Mike Tyson To Chris Christie: Tell President Trump To Give Me The Pardon He Promised

Yesterday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke at a prisoner re-entry conference in Jersey City. So did former world heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, who presented Christie with a title belt to commend him for his work on the subject.

But, as recounted by Alyana Alfaro in the Observer, Tyson and Christie also had an absolutely bonkers exchange about Donald Trump and an apparently promised presidential pardon xbox one amazon:

“Man, governor I wish you could talk to Donald Trump, cause I haven’t talked to him in many years,” Tyson said. “Tell him he said he was going to give me my pardon so I am waiting for my pardon. He said it out of his mouth so I’m waiting.”

“I will put it on my list for the next phone call, Mike,” Christie quipped.

A spokesperson for Tyson told NJ the former champ, who was convicted in 1992 for raping pageant contestant Desiree Washington, was actually asking for a “partner Titanfall Ps4 Gamestop.”

But watching the video posted by NBC New York, it’s pretty clear he says, “tell him he says he was going to give me my pardon.” That must be what Christie hears, too, as he replies: “I didn’t know what I was going to talk to him about next. Now I got it: Got the pardon to work on. That’s good.”

Though it might not have stopped Trump from telling Tyson he’d wipe his record clean, the president can only issue federal pardons. Tyson was convicted in state court.

Anyway, just another day in the United States of America: A former high-profile boxer saying the president, who once hosted his fights, would get him a pardon for his rape conviction.

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Mike Tyson spent $2.5M to move down the street

BY DOUG ELFMAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Mike Tyson recently spent $2.5 million to move four doors down from his $1.5 million house in Seven Hills.

The old $1.5 million place, according to Luxury Homes of Las Vegas, is a five-bedroom, six-bathroom, 5,740-square-foot family home in Henderson.

And now, an undisclosed potential buyer’s contract has been accepted for an unlisted price, though money hasn’t changed hands yet, for his last place at 1294 Imperial Dr., which looks like this:

A 25-foot lighted waterfall entrway; sunken great room; bar; fireplace; slate, marble and hardwood floors; chef’s kitchen; floating tub; chandeliers; a lighted courtyard garden; backyard infinity pool; three garages, balcony, guarded gate and country club.

He reportedly bought that house for $1.75 million from former NBA pro Jalen Rose in 2007.

The new $2.5 million pad is 10,401 square feet, with six bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, on .76 acres, plus a pool and spa.

Tyson has several children in school here.

“Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth” is currently running through June 26 at the MGM’s Brad Garrett Comedy Club.

K-FED COMES TO VEGAS 

Kevin Federline is Las Vegas’ newest resident DJ. Starting Saturday night, he’ll be the music man at Crazy Horse III strip club, returning once every few months.

Crazy Horse III is 2.8 miles away from Planet Hollywood, where his ex, Britney Spears, headlines.
But Federline tells me his strip club gigs usually fall on weekends when Spears enjoys breaks in Los Angeles. In fact, Spears won’t be on stage here again until April 6.

They get along now, he says.

“We talk, but I’d say 98 percent of it is about what’s going on with our children,” Federline says, “making sure everybody is OK.”

Their lives have gotten easier compared with some years ago, he says, without mentioning all the troubles that landed Spears in Vegas under the legal watch of her father.

“It’s the simple life now, compared to what it used to be,” he says. “Both of us are in a place where we just wish the best for each other.”

Federline DJ’d at the club a few times last year, with wife Victoria Prince by his side (they got hitched at the Hard Rock Hotel three years ago).

“After Christmas, (Crazy Horse III execs) were like, ‘All right we’re going to sign you up for six, seven or eight dates next year,’” Federline says.

“It’s a different environment for a DJ,” he says. “You can actually play a whole (song), instead of trying to mix every 45 seconds,” because strippers dance to full songs.

“When the girls come up to you and ask you to play a song, of course you’re going to play the song, because they obviously want to dance to that song. It’ll make for a better performance for them, and they’ll love you for it.”

