Mike Tyson is a cultural icon.
The former heavyweight champion of the world just wrapped up a successful run on Broadway with his show Mike Tyson’s Untold Truth. Now with that done, Iron Mike is gearing up for the next stage of his career, which includes a few television shows and another play!
VIDEO: Spike Lee Brings Mike Tyson Brings Tyson To Broadway
GlobalGrind caught up with Mike and got him to reveal the first time he hung out with Stevie J, his history with Mike Tyson’s PunchOut, as well as his run-in with a serial killer. Check it out below!
You had the whole world handed to you at 20 when you won the heavyweight championship. What was the power like, considering yourself an insecure kid?
Mike Tyson: At that time, it’s just too overwhelming for me. I wasn’t prepared for that stuff. People compliment you every time you’re seen by a human being. That’s not really normal stuff.
Will there be a second part to this? Another Mike Tyson’s Untold Truth?
Absolutely! With new stories. I got new stuff. You know the baseline shooter? He was a serial killer in Phoenix Arizona. He was also a boxing writer, so he interviewed me and FBI agents came to me and I don’t know, I was a little crazy back then, I was like 28, 31. And they said, ‘Do you know this guy?’ I’m nervous, I’m saying was I drunk at a club and I pushed this guy and he fell down the stairs and he hurt leg or something? I said to the officer, is everything OK? The officer said this, ‘No he likes you, but these other 25 people he didn’t like and he shot and killed 8 of them. I said “WHAT!” Holy shit! Cause I’m on his website of me and him shaking hands and stuff. Baseline shooter, you look up his name. He was around me.
Have you ever played Mike Tyson’s Punch Out?
Never. I started getting into video games in 2006, 2007.
But, you’ve never played your own video game?
No.
What video games do you play now?
Resident Evil, stuff like that.
If Mike Tyson had a little comedy sitcom, what do you think it would be called?
“Clash of The Tyson” or “The World According to Mike.”
That’s a good one. Now, with all this exposure in the last few years, have you ever thought about a personal reality show?
A hundred-percent. Me and my wife were talking about it. We talked to Chris from 51 Minds and we got that in mind to work on that. We’re just trying to find out what angle we’re going to work it from. We have so much. We want to produce some plays on Broadway. We want to produce some mini-series and do some movies and television programs. We have a lot of things. We have a company called Turanic. We have plans on doing a lot of things out of there.
Do you watch reality shows with your wife? Do you sit down and watch Love and Hip-Hop?
Yeah, we watch all those goodies.
What do you think when you see some of that stuff? Because Love and Hip-Hop is pretty wild.
I know Stevie J. Stevie J never struck me as that kind of guy, but I think it’s a beautiful show. I always looked at Stevie J as a very respectable guy. That’s who he is; that’s how I know of him. I seen him like, “wow, that’s pretty cool that he can do that.”
Yeah, Stevie J used to run with Diddy.
Yeah, I know. Listen, I remember when he was with Devonte.
You and Stevie hung out? Y’all kicked it together?
No, when I came up there one day, Devonte had him, Missy, Magoo, Timabland, and Ginuwine. He had the whole group play in the basement and I said, let me hear him perform, so he gave me an audition. They didn’t even have a record deal. So I told him, he had about 30 people in the basement, let’s take them all out to dinner.
We took them out to this big 5 star restaurant. They’d never been to a nice restaurant before. They had a good time. That’s how I met them, but they weren’t famous when I first met them, they were just little kids. I didn’t know they were going to be famous. I just said, let’s go to dinner.
How do you think fame changes people?
It shows who we truly are. We get a false sense of security. We believe we’re going to be rich or famous and stuff like that. Nobody is going to fuck with us. Which is a lie. And so we get into trouble, thinking we’re going to get into things with impunity.
