Mike Tyson Today: From Boxer to Stage Performer

Mike Tyson Today: From Boxer to Stage Performer

Fighting legend Mike Tyson has changed career:  from being a boxer to a one-man show performer.

In his new career which he hopes to take to Broadway and beyond, the ex-world champion talked about his life’s most controversial episodes, including his imprisonment for rape and his constant struggles with drugs.

Tyson chattered in sometimes frenzied bursts for almost two hours and showed some clever footwork to musical numbers from a jazz-rock ensemble.  He also recalled the good times when his talent brought him fame and fortune.

"Welcome to my living room," said the 45-year-old, as he opened his first night show Friday in an intimate 740-seater theater located at the back of the MGM Grand casino complex in Las Vegas, where the show runs through until Wednesday.

"Many of you are wondering what the hell am I going to do up on the stage tonight," he joked at the start of "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, Live on Stage. "To be honest I'm wondering the same thing too."

He, then, recounted the blow-by-blow account of his life story, commencing with his birth in Brooklyn and not knowing who his real father was, his early brushes with the law, and his mother’s death when he was still 16.

It was then that Cus d'Amato, his boxing mentor, helped him turn his back on crime and refocus his life around his exceptional fighting talent.

His notorious behavior didn't hinder him from becoming the youngest heavyweight champion of the world at the age of 20, after winning his first 19 professional fights by knockouts.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty queen at a pageant in Indianapolis, Indiana. He served three years of a six-year sentence before he was release in 1995, all the while steadfastly denying he raped the woman.

Tyson reasserted his heavyweight throne but lost to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and in a 1997 rematch infamously bit Holyfield's ears twice, serving a year's banishment in exile for the act.

In 2003, the boxer filed for bankruptcy, the same year his second marriage ended. He later married his present wife in 2009, shortly after his 4-year-old daughter died in a tragic accident at home.

He has finally revived his career in recent years, appearing in the "Hangover" films and in reality TV shows exploring his love of training pigeons.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Monday April 16 2012, 3:17 AM EDT. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0