A twenty-year boxing career was enough for Mike Tyson to become one of the most iconic fighters not only of the eighties and nineties, but of all time. However, it is a fact that the legend of Iron Mike was built on feats in the ring, but also on scandals inside and especially outside the ring.
Tyson left professional boxing in 2005 with a record of 50-6-0, 44 KOs. Possessing a devastating punch and otherworldly physical power, the New York native made boxing history mainly in the first five years of his career. And, as often happens to those at the top, the excesses appear to make them see that, somehow, they will never cease to be earthly.
So it was that after his stunning 1990 loss to a deadly James Buster Douglas, darkness descended on Mike Tyson both inside and outside the ring. In boxing, although he regained his status as world champion, he was never able to return to his glorious level. On a personal level, he didn’t fare so well either. Let’s review the biggest scandals that Iron Mike starred in.
Mike Tyson and scandal, a long-lasting relationship
There have been many times that the two-time World Heavyweight Champion has been involved in controversial episodes in and out of the ring. Fortunately for Tyson, the rise of social media came when his character was a little more tamed, because if it had existed when his explosiveness was at its peak, his reputation would not have been affected.
The most recent occasion when Mike Tyson pulled a “Mike Tyson” was during a flight from San Francisco to Florida in which he repeatedly punched the face of a passenger sitting behind him. In Tyson’s defense, the most widely reported version is that the individual was drunk and began to bother him until the former World Heavyweight Champion could not contain himself and poured all his anger on him.
Mike Tyson, former Heavyweight World Champion. (David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Tyson’s first major scandal. It was 1989 when Robin Givens revealed that she suffered domestic violence at the side of Mike, who was her husband for a year. It was not until 2013 that the reason for the boxer’s anger was revealed: he discovered his then wife’s infidelity with actor Brad Pitt, who, according to Tyson, begged him not to punch him in the face.
The reason for Mike Tyson’s sports debacle. Buster Douglas shocked the world by defeating Tyson in 1990. However, this feat was achieved not only thanks to Douglas, and is that Mike confessed at the time that the only thing that interested him was sex. Thus, the nights before the fight he was so sexually active that he was so tired tofight. He confessed this until 2013.
James “Buster” Douglas knocking out Tyson. (Tony Triolo/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Mike Tyson, to prison. It was in 1992 that the famous fighter was imprisoned after being found guilty of raping an 18-year-old girl. The initial sentence was 6 years, however, for good behavior, Tyson was released halfway through his sentence.
The unforgettable moment of Tyson vs Holyfield. It was 1997 and Iron Mike was trying to regain the boxing glory he had at the beginning of his career, so he made his rematch against the two-division World Champion Evander Holyfield, who had stopped him in 1996. However, frustrated at losing the fight, Tyson was disqualified after biting his opponent’s ear a couple of times. One of the bites took a chunk out of Holyfield’s right ear.
Evander Holyfield’s bitten right ear. (Rolf Rick/picture alliance via Getty Images)
2003, a year to forget. Mike Tyson went to jail for the second time this year due to a confrontation he had with a couple of guys in a Brooklyn hotel, who accused him of assault, harassment and disorderly conduct. Also that year, Tyson was announced bankrupt, which meant he had squandered the more than $300 million dollars he had earned in the ring in a nearly 20-year boxing career at the time.
Tyson and his mettle of steel. Just in March 2022, Mike was in a Hollywood bar enjoying a comedy show, when a guy approached him and challenged him to a fight. Faced with the onslaught of security trying to get him out of the place, the guy pulled out a gun and threatened to open fire, before which Tyson, with all the calm in the world chatted with him to calm him down and end up hugging him. The ex-boxer himself asked not to call the police.
