The fans witnessed ‘Iron’ Mike’s’ personal and professional lives collapsing following his first loss in 1990. On March 16, 1996, Mike Tyson, who had been imprisoned for the Desiree Washington case, was released and reclaimed his title. But after the infamous “Bite Fight,” he was suspended for over 18 months.
At the age of 35, he finally made the decision to attempt one last world title defense against his opponent, Lennox Lewis, who was the current world champion.
On June 8, 2002, the match was slated to take place at The Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. So before the fight, Tyson met a group of journalists in Maui, Hawaii. The purpose of keeping the former champion far away, according to his trainer at the time, Ronnie Shields, was to avoid “the media and the street life that you try to keep fighters away from,” as stated by sfgate. Even yet, he couldn’t help but admit to a female reporter that he had physical relations with the majority of the women that interview him.
Mike Tyson talks about the pain and agony of his life
A short video of that session materialized yesterday on YouTube. It has received over 90k views, nearly eight thousand likes, and over a hundred comments. Mike Tyson said, “You guys don’t care about me. I don’t particularly care about you. But you guys know, I can’t beat you guys because you guys got the better ‘f**k you hand’ than I do. You guys control the media and the press, but hmm, sometimes I know I say things, and I offend people. I asked this lady lewd question because I am in a lot of pain too.“
Tyson continued how he was in pain and would probably be in a similar situation for the rest of his life. He also shared that he wanted to inflict some of that suffering on all of them, even if only a little. He lamented the journalists for their lack of understanding and shame. According to him, money was the only thing that mattered to them the most.
He continued, “So every now and then, I kick you f*****g a** and stomp on you and put some kind of pain or inflict some kind of pain on you because you deserve the feel of pain. Some what of the pain that I feel.“
As it happened, Lennox Lewis knocked out Mike Tyson in the eighth round. It dashed all his hopes of becoming a world champion again. He knocked out Clifford Etienne in the first round a year later, but that was his last professional victory. Next, Danny Williams knocked out ‘Iron’ Mike in the fourth round of their 2004 bout.
Finally, before the seventh round of the match against Kevin McBride started, he called it quits and retired from boxing for good.