MIKE TYSON will write yet another crazy chapter into his life story when he returns to the ring this weekend following a near TWO-DECADE hiatus.
The formerundisputed heavyweight champion will make the walk to the squared circle early on Saturday morning for the unlikeliest of showdowns.
Iron Mike will make his first professional outing since quitting on the stool in his 2005 money grab against Kevin McBride against social media sensation Jake Paul – at the ripe old age of 58.
The booking of a near-pensioner-aged Tyson, who looks to be in phenomenal shape, against the heavy-handed YouTuber has sparked outrage.
All parties involved have been blasted, with fighters and fans alike branding the boxing legend “crazy” for stepping into the ring as he approaches the golden years of his life.
Craziness and controversy, however, are two things New York native Tyson is all too familiar with as they have followed him around since he reached the pinnacle of the sport back in 1986.
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So with that in mind, SunSport thought it’d only be right to recap some of the craziest moments of Tyson’s life.
Taking acid as a child – 1977
The streets of Brooklyn, in particular the notoriously rough neighbourhood of Brownsville, exposed a lot to a young Tyson – including drugs.
Tyson succumbed to peer pressure and knocked back whatever was passed around to him, including acid at the tender age of eleven.
During an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, he admitted: “[I started doing drugs] as a kid, nine, ten years old.
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“Smoking and drinking. And as I got older, I tried acid. I was probably 11. Yeah, real young.”
Fighting with Trevor Berbick with an STI – 1986
Throughout thehistory of boxing, fighters have been compromised going in world title fights.
But few can claim to have been dealing with a severe gonorrhoea flare-up as Tyson did before his history-making stoppage of Trevor Berbick in 1986.
“I looked at my underpants a day before the fight and I noticed a discharge,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography. “I had the clap.
“I didn’t know if I had contracted it from a prostitute or a filthy young lady. I was given an antibiotic shot by a doctor.
“Because of the antibiotic shot, I was dripping like a Good Humor bar [ice cream] in July. But I didn’t care; I was there to nail Berbick.”
Trying to fight a Gorilla – 1989
Tyson was at the peak of his powers in the late 80’s and felt like King Kong having blown through all comers with complete ease.
And during a private trip to New York zoo with ex-wife Robin Givens, he offered a zoo-keeper £7,759 ($10,000) to let him fight a silverback gorilla.
He said: “I paid a worker at New York’s zoo to re-open it just for me and Robin.
“When we got to the gorilla cage there was one big silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas.
“They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant.
“I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let me smash that silverback’s snotbox! He declined.”
Impregnating a prison guard – 1992-1995
Tyson served just under three years in prison from 1992-1995 after being found guilty of rape, a conviction which saw him handed a six-year custodial sentence.
And he struck up a relationship with a female prison guard, who he claims to have impregnated after having sex with her multiple times a day.
“I had a girlfriend and I got a girl pregnant in prison,” he revealed in an episode of his podcast. “I was living a life in prison.
“It was just meant to be. I was Mike Tyson and everybody gave me what I wanted.
“Everyone talking like I was some tough guy or some cool guy. I was just a pig.”
Biting Evander Holyfield’s ear – 1997
The most infamous moment of Tyson’s career is undoubtedly his biting of Evander Holyfield’s ear in their 1997 rematch in Las Vegas.
Incensed by a number of head clashes with his rival, which he believed were intentional, Tyson twice tried to take a chunk out of Holyfield’s ears.
He was successful at the second time of asking, so much so he was forced to spit out the top of Holyfield’s helix after tearing it clean off in the third round.
Tyson was disqualified for the barbaric act, which initially earned him a lifetime ban and a £2.3million ($2m) fine. The ban, however, was rescinded 16 months later.
“I bit him because I wanted to kill him,” Tyson said of the most famous in-ring incident. “I was really mad about my head being bumped and everything,” Tyson said.
“I really lost consciousness of the whole fight. It took me out of my fight plan and everything.”
Fighting while high – 2000
Drugs and alcohol, as they had been for most of his life, were well and truly present in Tyson’s daily routine during his two-fight stint in the UK in the year 2000.
And in his 2013 autobiography, he admitted to taking lines of “blow” and puffing on marijuana just moments before his brutal first-round knockout of Lou Savarese at Hampden Park.
Using a fake penis to pass a drug test – 2000
Passing a drug test was, unsurprisingly, hard for Tyson to do when he was taking narcotics in the build-up to fights.
And to ensure he passed the mandatory pre and post-fight tests, he made use of a whizzinator – which is a fake penis that can be worn and filled with clean urine – to fool drug testers.
After admitting to being high during his beatdown of Savarese, Tyson wrote in his autobiography: “I had to use my whizzer, which was a fake penis where you put in someone else’s urine to pass your drug test.”
Ahead of his exhibition with Roy Jones Jr in November 2020, he said of the device: “It was awesome, man, I put my baby’s urine in it.
“One time I was using my wife’s and my wife was like ‘Baby you better not hope that it comes back pregnant or something’.
“And I said, ‘We ain’t going to use you any more, we’re going to use the kid’, because I got scared that the p**s might come back pregnant.”
Press conference brawl with Lennox Lewis – 2002
Tensions between Tyson and former sparring partner Lennox Lewis were well and truly high before their infamous pre-fight press conference in New York.
And Tyson ignited a mass brawl seconds after the pair took to their respective podiums, punching one of Lewis’ bodyguards after he blocked him from getting to the Brit.
The pair rolled on the floor as members from both camps tried to intervene.
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They were eventually separated, but not before Tyson managed to bite a chunk out of Lewis’ thigh.
Tyson was slapped with a whopping £260,000 fine ($335,000) for the melee, after which he went on a foul-mouthed and homophobic tirade.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