This Saturday’s gig is a week-early birthday party. He turns 38 on March 21.

“I’m going to go on probably between 12 and 1 o’clock. And who knows, I might wind up playing till 5 in the morning. It is my birthday party, right?” he says.

Since we’re on the subject of stripping, how many naked women has Federline seen in person during the entirety of his life?

“Man, I don’t think I can count that high,” he joked.

Then he thought about all the flashing women he saw when he was a professional dancer on international tours with famous musicians.

“Oh, I would say hundreds of thousands,” he said and laughed. “Girls will be girls.”

Federline just shot a music video for a new song, “Hollywood,” coming out in the end of March or early April.

“It’s probably going to go viral. It’s crazy,” he said, but gave no details.

“It’s fun. I’ve learned to have fun, and not take myself seriously. I’m pretty much making fun of myself the whole time — and a few other people.”

CHUMLEE BACK TO WORK AS DJ?

Chumlee of “Pawn Stars” just got out of jail on $62,000 bail, after being arrested on weed, meth and unlawful gun charges while being investigated in a sexual assault case.

As of midday Friday, HollywoodLife.com reported Chumlee was still set to spin music at Tru nightclub, 1700 E. Flamingo Road, quoting a manager who hadn’t heard of the arrest and who expected the set to go on with increased security.

However, when I called Tru later in the afternoon, I was told the club hadn’t been able to reach Chumlee’s manager, adding that it was up in the air: “We’re not for sure what’s going on.”

BOOTY PAYBACK

The UFC’s new women’s bantamweight champ, Miesha Tate, gave some lighthearted payback to a Las Vegas Metro officer who was seen looking at her booty with a funny side glance during her UFC 196 weigh-in.

Tate went to the Las Vegas Metro Training Academy and had someone shoot an Instagram video of her not peeking at all at the same officer, Russell Mettke, while he pulled his pants up next to her, as if to suggest this is how one gracefully doesn’t ogle a booty.

“Paid him a little surprise visit today,” she wrote on @mieshatate, adding a crying-laughing emoji.

SIGHTING

Plastic surgeon Paul Nassif of reality’s “Botched” on E! saw the funny, bawdy “Absinthe” at Caesars Palace on Thursday night.

Carolina Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson partied with friends at a Tao nightclub VIP table in The Venetian on Thursday.

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Mike Tyson admits to being high on drugs during major fights, and using a fake penis to avoid detection

Former heavyweight champion's new memoir reveals fighter spent significant spells addicted to marijuana and cocaine, and his novel way of circumventing testing

Me in the corner: Mike Tyson's new memoir reveals the extent of his drug addiction during his heavyweight boxing career Photo: REUTERS

Mike Tyson was high on drugs during some of his major fights and used a fake penis filled with someone else's urine to fool drug-testers, he has admitted for the first time.

The former world heavyweight boxing champion disclosed in a new tell-all memoir that he spent a significant stretch of his turbulent career addicted to cocaine and marijuana.

“I was a full-blown cokehead,” Tyson wrote in Undisputed Truth, published on Tuesday. Recalling his shock 2004 loss to Britain's Danny Williams, he revealed he was taking drugs until shortly before the fight.

Tyson, now 47 and retired, described his ferocious appetite for drink and drugs that dated back to trying cocaine at the age of 11 and first being given alcohol as a baby in New York.

He said that he was high before taking to the ring for a match against Lou Savarese in Glasgow in June 2000 – and came up with an ingenious method to prevent detection by the sport's official testers.
Confessing he had taken "blow" and "pot" before the bout, he said: “I had to use my whizzer, which was a fake penis where you put in someone’s clean urine to pass your drug test.”

He blamed a $200,000 fine for testing positive for marijuana after a 2000 fight against Andrew Golota in Detroit on the fact that he was tested before having a chance to get the 'whizzer' from a member of his team, whom he claims typically carried the device from fight to fight.

