NATE TUBBS The man who made a career out of being Mike Tyson’s sparring partner NATE TUBBS, the brother of former WBA heavyweight champion Tony Tubbs, retired with $500,000 in his bank account after making a career out of being Mike Tyson’s sparring partner. As a fighter, his achievements were less impressive, but he did flatten Corrie Sanders – then 23-0 – to flirt with a Top 10 ranking in 1994. By the time he was ironed out by Lawrence Clay Bey and David Tua in 1998, Tubbs was out of shape after a spell in prison. What do you remember about beating Corrie Sanders? I seized the moment in that fight. They misjudged me and they didn’t do their homework. I knew very well how to handle a southpaw, I boxed a lot of my amateur career as a southpaw. I only had 26 amateur fights but I came through at a time when there were some good fighters around. But the Sanders fight, that was the only time in my entire pro career when I was 100 per cent in shape. I had three months to get ready for that fight. How does that compare to your other high-profile contests? For the fights with [David] Tua and Lawrence Clay Bey. I had just two days’ notice. I came out of being incarcerated for the Tua fight. I was in the penitentiary for 60 days on an assault charge and I wasn’t in shape, I was around 320lbs and I just ran out of gas in the fight. I had ups and down all the way though my career, with layoffs as well. Why didn’t the victory over Sanders take you further? I was supposed to get a shot at world champion Michael Moorer if I won that fight, but Moorer went and fought George Foreman instead. I can’t blame Moorer, he went for the big money yet he wound up getting knocked out himself. Promoter Cedric Kushner just didn’t know how to deal with me. He offered me $10,000 to fight Andrew Golota but that made no sense; he should have at least offered me $30,000, you know. So, anyway, he bought me out of the contract I had with him and then we renegotiated and he signed me for five fights. I sparred with Golota instead of fighting him. I went to Poland and he beat me up the first few days but then I got my thing down, my game, and I beat the c**p out of him every single day. You sparred Mike Tyson regularly. Tyson was the hardest hitter I’ve ever known. I worked with Mike from 1988 to 1996, right up to the first Evander Holyfield fight. For ‘IF YOU’RE STILL FIGHTING AT 40 YOU AIN’T GOT NO MONEY’ that fight, Mike didn’t train at all. He was way too overconfident, feeling Holyfield had a bad heart and would be easy work. But I learned a whole lot working with Mike. He used me because of my jab, and because I wasn’t a runner. It was never easy sparring but thank God he didn’t hit me that much! Don’t get me wrong, he caught me with some shots. Three times in total he knocked me down. We would spar three or four rounds a time. Me and Mike did hundreds of rounds together. He was so fast. Make one mistake against Mike and you’d be taken out. Who are some of the other big names you worked with? I went to camp with George Foreman, but unfortunately they wouldn’t let me spar with George. I was a good mover and they wanted someone to stand in front of George. So after about three weeks in Saint Lucia they got rid of me. I was in camp with Larry Holmes, too. But with me getting paid so good for working with Tyson – I got $3,000-a-week – I wasn’t looking to go anywhere else. I was getting offers of around $1,500 for some fights yet I was getting $3,000-a-week with Mike. I had a real good defense, that’s how I was able to last so long with Tyson. Me and Mike became friends and we are friends today. My son was murdered six months before Mike’s daughter died and Mike had spent a lot of time with my son. That [tragedy] caused me to close my gym down. I used to train fighters but I still haven’t got over what happened. My son was shot in the back and I wanted vengeance. The guy that did it got 14 years. Did you have any regrets when you retired in 2005? I was 40 years old by then, and I had around $500,000 in my bank account. I was always a good businessman and I dealt in real estate. Don King was the person who always told me, ‘you have to look after your money.’ All the guys in camp with Tyson, the other sparring partners, they all liked to gamble and I took their money off them. The only one I couldn’t beat at cards was Don King (laughs). The only reason a 40-year-old fights is because he ain’t got no money. So it made no sense to me at that time. I looked around and I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do any more. So I got into promoting and I’ve been promoting now for 30 years. I do well. Looking back, I messed up on my career by not being in shape and by taking fights on short notice at a time when I did need the money. But I did learn from everything, not just from my wins. #miketyson #tysonfury #boxingnews #fight
