With a long career filled with many titles and scandals, Mike Tyson is probably one of the most controversial athletes we will ever get to see. With his bad boy persona and incredible boxing skills, Mike Tyson earned his place in history and we’re going to have a look at some of his most outrageous deeds both inside and outside the ring.
Outside the Ring
Since most of us know about what wrongs he did inside the ring, we’ll start with the less-known facts about this huge boxer that took place outside the ring. Well, some of them are mixed as they tell the story of what he did before entering the ring, but you get the idea.
Fighting Under the Influence of Drugs
Tyson admits in his autobiography that he used to take drugs right before he entered the ring in several fights back in the 2000s. He took cocaine and marijuana in his fight against Lou Savarese, in what was his third comeback after an absence of nine months. In case you’re wondering why he had a nine-month break, it was due to serving a four-month prison sentence out of a total of one year for assaulting two motorists.
He Was Passing Drug Tests With a Fake Penis
While he was taking drugs right before he entered the ring, Tyson had an entire scheme in place to make sure he doesn’t fail the mandatory drug tests taken by the WBA. This may sound outrageous to some of our readers, but he used a fake penis called a ‘whizzer’ that was basically a replica filled with clean urine. Even with this fail-safe method by his side, Tyson did manage to test positive for cannabis in 2000 because he says, he didn’t have the whizzer at hand.
Serving Time for Rape
In 1992, Mike Tyson was found guilty for raping a Miss Black America contestant and was given a sentence of 10 years in jail. After further deals made by his lawyers, the judge agreed to scrape 4 years of that sentence so Tyson was only left with 6 years of prison time. However, he was released on bail after serving just three years of his sentence. Keep in mind that everything happened after he won the heavyweight title
In the Ring
Biting Holyfield’s Ear Off
Without a doubt, one of the most controversial events in modern sports, Tyson biting Holyfield ear off in the heavyweight title fight in 1997. At first, the fight was stopped when Tyson had his first go at one of Holyfield’s ears. He got a two-point penalty for the attempt and the fight resumed. Apparently, this was the perfect opportunity for Tyson to complete his plan of removing a piece of Holyfield’s right ear. Even though Tyson stated that his act was a retaliation for the multiple headbutts he received from Holyfield without the latter being punished for it.
Knocking Down the Referee in the Fight against Savarese in 2000
In what looked like an extremely uneven match right from the start, Lou Savarese needed all the help he could get when Tyson was all over him throwing punches after a successful knockdown earlier in the first half. As the rules state, the referee intervened and tried to separate the two boxers, however, Tyson seemed to be in some sort of trance as he knocked down the referee in an attempt to hit Savarese again.
Performances
Despite all the negative publicity surrounding him, Mike Tyson remains one of the greatest boxers of all times with a 20-year career from 1985 to 2005. He dominated as the undisputed world heavyweight champion and is the youngest boxer to have a heavyweight title at 20 years, 4 months and 22 days. He has won everything he could possibly compete for and is one of the few boxers in history to regain a WBC heavyweight title after losing it. Many are wondering how the career of this fabulous boxer would’ve looked like if it weren’t for all the drugs, incidents and erratic behaviour he often showed outside the ring.
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