Tyson explained he had taken cocaine before a notorious televised press conference with Lennox Lewis in New York in January 2002, which descended into an onstage brawl between the rival camps.

“I lost my mind,” Tyson recalled. “I looked over at him and wanted to hit the motherf---er.” As the pair of heavyweights tussled, Tyson bit into one of Lewis's legs.


Tyson, the youngest boxer ever to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles, said he regrets that his drug use led to “Herculean" mood swings.

After several years of rehabilitation treatment - between staging a one-man show, appearing in the film The Hangover and socialising with A-list celebrities such as Victoria Beckham - Tyson said in August this year that he was close to death due to his chronic alcoholism.

However in his memoir he said his prodigious consumption had made sense at the time. “The history of war is the history of drugs,” he wrote. “Every great general and warrior from the beginning of time was high.”

Tyson's days of wild partying had already begun when he faced Britain's Frank Bruno for the first time, in Las Vegas, in a bout that had millions of British supporters gripped in February 1989.
While admitting that he was in such poor shape that “Bruno should have kicked my ass”, Tyson dismissed the notion that he was hurt by Bruno's memorable left hook at the end of the first round.
The blow left Tyson staggering for the first time in his professional career and notoriously caused the British commentator Harry Carpenter to forget his impartiality and say on-air: “Get in there, Frank”.
“People made a big deal that I was wobbled with the punches, but that wasn’t so,” Tyson claimed. Having regained his composure, the American went on to claim a technical knock-out in round five.

By the time the pair met again seven years later, Tyson had been convicted of raping Desiree Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America pageant in Indianapolis, and jailed for three years.

Tyson continues to deny rape and railed against what he claims to be the injustice of his punishment. Yet he disclosed that his sentence was comfortable: he ate lobster in prison and even embarked on an affair with his drugs counsellor.

While in jail he also took the opportunity to read great literature by authors such as Marx, Shakespeare and Tolstoy, but drew the line at Hemingway, whom he described as “too much of a downer”.

He recalled being booed by “rabid" English supporters, who sang about him being a rapist, as he approached the ring for his rematch against Bruno in Las Vegas in 1996, However Bruno, who was defending his WBC Heavyweight Championship, “smelled of fear” and was dispatched a minute into the third round.

(Warning: video contains strong language)
 

Four years later, however, British boxing fans adored Tyson, he said, and gave him a welcome “like Beatlemania” when he arrived to fight British heavyweight champion Julius Francis in Manchester.
He fondly recalled a visit to Parliament being boycotted by women MPs due to his rape conviction but said at that stage of his life he enjoyed being a hate figure.

Describing one of the most controversial moments of his career – his biting a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's left ear during their match in June 1997, Tyson admitted that he had lost composure but insisted that he had been driven to it after being repeatedly headbutted by Holyfield.


Tyson painted a vivid portrait of his life from a young thug and thief on the streets of working-class Brooklyn. He took up boxing while in a young offenders' institution and began his career in “smokers” – illegal fights held in gyms and attended by gangsters and pimps – before making it as a professional.

He comprehensively detailed his years of international womanising during the height of his career that led him through three marriages and to fathering eight children with a string of different women.
And he explained how he repeatedly found himself on the brink of financial ruin despite earning tens of millions of dollars per fight at the height of his boxing career.

At one point he forgot about a holdall containing $1 million in cash, and on another occasion gave a hefty payout to a woman who unsuccessfully sued him after being bitten by his pet tiger. “I felt bad, so I gave her $250,000,” he said.

