MIKE TYSON’S former trainer Jeff Fenech has revealed that the boxing legend once locked him in a cage… with his pet tiger.
The 55-year-old, who became close with Tyson after meeting him in 1988, has also joked that the experience left him needing a new pair of “undies”.
Mike Tyson was known to keep tigers as pets during his primeCredit: Allsport
Tyson, 53, was known to have bought two tigers to live in the garden of his Las Vegas mansion.
During his prime, the ex-undisputed heavyweight world champion would be pictured playfully wrestling with his beloved big cats.
And Fenech has now recounted the time that Tyson encouraged him to do the same.
I’m not scared of too many things, but I certainly had to change the undies when I got out of the cage.
Jeff Fenech
“The first time I went to the house and he had the tiger,” he began telling Fox Sports Australia.
“Mike had me and threw me in the cage and kind of locked me in there.
“I’m not scared of too many things, but I certainly had to change the undies when I got out of the cage.”
The Aussie former three-weight champ then revealed that his daughter’s fondness for Tyson’s baby cougar nearly got her in trouble at school.
Fenech continued: “He had a little baby cougar as well once.
“Me, my eldest daughter Jessica, my youngest daughter Kayla, my wife Suzee, and my young son Beau, we were all over in Phoenix with Mike, and then we went back to Vegas to the house, and his little cougar was running and jumping all over the table.
Fenech has been friends with Tyson since meeting him in 1988Credit: Reuters
“My youngest daughter was fascinated by it, got a couple of photos and stuff.
“My daughter then went to school [in Australia] – and she was young, like six or seven years old – and did a show and tell… and my daughter got up and said to the class that she went to Mike Tyson’s house and she was playing with a baby cougar.
“All of a sudden my wife Suzee gets a phone call, and the school says, ‘Mrs. Fenech, can we see you?’ And she says, ‘What’s the problem?’
“[They] say ‘We’ve got your daughter here saying that she was at Mike Tyson’s house in America playing with tigers, not a good thing to be telling these stories.’
I was foolish. There’s no way you can domesticate these cats 100 percent.
Mike Tyson
“So my wife took the photos in and it went from a story to being the truth… the teacher thought she was telling stories, and that she shouldn’t be telling lies in school.”
Tyson has since admitted that he regrets keeping the animals as pets, and that he was “wrong”.
He told Fat Joe on an Instagram Live: “I was foolish. There’s no way you can domesticate these cats 100 per cent.
“No way that’s going to happen. They’ll kill you by accident, especially when you’re playing rough with them, you’re punching them back.
“They get hyped up, hit you back and you’re dead.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
