“The Baddest Man on the Planet” is back
Boxing icon Mike Tyson has largely left the deep crashes in his life behind. The 54-year-old also wants to prove that with his return to the ring at the weekend against Roy Jones Jr. The sporting value of the legend fight is meanwhile doubted by ex-boxers.
He beats the claws like mad, hurls his fists against the heavy sandbag again and again: “Iron Mike” Tyson is currently working hard in training for his return. The 54-year-old boxing pensioner also wants to show the world on Sunday night in the show fight against Roy Jones Jr. (2.30 a.m. on Sky) that he has left the crashes and scandals in his life behind.
“When I won titles, it was difficult,”
“This child is still inside me, only now I know how to protect it,” says the refined old star today about the difficult time at a young age, when he beat the opponents out of the ring with a dark face and from a scandal in groped the next. “That kid wasn’t protected when I went to jail and all this stuff happened,” says Tyson. All the “stuff” came with success. At 20 years and 144 days, the boy from Brooklyn became the youngest world heavyweight champion, won twelve of the first 20 fights by knocking out in round one, and won the important belt. “When I won titles, it was difficult,” he reveals today, “it wasn’t the right time for me.”
The private problems got worse and worse. His wife Robin Givens accused him of sexual violence, and in 1992 he ended up in jail for three years for rape. He squandered 300 million US dollars and his comeback failed because he bit a piece out of the right ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield in the ring because of sheer frustration.
“We are not women, we are two of the best.”
Well, 15 years after his last fight, “Iron Mike” is back. Tyson, “The Baddest Man on the Planet”, has his life under control again, played in movies, was on the theater stage, and is said to have several million in his account again. He wants to donate the stock exchange for the fight to homeless people and addicts.
But despite all of Tyson’s resolutions, fans cannot expect top-class boxing from the duel between the Ring retirees in Los Angeles’ legendary Staples Center. Also because the responsible Athletic Commission (CSAC) has adjusted the rules to the age. There are only eight rounds of boxing, one round lasts two instead of three minutes, both boxers have to wear more padded gloves, a cut is canceled immediately, a knockout should not be possible at all. “It’s for women,” complained Jones Jr. and made it clear: “We are not women, we are two of the best.”
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