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Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champ in history

On November 22, 1986, 20-year-old Mike Tyson knocks out 33-year-old Trevor Berbick in just five minutes and 35 seconds to become the youngest titleholder ever. “I’m the youngest heavyweight boxing champion in history,” Tyson told his manager after the fight, “and I’m going to be the oldest.”
Tyson’s bravado wasn’t misplaced: When he walked into the ring to face Berbick, he had won all 27 of the matches he’d fought, knocking out 26 of his opponents. He threw unbelievably hard punches–“pineapples,” trainer Angelo Dundee called them. Ref Mills Lane agreed: “Everything he’s got has ‘good night’ written all over it,” he said. Berbick refused to be intimidated by the younger man’s furious arm and decided–unwisely, it turned out–to stand up to Tyson instead of boxing him. He didn’t bob or weave or even throw punches. He just stood there, wanting to show the world that he could take whatever Tyson was dishing out. “I was trying to prove to myself that I could take his best shot,” Berbick said, but “he punches pretty hard.”

Tyson had a plan, too: “I wanted to throw every punch with bad intentions,” he said after the fight. “I was throwing–what can I say–hydrogen bombs.” During the first round, Berbick had fought in such slow motion that he looked like he was underwater; early in the second, Tyson walloped him to the mat with a powerful left hook. The older man bounced up, but Tyson thumped him again. Berbick froze; then his legs buckled and he fell. The ref began to count while the champ struggled to get up. He lifted himself off the mat twice, and twice his legs wobbled so much that he fell again. He finally made it up, but Lane stopped the fight anyway. “Berbick was up,” he said later, “but to allow somebody to get hit in that condition, that’s criminal.”

Tyson kept his title for nine more bouts, until Buster Douglas beat him in 1990. After that, his life unraveled. He was sent to prison for three years for rape. Then, five fights into his comeback in 1995, he bit off a part of Evander Holyfield’s ear and was disqualified. He retired for good in 2005. Berbick didn’t fare much better: He, too, spent time in prison for rape, and was found dead (of “chop wounds” to his head, according to the coroner’s report) in a church courtyard in Jamaica in 2006.

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Anthony Joshua is as nasty as any heavyweight since Mike Tyson

Anthony Joshua has won all 15 of his professional fights

To see a titan cut down above your ringside seat is to marvel at monstrous brutality and human purity. It is to experience boxing's ultimate high, while finding sympathy with the abolitionist. Heavyweight boxing - in its purest form - is just so destructive. And so dangerously addictive.

On Saturday at London's O2 Arena, Anthony Joshua went from mildly stimulating to eye-poppingly potent. The frenzied reaction that greeted Joshua's seventh-round knockout of a game Dillian Whyte said it all: heavyweight savagery is boxing's signature dish - and Joshua stuffs fans full of it.

Cometh a man who not only serves it up in spades but can take the roughest of licks. A left hook landed by Whyte in the second round would have knocked most men cold. Joshua, having walked through 14 previous opponents, shook it off, regained his shape and wrought revenge. And how spiteful was the finish.

Having sent Whyte reeling with a right to the temple, Joshua stalked his wounded quarry with relish - blood in his nostrils, swinging a slaughterman's axe. But amid the shambles, Joshua delivered the telling uppercut with a surgeon's precision. The sight of Whyte dangling on the bottom rope, senses scattered about the canvas, cut through the rapture like a shiver.

Dillian Whyte is knocked out in the seventh round

In 19 minutes and 27 seconds of boxing, Joshua learned more about his craft - and himself - than in his previous 14 professional contests put together.

The 26-year-old from Watford now knows his whiskers smooth out when ruffled; that he can recover from a crisis; that he can haul that hulking frame through six and a half rounds of thickening mayhem; that he can muster the same power in the middle rounds as he can at the sound of the opening bell.

"Dillian was very strong and very game," said Joshua, who has been tipped for superstardom since winning super-heavyweight gold at the 2012 Olympics.

"Some fighters don't know how to handle getting hit. But I showed I've got heart. I cleared the red mist, took round three off and reverted to what I'd been told. I started boxing, using the overhand right more than the left hook, and it got him out of there. That fight was what I had needed for two years."

Joshua also now knows it is not wise to let his emotions get the better of him. Whyte, who called his rival "a scumbag and a fake" during an ill-tempered build-up and holds a win over Joshua in the amateurs, wanted it to get personal and got his wish.

