After all these years, former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson admitted on the Opie and Jimmy radio show that he had been abused as a child.
As it turns out, at the tender age of seven, an older man had “snatched” Tyson off the street, bullied him, and sexually abused him. Tyson went on to say that he would never see the man again after the incident. Mike stated later in the interview that he doesn’t know what impact this significant event had on his life.
With everything the champ has gone through from the sexual assault charges, to the drug abuse, to biting Evander Holyfield’s ear, it’s clear that there has always been something in him that he has been holding on to all of these years. He certainly lives with demons every day. He will admit that. There may not be a more tragic athlete in the history of sports. Yet, Tyson still polarizes and captivates years after being out of the ring. He was the best boxer to set foot in a ring – period. Bring up the Mayweathers, the Roy Jones’s, Ali (Yeah I said it, ALI). Whoever you choose, Iron Mike was better. Tyson dominated boxing from 1986 to 1991 in the same fashion Tiger Woods dominated golf in the early 2000s. He was certainly must see TV and was even good enough to leave prison and win the title again.
Tyson seems like a different person these days. He seems happier and more at peace with his life. He is finding that being more open about his life is like therapy for him. He just completed a successful tour of monologues about his life directed by Spike Lee, had his own reality TV show, and now even has a cartoon on the Adult Swim channel. It’s been a long journey for him. He recently turned 48 years old and to him, it probably seems as if he’s lived two life times. You can say what you want about Mike Tyson, but he has been an inspiration for people across the world. He’s hit rock bottom several times but he continues to do what he does best. Fight.
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