Mike Tyson on Oprah

Mike Tyson opened up to Oprah Winfrey in an exclusive interview, which, in my opinion, was long overdue.

Iron Mike, as he was once called, talked about his youth, the many controversies surrounding his past and the death of his daughter.

Mike recalls being bullied as a kid and spoke of one instance where a group of boys killed a pigeon of his by ripping it’s head off in front of him. He says that someone yelled, “Mike, fight him!” And that was the turning point in his life. He realized if he fought, he wouldn’t be considered a target anymore. He says that fight gave him the confidence to “fight back.”

Oprah then reads Mike a quote of his, where, after watching a film made about his life, Tyson, he said he understood why the public saw him as a monster.

“Then when I watched the movie I get it. For the first time I get it. I’m watching as a human being that’s very rational now. I say, this guy’s so unpredictable, you don’t know whether he is going to take you out to lunch or stab you with a fork.”

He explained:

“I took a chance to become more objective. I never became more objective with myself and then I watched myself, when I watched the film and . . . that guy would make me nervous if I was in a room alone with him.”

“You scared people,” Oprah says. “I scared myself,” says the champ. “That was a scary guy.”

Tyson lost his mother at age 16. He never knew his father. But he did have a mentor, a trainer and a father figure, all in one man. Cus D’Amato. As Tyson remembers D’Amato, he is obviously shaken. He gets choked up and teary-eyed. Obviously D’Amato was the father he never had.

“I did everything he told me to do, and I won.I won every championship. Amateur championship[s], all the championship[s] . . .  I’m going to cry . . . so, I won every championship, that he told me, because he told me what to do. And I started believing in this old man.”

D’Amato died in 1985. Mike says after his death he lost his desire to fight and began drinking and drugging. He felt lost and was not prepared for the loss. By this point in the interview Mike can barely speak he is so overcome with emotion. His love for D’Amato is painfully obvious. It tugged at my heart to see him so fragile and vulnerable. We caught a glimpse at the child inside Tyson.

Speaking of children, Mike also had a very hard time talking about his daughter, Exodus. He says he still isn’t sure what happened to her the day she lost her life after an exercise machine mishap. And he doesn’t want to know. Because, he says, he doesn’t want to have someone to blame.

As for his marriage to Robin Givens, Tyson says that his ex-wife lied to Barbara Walters during their infamous interview in 1988. He says he was too stunned to say anything at the time, something that he deeply regrets. But also, he says, if he would have reacted, it would have been “what they wanted.”

Tyson then spoke of Evander Holyfield and the ear incident. He says he bit his opponent’s ear because he was angry at him for butting his head repeatedly during the fight. He says he just snapped. “I was pissed off he was such a great fighter, too,” he adds. He felt no remorse for what he did and says his initial apology to Holyfield was insincere. Oprah asks if he has seen Holyfield in recent times. He says, “I’ve seen him sometimes – and he’s a little leary of me.”  Tyson insists though, that he wants to sincerely apologize now, and shake his hand.

These days Tyson says that he is “tired of failing” and knows how much he has to lose. He is happy in his marriage, has a new baby and 6 other children that he says are his everything. Reflecting on his past he says: “I realize I was going to die . . . I’m just so embarrassed, I’m so embarrassed.”

As many of you know, I met Iron Mike by coincidence, at the Las Vegas airport in 2003, and the Mike that I met was the Mike on Oprah. He was polite, soft spoken and a gentleman. We chatted for a few minutes about his new tattoo and the significance of tattoos. When I tell people about our chat they often respond with, “And you still have both ears?!” or a simply a look of disgust. But I didn’t meet the out of control Tyson. I met the kinder, gentler one.

Mike has matured emotionally in his older age, but also, life has worn him down a bit. I find him to be fascinating, and have since the late 80s when he was just coming up. This was an absolutely classic interview. It was so refreshing to see Mike as a human being and not the unpredictable menace that he once was.