Tyson and Jones both insist their fight won’t be some sham or ballyhooed ballet peppering shots and looking busy. “I feared myself, because I wanted to live up to that fake image.” “I was always a nobody and boxing made me somebody,” said Tyson. He previously has detailed how he’s gone sour on the sweet science, and how he gets hives and sweats anytime he’s near a boxing gym.
He once unnecessarily apologized during our 2019 interview, a far cry from his self-destructive days when he could blow up and berate anyone sitting across from him. Tyson is now even-keeled and mild-mannered. Mike Tyson has his own marijuana line called Tyson Ranch. Recently, the Brownsville, N.Y.-bred and now Newport Beach-based Hall of Fame fighter has been steadily growing his promising cannabis company and Tyson Ranch brand from El Segundo headquarters. This is the sentiment he repeatedly shares while burning through mounds of marijuana. Tyson says his newfound demeanor is about living selflessly and using his power and platform to change lives.
He’s also adamant that part of his $10 million payday will be donated to a series of charities, including Mike Tyson Cares, Standing United and My Yellow Shirt.
The fight against Jones is the flagship event of his newly launched Legends Only League, a sports startup designed to bring back the stars of yesteryear and engage them in competition in whatever ways their bodies will allow. Tyson has rolled with the punches in life, and now he’ll get punched in the face in public for the first time since 2005 - only this time as a graying former boxer turned businessman looking to extend his commercial brand.Īs with many of his ventures, Tyson has paired the pugilistic resuscitation with a business plan. Then suddenly, a ring reentered the picture, and Tyson took the internet and social media by storm when he released a series of explosive workout videos viciously hitting mitts and mauling through heavy bags with the same force as in his prime.Įverybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, Tyson once famously proclaimed. Fifteen-minute treadmill runs at home evolved into two-hour sessions. He’d already knocked out obesity but was still sporting a paunch. You have to accept what you perceive from me,” said Tyson.ĭuring spring lockdown, idle hands led Tyson to exercise a lot more. Iron Mike has an iron spirit and more than just a puncher’s chance at anything he tries.Īlthough he has painfully detailed his successes and shortcomings in a one-man Broadway show and autobiography, Tyson is still adding to his story, turning the page and starring in his latest act in life at the age of 54. No matter the magnitude of the blows, however, “The Baddest Man on the Planet” has always gotten back up from his checkered past. Whether it be surviving a broken home, being arrested 38 times by the age of 13, serving a prison sentence for rape, losing hundreds of millions in dollars en route to bankruptcy, battling drug addiction, tragically losing a child or displaying an unhealthy buffet of volatile behavior, the setbacks outside of a boxing ring have been more prolific than his losses inside one. Tyson has been knocked down far too many times in life to count.
The stories and scenes transcend age, race and language, and he’s still one of the most recognizable names in the world. His wild moments have been chronicled exhaustively. Tyson has journeyed through his roller coaster of a ride called life in the public eye since he became the youngest heavyweight champion in 1986. There are few people in the world who’ve let their hands go more ferociously, or had more divisive dates with the devil, than Mike Tyson. Idle hands are the devil's workshop - the saying can ring true especially during a pandemic. Mike Tyson, shown on TBS' "The Last O.G" in April, returns to the ring Saturday in an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr.