Mike Tyson is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. During his career, as well as after he retired from competitive boxing in 2005, he was in the spotlight, not just for boxing.
- He was convicted of raping an 18-year-old and was sentenced to 6 years in prison (he served 3)
- His marriage to Robin Givens ended after 3 months. Claiming the relationship was abusive, she was deathly afraid of him. Givens later said their marriage was, “torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine.”
- He bit Evander Holyfield’s ear!
- He threatened to kill at least two of his opponents, Lennox Lewis and Donovan Ruddock, during matches.
- He had a long, LONG history of substance abuse and addiction
So really, was anyone genuinely SURPRISED when the news came out this past spring that he had beat up a fellow passenger on his JetBlue flight? Granted, it sounded as if the guy he beat up was super annoying, but still…
Anyway, the guy he beat up, Melvin Townsend III, didn’t press charges. But Tyson also never explained exactly what happened from his own point of view…until now.
Tyson was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” last week and, of course, Kimmel asked him about the incident. At first, Tyson joked around and said the person in the video wasn’t him. “That’s not me!” But then he ‘fessed up that it was him and why he went so crazy on the dude.
“I’m usually good at these things,” Tyson said, talking about being able to control himself when people anger or annoy him. “I guess it was his number.”
Tyson then admitted that he was in the wrong and explained why he snapped.
“I was wrong,” he said. “That should’ve never happened. That’s me back in my primitive child stages. I shouldn’t have done it. I was just irritated and tired — and high and pissed off. S**t happens. I don’t want to hurt nobody.”
Here’s the whole discussion:
The video starts at the beginning of the discussion about the JetBlue incident. However he also talks about giving a Lamborghini to a police officer, driving a car through a convenience store, being in a good place in his life, smoking with 65,000 people in Hippie Hill, macro dosing mushrooms, seeing something familiar in the Berlanga vs Angulo fight, his edibles shaped like a partly-bitten ear, Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, and if he would ever fight Jake Paul. All in a 10-minute interview. Whew!
Feature image (cropped): Dennis Crwoley / flickr
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