Considered the most feared man in boxing, Mike Tyson (60) has tried to redeem his sins with a four-part docuseries on Netflix titled after his last name, Tyson, as only the greats are known. Father of seven children from four different relationships, the iconic boxer has enhanced his myth not only through his victories but also through the major scandals that have marked his life.
The most publicized were the explosive marriage to actress Robin Givens (61), the six-year prison sentence for raping Desiree Washington, the threat he made to his opponent Lennox Lewis about eating his children, and the time he bit Evander Holyfield's ear (64) and spat out the cartilage in the ring.
From 1988 to 1989, Tyson was married to Givens, who was already known for her performances on The Cosby Show and Class Act. Following their marriage, the actress's popularity skyrocketed, but that fairy tale she wished to star in soon unleashed a cruel story, according to what she confessed to Barbara Walters in 1988 on the show 20/20 when she referred to domestic violence and the emotional instability of the boxer. "It has been torture, an absolute hell, worse than I could have ever imagined," the young woman recounted.
When the docuseries director Floyd Russ directly asks Tyson about the accusations of gender violence, he avoids categorically denying it and claims they were mutual fights: "We fought each other. We fought, yes. I know people say: 'She can't fight you. You're Mike Tyson.' But we fought."
The couple lived in a Victorian Gothic mansion of nearly 1,700 square meters on a six-acre lot worth 4.3 million dollars in Bernardsville (New Jersey). As part of the divorce settlement, she received 10 million dollars; however, in several interviews, the actress denied that amount.
Regarding the rape conviction in 1992, far from feeling remorse or apologizing, the former athlete claims that what Desiree Washington admitted in court was "pure nonsense. Why did she come at three in the morning? You know, just...". When asked if she said "no" or if he crossed the line, he is adamant: "No, she never said no." And he continues to insist: "I did not rape that woman. I did not harm her, I did nothing she didn't want done."
Tyson was sentenced to 10 years in prison at the Plainfield Correctional Institution in Indiana, but only served three years, as he was released in 1995 for good behavior. His bravado knows no bounds during the interview: "All the damage she tried to do to me, she lost. What did she get? A million and a half dollars? I came out of prison with 400 million dollars, so you tell me. I'm invincible."
He lost that entire fortune in 2003 due to his reckless behavior, excessive spending, poor investments, and divorces, which led to bankruptcy and a debt of 23 million dollars. Consequently, he had to sell the house he lived in, which was over 4,500 square meters with 24 bedrooms and 21 bathrooms located in Connecticut, for which he had to pay 60,000 euros monthly in maintenance.
In the last episode, Tyson recalls what happened on June 28, 1997, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas where he fought Evander Holyfield. Fed up with Holyfield's headbutts that the referee did not penalize, he was consumed by rage. "I was furious, I was an undisciplined soldier and I lost my temper. So I bit his ear... I bit it because I wanted to kill him. I was really blinded by the punches to the head and everything else. I practically lost track of the entire fight," he concludes without hesitation. For that incident, the New Yorker had his boxing license revoked until October 1998 and was fined three million dollars.
Regarding his chaotic life and destructive past -it should be noted that he has achieved 50 victories, 44 of which were by knockout- he attributes it to a childhood and adolescence marked by extreme poverty and early exposure to drugs introduced directly by his own family. Those were such crazy years that, according to what he explains in Tyson, the hard part to believe is how he became one of the most iconic figures in the United States.
"I always thought that my life would be tied to crime. That was what everyone did in my community. How could I believe otherwise? I come from nothing but crime. I come from trash, scum, and all that," but with the arrival of his twenties, everything changed. He became a hero who also lost his mind. "When you're 20 years old and the world tells you you're a god, you start to believe you can take whatever you want, whenever you want," he adds.
His first daughter is Michael Lorna (36), from his relationship with Kimberly Scarborough; with his second wife, Monica Turner, he had Ramsey (30) and Amir (29), and with Sol Xochitl he had Miguel León (24) and Exodus, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 4.