Mike Tyson
Scandals and strokes of fate plague his last years
Mike Tyson wants to know it again in the ring.
© imago images/ZUMA Wire
Strokes of fate, scandals and self-deprecating appearances. This is what Mike Tyson has been doing since his retirement as an active boxer.
Mike Tyson (57) wants to know again. For one In the boxing match broadcast live on Netflix, the former heavyweight world champion enters the ring against YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul (27). Instead of pure sport, the show will probably be the focus on July 20, 2024.
After his last real comeback attempt as a “real” boxer in 2005, Tyson promised not to ridicule the sport of boxing, to which he owed so much, through show appearances. The fight against the mediocre Irish fighter Kevin McBride (50) almost 20 years ago was already an unworthy spectacle. But despite his huge successes during his prime as a boxer, Mike Tyson always needed money – and once forgot his promise before the Paul fight.
Recently, however, Mike Tyson has been making headlines due to scandals – some of which also accompanied him during his active times – in and outside the ring. Two years after his first real retirement, he was caught driving drunk in 2007. Three bags of cocaine were also found on him and he was later given a three-year suspended sentence.
“At Death’s Door”: Mike Tyson with alcohol problems
A serious stroke of fate followed in May 2009: his daughter Exodus accidentally strangled herself with the cable of a treadmill while playing. She was only four years old. A tragedy that Mike Tyson could never overcome. In November 2009, he hit a photographer at the airport in Los Angeles. In 2013, Mike Tyson ruefully declared that he suffered from severe alcohol problems. He stands on the “threshold of death” he said in a press conference.
After his active career, Mike Tyson also tried his hand as a boxing promoter behind the scenes. Although he says he hates the sport. He made a bad person out of him. He built a second mainstay in the entertainment business. He appeared in a number of films and series, from “Rocky Balboa” to “How I Met Your Mother”, mostly as himself. The most famous is certainly his self-deprecating appearance in the Hollywood comedy “The Hangover”. For the US broadcaster Comedy Central, he also verbally attacked the actor during the roast of Charlie Sheen (58).
In 2020, Tyson got back into the boxing ring. Almost four years ago he competed in an exhibition fight against the then 51-year-old Roy Jones Junior. The fight ended – of course – in a draw. In 2023 he then trained the successful mixed martial arts star Francis Ngannou (37) in a cross-over fight against boxing champion Tyson Fury (35) – whose first name was of course inspired by Mike Tyson.
Scandals and the past kept catching up with him
Mike Tyson repeatedly appeared reflected in interviews, purified and remorseful. But the scandals returned at regular intervals. In 2022, he beat a man on a plane who is said to have provoked him beforehand.
At the end of 2023, his past caught up with him once again. A woman accused him of rape and that he had sexually abused her in his limousine in the early 1990s. The woman is demanding $5 million in damages. If the court rules in her favor, it would be his second conviction for rape.
In 1992, he was convicted of raping Desiree Washington, then 18. He received a prison sentence of six years, after three years he was released on parole and continued his active boxing career. Almost a year after his release from prison, he became world heavyweight champion again in 1996.