffered finished his career 15 years ago after suffering heavy back-to-back losses, is now in his mid-50s, and regularly smokes marijuana on his podcast shows “Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson.”
Tyson said recently a normal person could take a punch from him if they had “a willingness to die,” but that would unlikely apply to today’s top heavyweights who train regularly and are used to exchanging heavy hits.
Regardless, renowned boxing promoter Oscar de la Hoya, founder of Golden Boy Promotions, said Tyson could do damage should he return.
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“I’m sure if he trains for 12 rounds, right now he’ll knock out any heavyweight,” de la Hoya said, according to The Sun.