Breaking Down the Longstanding Boxing Question: Did Mike Tyson Really Fight Without Socks?
Mike Tyson is emerging from retirement to fight YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul on Nov. 15 in a matchup that Netflix will broadcast live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The preliminary card will begin at 5:30 p.m. ET and air on the Most Valuable Promotions YouTube channel. The main card will follow at 8 p.m. ET on Netflix.
Ahead of the event, FN investigates a longstanding question attached to the heavyweight champion: Did Tyson really fight without socks?
Mike Tyson confirmed the socks rumor
Tyson himself has opened about the unusual practice. He was asked once in an ES News interview, “Hey, is it true when you fought you didn’t have socks on? How did it feel to fight with no socks?”
“I was used to it,” Tyson responded, which led him to discuss the physical state of his feet. “That’s what no socks will do to you — it looked like my toes blew up.”
Tyson said sockless habit dates back to his childhood
He also discussed the matter in an interview with the fashion magazine L’Étiquette, tracing the decision to fight sockless back to his childhood.
Asked if he had a special routine when getting dressed ahead of a fight, Tyson replied, “I used to get to the changing room an hour early. I’d lie on the table or on the floor to have a nap, and then get dressed at the last minute. Always the same routine. My shorts were Everlast, very basic. My boots were handmade by a shoemaker in New York, T.O. Dey. And I never wore socks. When I was a kid running round the streets of Brownsville, in Brooklyn, I didn’t wear socks or have laces in my sneakers. It was my thing, a fashion statement.”
Freddie Roach denied that Tyson goes sockless
However, things got a bit murky when iconic boxing trainer and former boxer Freddie Roach said in an interview with the Boxing Channel that Tyson actually does fight with socks on: “I said, ‘Mike, do you really fight with no socks?’ He said, ‘What are you crazy? I just like short socks … I’ve never fought barefoot in my life. I said, ‘A lot of people think you do and copy that.’ He said, ‘They’re idiots then.'”
Roach’s story, of course, contradicts the aforementioned instances in which Tyson said he doesn’t fight with socks.
Have other boxers fought without socks?
Other boxers have attempted to fight without socks and failed, making Tyson’s sockless practice an even bigger mystery. Most famously, Timothy Bradley arrived in a wheelchair at the news conference following his fight Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in June 2012, after injuring his feet during fight, telling Yahoo Sports! at the time that it was because he didn’t wear socks in the ring.
Bradley, who won the fight, wore ankle high Nike boxing shoes without any socks that night after he said the trick worked for him during practice at his own gym. “I didn’t have the support I needed because I didn’t wear any socks and the ring was very spongy,” Bradley said. “It was very difficult to sit down [on my punches], and that’s why my feet gave out, because my feet were moving around inside of my shoes.”
He said his feet were moving around in his shoe and eventually gave out since socks usually help keep the foot in place, which was necessary during the fight. He called the sockless incident “a mistake” he said he wouldn’t repeat a second time after it left him with ligament damage on his foot.
So an element of mystery remains — perhaps after tonight’s fight against Jake Paul, the world might have a clearer understanding of Tyson’s footwear choices. In the meantime, take a look back at the outfit the boxer wore to the 10X Growth Conference in April. With a spiffy gray ensemble, he wore a pair of white Gucci horsebit loafers — seemingly sans socks.
The Tyson vs. Paul televised fight card is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m. PT) and will stream live on Netflix.