It’s fair to say there is no one quite like Mike Tyson in the sport of boxing. From quotes such as ‘I want to eat your children’ in post fight interviews to crying and showing his emotional side on his podcast, he is truly one of a kind.
Frank Warren, 70, who promoted Tyson’s fights in the UK has shared his thoughts on ‘Iron’ Mike to The Guardian and given some insight into how he lost the fights he lost.
Whilst many in the sport regard the former heavyweight champion as an anti-hero or sorts, the promoter from London isn’t keen at all.
“He’s a terrible manipulative bully. Every fighter that’s beaten him, he couldn’t intimidate. Everyone who he’s beaten, he could intimidate. If he can’t intimidate you, that’s a killer for him.”
“He’s a compelling character, he’s one of those fellas who gets you to feel that he’s misunderstood but, when you get into it, he is what he is, which is a thug and a bully and a misogynist.”
Warren says Tyson once punched him in a hotel room, so there’s no real surprise that they won’t be on each other’s Christmas card list.
The hall of fame promoter was speaking on Tyson in the lead up to the release of the Hulu TV mini-series, Mike, a series which explored the wild childhood Tyson experienced growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. The fighter has expressed anger towards the production and accused the channel of stealing his story.
Tyson fought twice on UK soil, both in 2000. The first was in Manchester when he stopped the British fighter Julius Francis in the second round. The second came a few months later at Hampden Park in Glasgow where he ironed out fellow American Lou Savarese inside a round.