Michael Irvin: Dinner With Tyson Fresh Out of Prison, Ali vs. Tyson & Crying Over Buster Douglas

The first football guest in RING CHAMPS history is a Hall of Famer who’s been ringside for boxing’s biggest nights. Michael Irvin sits down with Ak and Barak and starts at the beginning: the 15th of 17 kids, bused 25 miles out of the ghetto at five years old & feeling inferior in an all-white school post-integration, until a tutor threw him a football and said the words that changed his life. He opens up about the father who never saw him play, driving him to cancer treatments at 15, the promise he made the night before he died, and why he wore 88 for his dad’s favorite Cowboy.Then the boxing stories come out. Dinner with Mike Tyson fresh out of prison (and the moment with the waiter Irvin will never forget), why the Buster Douglas loss hurt him like nothing else in sports, the Chávez–Taylor war that made him ask for the only autograph of his life, his breakdown of how Ali vs. Tyson actually goes, his love for Terence Crawford, and his shock at what Floyd Mayweather is going through.Plus the truth about Deion Sanders, the physics of why cornerbacks couldn’t press him, and the prison-mentality workouts that built a Hall of Fame career. 00:00 – Intro & Welcoming Michael Irvin00:52 – Growing Up in Segregation-Era Florida02:06 – Feeling Inferior & Discovering He Could Be Special04:37 – St. Thomas Aquinas, Miss Jones & Fighting to Play07:50 – Moving from Defense to Wide Receiver10:05 – Freshman Year at Miami Under Jimmy Johnson12:21 – His Father: The Pastor Who Never Saw Him Play15:16 – Losing His Father & the Promise He Made18:02 – Giving Back to St. Thomas Aquinas20:35 – Ad Break21:45 – Realizing He Was a Special Wide Receiver22:59 – Miami Hurricanes Legends & Cowboys Brotherhood25:13 – Buying Family Homes & Helping Without Hurting27:21 – Chasing Jerry Rice & Darrell Green28:23 – Fear, Courage & the Mental Game of Football31:26 – The Legendary Super Bowl Catch32:22 – Becoming a Mike Tyson Superfan35:51 – Deion Sanders & Paying It Forward39:46 – Boxing’s Meaning & Today’s Top Fighters44:34 – Greatest Fights, Dream Matchups & the Tyson Dinner StorySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.