Mike Tyson smashed me to smithereens in front of his favourite fighter and left me crying… but we became best friends
MIKE TYSON battered Joe Egan in front of Sugar Ray Leonard so badly it reduced him to tears – but it helped form a brotherhood.
Irishman Egan spent two years sparring Tyson from the age of 17 in the Catskills Mountains in New York under the watchful eye of iconic trainer Cus D’Amato.
Egan recalls regularly being left black and blue due to the brutality of Tyson – who was just a teenager at the time.
But one sparring session stuck out in particular as Tyson’s boxing hero Leonard visited the gym – and the poor training partners paid the price.
Egan told SunSport: “He has so much love and affection for Ray Leonard. And Ray Leonard has the same love and affection for him.
“So we were sparring this particular day in the Catskills and Sugar Ray came to visit him in the gym and Mike put on an exhibition of savagery.
“That’s the only way you can describe it, he put on an exhibition of savagery with his sparring partners and he smashed us all to smithereens, battered us really, really bad.
“And there was a lot of men, including myself, really hurt that day, but it was to impress Ray Leonard. So that was a savage, savage particular sparring session.”
Egan was living with Tyson at mentor D’Amato’s house, where everything from cooking to cleaning was taken care of.
But after being bashed up in front of the great Sugar Ray, Egan had no appetite for dinner.
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Instead he sobbed upstairs on his own, until Tyson consoled him, mistaking the beating he dished out for homesickness.
Egan recalls: “I remember going back to the house and I was crying upstairs in the house.
“I was in so much pain, so much pain because I really took a savage beating that day.
“And Mike came up, we’re only boys we’re 17 or 18 years of age and Mike came up to the room.
“I was crying in my bedroom and I was really bad, I wasn’t coming down for dinner. So Mike came up to see what was wrong, and I’m crying in my bedroom.
“And he said, ‘Are you okay brother Joe?’ I said, ‘Yeah, Mike. I’m okay.’ And he said, ‘We know you’re homesick but we’re your family now.’
“Now, I wasn’t crying because I was homesick, I was crying because he battered me!
“He didn’t come up to gloat, teenage boys can be cruel, ‘Oh, I battered you, haha.’
“He didn’t come up to gloat, he came up genuinely concerned for his friend and he put his arm around me and said, ‘Come on Joe, we’re your family now, you don’t need to be homesick.’
“I just thought, he’s a good guy and we became the best of friends.”
He put on an exhibition of savagery with his sparring partners and he smashed us all to smithereens
Joe Egan on sparring Mike Tyson
Egan was competing on the Irish national team in Atlantic City when he was spotted by former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson.
Patterson – who had an Irish wife – was also coached by D’Amato and helped put Egan in touch to spar with Tyson.
Egan was paid a weekly wage and kept great care of until he returned home after 24 months and several hard sparring sessions later.
He lives to tell the tales of withstanding a prime Tyson’s power and remains good friends with Iron Mike today.
Tyson, 58, comes out of retirement to face YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, 27, on Friday in Texas.
And Paul will join Egan in an exclusive club of those brave enough to share the ring with the Baddest Man on The Planet.
Egan, who has launched new company Platinum Prizes, said: “People laugh at me, they say ‘you’re milking it a little bit!’
“I’ve earned the right to say I shared the ring with Mike Tyson.
“I got battered by Mike Tyson and I stayed on my feet with Mike Tyson and see when I’m on my death bed on my life support machine and my heart’s going, I’m going to say, ‘I sparred Mike Tyson.’
“And people laugh but I’ve earned the right to say it. Now, Jake Paul will earn the right to say, I shared the ring with the hardest punching heavyweight of his era and one of the hardest punchers of all time.”