Joshua, no stranger to street law despite the affable patter, likened the early stages to a fight on the cobbles. But when he stopped loading up on every shot and applied some science, Joshua was in a different neighbourhood.

However, Joshua doesn't want to abandon the street altogether. That affable patter and beaming smile will get the plenty of grannies onside but far better to be a nasty piece of work between the ropes. When the gloves are on and the fists are pumping, Joshua does nasty as well as any big man since Mike Tyson.

Asked to explain his late flurry of blows that caused an alarming ring invasion at the end of round one, Joshua replied: "It's not golf, is it? It's a fight. I enjoyed showing that talk is cheap. There was bad blood between us." Asked whether Whyte had earned his respect, Joshua replied: "No, not really."

Joshua was presumably referring to Whyte's qualities as a man rather than his boxing ability. No great stylist, Whyte did prove himself to be a man of iron chin and will. But he also proved that while standing and trading with Joshua might bring a certain amount of success, it's only going to produce one winner.

However, there is one man out there, his fin sharking through the foaming, quickening soup that is the British heavyweight scene, who knows better. Indeed, Tyson Fury could be Joshua's worst nightmare. Just as Fury was Wladimir Klitschko's worst nightmare when they fought a fortnight ago.

"It's not golf, is it?" Referee Howard Foster tries to separate Whyte and Joshua

Not only did Fury use his superior height and reach to great effect against Klitschko, he confounded Klitschko with his movement. And if the man who had reigned over heavyweight boxing for the best part of a decade couldn't lay a glove on Fury, Joshua would do well to steer well clear. For now, at least.

Whether Fury beats Klitschko in a rematch next summer or not, a fight between Fury and Joshua will happen. British boxing fans will be keeping everything crossed that Fury still has his two world title belts when it does.

North versus south; cunning versus thunder; pantomime villain versus avenging angel; one with a black hat, the other with a white hat. As Sonny Liston used to say of boxing, "like a cowboy movie". Two characters fed into the promotional machine and robbed of any subtlety and nuance. It would sell out Wembley Stadium twice over. In a minute. And might not last much longer.

Meanwhile, the task of Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn will be a difficult one. "After that performance against Whyte people will be saying Anthony Joshua is the real deal," said Hearn. "But he still has a little bit of work to do.

"People say to me, 'Put him in with Fury or Klitschko or [WBC champion] Deontay Wilder.' We'll get there. In the meantime, that fight against Whyte was so important.

Joshua now holds the British and Commonwealth titles

"That was a lot of pressure on the young man's shoulders. He'd only had 14 fights and was headlining a pay-per-view card at the O2. After two rounds it caught up with him; there was a lot of emotion and nervous energy. But that experience will be vital in him becoming heavyweight champion of the world."

Joshua's first defence of his newly acquired British title - if Hearn chooses to take him down that route - will be in April and a fight against fellow Briton and former world title contender Dereck Chisora would seem to make sense.

Then again, Chisora's best days are behind him - he was knocked out by David Haye in 2012 and totally outclassed by Fury last November - and an early finish would be construed as a step in the wrong direction. Haye, who makes his comeback in January after a three-year lay-off, would be a step too far.

Hearn also mentioned pitching Joshua against the winner of Vyacheslav Glazkov and Charles Martin, who are set to fight for the vacant IBF belt next spring, Fury having been stripped for fighting Klitschko again. However, Joshua is ranked only eighth by the IBF and might have to wait his turn.

All of which means Joshua and Whyte might do it all again. Given what went off in London on Saturday, not many would be complaining. In an era when heavyweight savagery is a rare old treat, Joshua is a veritable, moveable feast.

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Mike Tyson empathizes with Trump saying 'now he knows what it's like when everybody is out to get you' as he calls hatred an innate American characteristic

Mike Tyson empathized with Donald Trump, who is facing new levels of opposition after brawls broke out at his cancelled rally in Chicago last night, leaving two police officers injured and at least six arrested.

