Mike Tyson Set to Tell Life Story in Las Vegas

Mike Tyson Set to Tell Life Story in Las Vegas

Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion, behaved like a "Neanderthal" for most of his life, he himself said.

However, he promises to become a "controlled artist, a disciplined artist" by next month when he goes to Las Vegas to talk about his tainted life as “a childhood thief, an ear-biting fighter, an addict and a father of eight.”

Tyson, who, at age 20, became the youngest world heavyweight champion in 1986, is scheduled to perform an autobiographical monologue called "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth - Live on Stage."

"I hope people are entertained, and happy. I hope they get to know certain things. My story's not pretty. There's lots of ugly stuff - not knowing if my mother ever loved me, or who my father was," Tyson, told Reuters in an interview.

To give a hint of what is in store for his listening audience, Tyson, now 45, recalled his life as a boy who grew up in a household with an “absent father and an overburdened mother.”  He also told the story of Rodney, his older brother, who became a doctor while sharing the same fate as him.

"My brother's not as ignorant as I am, or was back then," he says, adding: "He's the first black person I saw play hockey."  He was always at the top of his class," Tyson said about his brother. "I was a different kid."

Tyson was declared the undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion in the 1980s but was convicted of raping teenage beauty queen Desiree Washington in Indiana in 1992 and served three years in prison.

He heightened his notoriety later in the decade when he bit rival Evander Holyfield on both ears in a 1997 boxing match, which was deemed as the weirdest act in the boxing ring.  The notorious act brought him disqualification and temporary suspension. In 2003, Tyson declared bankruptcy and retired from professional boxing in 2006.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday March 26 2012, 3:18 AM EST. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0