Freddie Flintoff meets his hero Mike Tyson as countdown to professional heavyweight boxing debut continues The former England cricket captain, who was forced to retire through injury a year ago, has spent months in the gym under the tutelage of former world champion Barry McGuigan, and his son Shane, and will make his professional heavyweight debut on Nov 30 at the MEN Arena, Manchester in front of thousands of fans. He spoke a lot about the emotion of boxing and it was all relevant to how I was feeling. So to hear it from Mike Tyson made me realise it was OK for me to feel like that too. "He talked a lot about what he went through pre-fight and in the run up to a fight; the emotional states he was in and the nerves he experienced before he fought," he added: He is obviously one of the best boxers ever, so hearing what he had to say gave me a lot of inspiration. I went on the pads in the front of him which was a pretty surreal experience. I have really taken his comments on board and I've just got my head down and am working hard to make small improvements each and every day. Throughout the process, the British Boxing Board of Control has monitored Flintoff's progress, but promoter Frank Maloney is not impressed. It is a disgrace they have given Flintoff a licence. I told the chairman, Charles Giles, that he should be sacked for approving this scandal," Maloney said. Giving Flintoff a professional licence with no experience of boxing is a joke. It gives our sport a bad name. It will be a terrible shock when he gets hit on the chin by a heavyweight. Flintoff would not be the first professional sportsman to undertake a boxing career with no experience. Former Sheffield United footballer Curtis Woodhouse made his boxing debut in 2002 and has won 16 of his 20 contests. The fight itself will be broadcast on BoxNation with two further hour-long follow-up episodes of Flintoff: From Lord's to the Ring airing a few weeks later on Sky 1.