Tyson, who previously voiced his support for the Donald, told the NY Post earlier this week: 'Now he knows what it's like when everybody is out to get you. He's probably never known that to this extent.'

He also acknowledged the hatred exposed during the presidential campaign, but attributed it as an innate American characteristic without placing blame on any particular group.

The former heavyweight champion has shared a close friendship with Trump since he won a number of fights near Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the late 1980s.

Scroll down for video



Mike Tyson (right) empathized with Donald Trump (left) when he told the NY Post: ''Now he knows what it's like when everybody is out to get you. He's probably never known that to this extent'





Old pals: Tyson said he's enjoyed most of his successful fights at Trump's hotels, and the two have been friends since the 1980s

Trump bid a record $11million to have Tyson's fight against Michael Spinks in 1988 held at the Atlantic City Convention Hall near his hotel.

Tyson famously knocked Spinks out in 91 seconds, winning about $20million.

But Tyson experienced an onslaught of criticism and media scrutiny when he went through a divorce, parted ways with his manager and trainer, bit another boxer's ear, and was convicted of raping an 18-year-old girl.

He told the Post he understood what Trump was going through. He said: 'Now he knows what it’s like when everybody is out to get you. He’s probably never known that to this extent.

'I think it’s a pretty awesome thing that he’s doing so well. People are combining together to make sure he doesn’t win.

'He’s probably telling himself, "They hate me more than they hate [President Barack] Obama."'

He also added: 'There’s so much hate in this country. I don’t care what color you are. You’re just born with that hate in us.'

Last night's Chicago rally turned into a violent showdown between Trump supporters and 10,000 protesters who successfully shut down the event.

As the dust settled in Chicago, hundreds gathered in the Wright Brothers Aero Hangar near Dayton, where Trump condemned the bloody scenes as 'disgusting'.

But he defended his supporters as 'nice', and tweeted: 'The organized group of people, many of them thugs, who shut down our First Amendment rights in Chicago, have totally energized America!'

His speech today was disturbed after one crowd member tried to rush the stage and threw an object -it is unclear what - causing four Secret Service personnel to quickly leap to the stage in his aid.

The Republican candidate looked visibly rattled as the offending person was escorted out.



A man was escorted out of a Trump rally in Ohio today (pictured). Trump looked visibly rattled after an attendee threw an unidentified object at him



Tyson previously voiced his support for Trump in October, and said the two both shared a 'thrust for power'

In an interview with The Huffington Post in October, Tyson emphatically endorsed Trump for president.

Tyson, who converted to Islam while he was serving his three year sentence for raping an 18-year-old girl, had previously drawn comparisons between himself and Trump.

He told the Daily Caller: 'We’re the same guy. A thrust for power, a drive for power. Whatever field we’re in, we need power in that field. That’s just who we are.'

Tyson called attention to Trump's business acumen, and defended his friend over his more controversial statements regarding immigrants.

But Tyson also conceded Trump needed to work on delivering his messages.

The boxer from Brooklyn, New York began a run of his one-man show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth in Las Vegas.

He also recently appeared in the film Ip Man 3, a successful martial arts franchise.

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Mike Tyson American boxer

Mike Tyson, in full Michael Gerald Tyson, byname Iron Mike (born June 30, 1966, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.), American boxer who, at age 20, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history (see also boxing).

A member of various street gangs at an early age, Tyson was sent to reform school in upstate New York in 1978. At the reform school, social worker and boxing aficionado Bobby Stewart recognized his boxing potential and directed him to renowned trainer Cus D’Amato, who became his legal guardian. Tyson compiled a 24–3 record as an amateur and turned professional in 1985.

