On Friday, boxer Mike Tyson is returning to the ring for a livestreamed Netflix fight with YouTuber turned pugilist Jake Paul. In a sit-down with actor Rosie Perez conducted for Interview, Tyson said that he had a simple reason to agree to a bout with Paul: clout.
“You got a YouTuber that has 70 million fans,” Tyson explained. “No champion has that many fans. And I’m the greatest fighter since the beginning of life, so now what does that make? That makes an explosion of excitement. And that’s what life is about: making the biggest impact before you die.”
The 58-year-old fighter began his boxing career in 1985 at the age of 18, and officially retired in 2005. His rise was marked by numerous scandals, including his divorce from Robin Givens, who accused him of abusing her. Tyson told a biographer that one time when he hit Givens and threw her into a wall, it was “the best punch I’ve ever thrown in my entire life.” In 1992, he was convicted of raping an 18-year-old woman, for which he served several years in prison. He has maintained his innocence. In 2003 he told ESPN, “I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don’t know,” Tyson said. “I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her.”
Last year, another woman filed a $5 million civil suit against Tyson, alleging he raped her in the back of a limo several decades ago. According to USA Today, Tyson has denied the allegations, and his legal team plans to file opposition papers by November 18, a few days after his fight with Paul. Paul said he is set to make $40 million off the fight; Tyson is reportedly estimated to make around $20 million.
These events have seemingly not impeded Tyson’s fame or popularity. In 2008, he was the subject of his own feature documentary, Tyson. In 2009, he starred as a genial caricature of himself in The Hangover. As Perez tells Tyson, “I was always in defense of you from day one. I would tell people, ‘He’s a funny motherfucker.’”
Tyson’s past and the new rape allegation did not come up in the interview, but Perez spoke about her own experience with abuse. “Memories of the physical abuse I endured and some of the awful things that I have done to people,” she said. “It fears me and inspires me. When I started studying Shaolin kung fu, it was the first time someone told me, ‘You need your fear. Fear is your friend. You have to learn to walk with it and talk to it and manage it and understand that it’s your superpower.’”
Tyson also talked to Perez about hallucinating from toad venom, biting Evander Holyfield’s ear, and what he perceived was a brush with death. “Hey, life isn’t over yet. We’re still fighting. We only make it out on the day of our death,” he said. “There’s no way I should be here talking to you right now. All my friends are dead. They OD’d, they had AIDS. Me and my friend both had sex with this girl at the same time and they both died of AIDS. I didn’t catch AIDS. Raw, too.”
Perez responded with awe. “That’s crazy,” she said. “You have a spirit hovering over you.”
