Mike Tyson has always been widely regarded as ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ and so when he was convicted in his late 20s, there was already a target on his back.
This coming Friday, November 15, Mike Tyson returns to the boxing ring for his first professional boxing fight since 2005, when he takes on Jake Paul in a highly controversial fight.
The fight is set to be one of the biggest sporting events ever as it streams live on Netflix from the 80,000-seater AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
‘Iron Mike’ and ‘The Problem Child’ were originally scheduled to fight this past June, but the 58-year-old suffered an ulcer flare-up on a flight which caused the fight to be postponed. The heavyweight boxing legend has recently revealed the extent of the flare-up, claiming it almost killed him.
Mike Tyson explains what happened when a prisoner tried to fight him
After becoming the youngest-ever heavyweight boxing champion at the age of just 20, Tyson’s life changed drastically with his quick rise to fame and stardom.
Just six years after becoming heavyweight champion and 14 fights later, Tyson became widely known as ‘The Badest Man on the Planet’, but his career took a major turn when he was convicted of rape in 1992 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
In his late 20s at the time, Tyson went on to serve just under half of that time in prison and was released on parole for good behavior.
Despite the good behavior, ‘Iron Mike’ did have to settle the score with a few prisoners whilst behind bars and had to quickly nip things in the bud.
“People will try you. They’ll try the strongest. You have to be a man. They’ll try anybody,” Tyson began to explain his time behind bars in an interview with Playboy in 1998.
“They start by saying something funny, something sarcastic, to see how far they can go. But you nip it in the bud. You don’t let anyone get away with saying anything funny or sarcastic.
“You have to demonstrate who you are right on the spot. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. I’m a settler. I’m in my glory in a place like that. Chaos all over. Yeah, they tried me a few times,” Tyson continued.
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Mike Tyson claims his fight against Jake Paul is the biggest boxing fight in history
Despite being 58 years old and nowhere near as mobile as he was in his continuous fighting days, Tyson has been looking sharp in fight camp, as he has shown on his social media.
Earlier in preparation for his fight against the 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer, Tyson was visited by the legendary manager of boxing icon, Muhammad Ali.
Gene Kilroy visited Tyson, who he has known since he was 13 years old, and was relieved when he saw the physical shape the 58-year-old was in, claiming it’s the strongest he’s ever looked.
Ahead of their huge fight, Tyson and Paul sat down for a face-to-face interview this past Sunday where things remained extremely respectful between the two.
During the interview, ‘Iron Mike’ claimed that his fight against Paul was the biggest fight in the ‘250 year history of boxing’.
“First of all, no one else can do this but me. Like you said, this is the greatest boxing match in the history of boxing and it’s because I’m part of it,” Tyson told MVP.
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