D’Amato taught Tyson a peekaboo boxing style, with hands held close to his cheeks and a continuous bobbing motion in the boxing ring that made his defense almost impenetrable. At 5 feet 11 inches (1.8 metres) tall and weighing about 218 pounds (99 kg), Tyson was short and squat and lacked the classic heavyweight boxer’s appearance, but his surprising quickness and aggressiveness in the ring overwhelmed most of his opponents. On November 22, 1986, he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history, with a second-round knockout of Trevor Berbick, to claim the crown of the World Boxing Council (WBC). On March 7, 1987, he acquired the World Boxing Association (WBA) belt when he defeated James Smith. After he defeated Tony Tucker on August 1, 1987, Tyson was unanimously recognized as champion by all three sanctioning organizations (WBC, WBA, and International Boxing Federation [IBF]).

After the deaths of D’Amato and manager Jimmy Jacobs, Tyson aligned with controversial promoter Don King. He made 10 successful defenses of his world heavyweight title, including victories over former champions Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks. In 1988 Tyson married actress Robin Givens, but the couple divorced in 1989 amid allegations that Tyson had physically abused her. A myriad of assault and harassment charges were subsequently filed against Tyson.

On February 11, 1990, in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, Tyson lost the championship to lightly regarded James (“Buster”) Douglas, who scored a technical knockout in the 10th round. Tyson rebounded from the loss with four straight victories. In 1991, however, he was accused of having raped a beauty pageant contestant, and he was convicted of the charge in 1992.

Following his release from prison in 1995, Tyson resumed boxing and in 1996 regained two of his championship belts with easy victories over Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon. On November 9, 1996, in a long-anticipated bout with two-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, Tyson lost for the second time in his professional career, by a technical knockout in the 11th round. In a rematch against Holyfield on June 28, 1997, he was disqualified after he twice bit his opponent’s ears, and, as a result of the infraction, he lost his boxing license.

Tyson eventually was relicensed, and he returned to the ring on January 16, 1999, when he knocked out Franz Botha in the fifth round. On February 6, however, Tyson was sentenced to one year in jail, two years of probation, and 200 hours of community service and was fined $2,500 after he pleaded no contest to charges that he had assaulted two elderly men following a 1998 automobile accident. Tyson was released after serving just a few months of the one-year sentence.

Nevertheless, Tyson’s self-control problems continued. After the referee stopped a fight in June 2000 with American Lou Savarese, Tyson continued punching and inadvertently injured the referee. In comments made to the press after this fight, Tyson outraged boxing fans with bizarre and vicious remarks about British heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. In his October 2000 bout with Andrew Golota, Tyson won in the third round, but the fight was later declared a no contest because Tyson tested positive for marijuana. Tyson had only one more fight between October 2000 and his June 2002 fight with Lewis.

It had been difficult to schedule this fight. Both men were contractually bound to different promoters and cable television companies. Tyson had attacked and bitten Lewis during a press conference, which also had a dampening effect. Tyson’s legal problems caused him to be denied a boxing license by the sanctioning bodies of the U.S. states that usually hold major boxing matches (such as Nevada). It had been so long since Tyson had fought a boxer of his own calibre that no one knew the level of his skills. The question was settled when Lewis twice knocked Tyson to the canvas during the course of the fight before knocking him out in the eighth round.

Tyson had his final professional win in 2003, a 49-second first-round knockout. Later that year he filed for bankruptcy, claiming to be $34 million in debt after earning an estimated $400 million over the course of his career. Tyson lost bouts in 2004 and 2005, and he retired in the aftermath of the latter fight. In 2007 he served 24 hours in prison after pleading guilty to drug possession and driving under the influence, charges that stemmed from a 2006 arrest.

Tyson’s personal and professional exploits were recounted in the documentary Tyson, which premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2008, and in a one-man stage show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, which he first performed in Las Vegas in 2012. (The show was subsequently mounted on Broadway in a production directed by filmmaker Spike Lee.) He also appeared as himself in a number of television shows and films, including the blockbuster comedy The Hangover (2009) and its sequel (2011). Tyson was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011.

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