MIKE TYSON was said to have committed 1,000 crimes before he was TEN – and the boxing legend has revealed he still keeps in touch with his old jail-bird pals.
Iron Mike, set for a professional return to the ring, has admitted he still visits some of the old pals – killers serving life sentences – due to friendships he forged when he spent much if his youth in detention centres in New York.
Mike Tyson meets inmates at the Maricopa County Juvenile Corrrectional facility in Phoenix, ArizonaCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The American former undisputed world heavyweight champion, 53, has admitted they are his oldest friends – and true pals that he remains close to and still visits.
Tyson, arrested 38 times before he was 13, was locked up in a detention centre before meeting Cus D’Amato at the Bridges Juvenile Center in the Bronx, Brooklyn.
It was D’Amato who introduced him to boxing.
Iron Mike after his arrest on criminal damage charges in 2013
Speaking to his Hotboxin podcast, the Baddest Man on the Planet said: “After I was locked up, I started boxing.
They became killers and I became a boxer
Mike Tyson meets inmates at the Maricopa County Juvenile Corrrectional facility in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1999Credit: Reuters
“And I said I wasn’t going to do that anymore.
“But I would still see my friends that I robbed with and they would still be at the club.
“I was still hanging out with them, watching them do that s***.
Mike Tyson leaves the Montgomery Courthouse in Maryland in 1999Credit: AFP – Getty
“I was never into it – I was doing a career and they thought ‘what the f*** is he doing hanging out with them’.
“We went in two different directions. They became killers and I became a boxer.
“I’m happy I’m not in prison with them but I still go and visit them. They’ve got four or five life sentences, 90 years.
“They’ve been the oldest friends I’ve ever had in my life, my longest friends.”
Tyson was sentenced to six years in 1991 for the rape of beauty queen Desiree Washington.
He served three years, during which he was visited by rap star Tupac.
A life of crime as a kid was ended when he turned to boxing, becoming the youngest ever heavyweight world champion when he beat Trevor Berbick in 1986 at the age of 20.
But his career was derailed as his life outside the ring turned to mayhem.
He was jailed in 1999 for assaulting two elderly men.
The father of seven filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after blowing his £330million fortune.
But he bounced back by opening a successful cannabis farm in 2016.
Tyson quit the ring in 2005 but is now set to return – and could fight Evander Holyfield for a third time – 23 years after biting off part of his ear in a fight.
Mike Tyson rips of shirt to take on Jake the Snake at AEW clash
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
