Mike Tyson’s ‘insane’ life from pigeon fight to ‘sick’ orgies and missing £421m

Iron Mike was the youngest heavyweight boxing champion in the world, but he describes his life as 'insane' and filled with 'sick' orgies - but not a penny is left of his £421m ($500m) fortune

Mike Tyson is the subject of a new TV series

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Mike Tyson is one of the best-known athletes on the planet and the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title, but he might be better known for his life outside the ring. Born in June 1966, 56-year-old Iron Mike had a modest start to life as his father abandoned the family when he was just two-years-old. He bounced from one rough area to the next and it has been reported that Mike had been arrested over 30 times before he turned 13.

At the age of 16, Mike's mother died and he was left to fend for himself, unti boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato became his legal guardian and set about training him to become a professional fighter. He then rose to fame and was soon the most successful boxer in the world, but he then became known as 'The Baddest Man on the Planet'. He bought himself a pet tiger, once bit off a rival's ear, and would pay for wild orgies - earning him a reputation he would have to bear for life.

Mike has been outspoken about his life

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( Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson /Youtube)

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Born in New York to Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Lorna Mae Smith, Mike struggled from a young age as his dad desserted the family and his mum raised him alone.

They had to move to a cheaper area of the city that was much rougher and Mike soon started to run wild, and he remarked that he "never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something, she only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for".

When talking about his childhood, Mike said: "I must’ve had three or four fights a day. From like age nine… I was 200lbs at age 12.

He was served jail time in the past

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( No Name)

"I was fighting the kid, then fighting their fathers. They were crying, went home and got their father. Then I would fight the father."

Mike's mother passed away when he was 10, and in the years after he found himself in constant trouble with the law until he was taken in by Constantine 'Cus' D'Amato.

D'Amato was an amateur boxer but his career was cut short by an injury so he became a trainer instead, opening his first gym at the age of 22.

Mike has taken part in fights since his retirement

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( Instagram/Mike Tyson)

He trained champions, and one day got a call from a counsellor named Bobby Stewart who worked at a juvenile detention centre, telling him about an inmate he should meet.

After a brief introduction, D'Amato said of Mike "barring outside distractions, that is the heavyweight champion of the world and possibly the universe".

When Mike was released from the Tryon School for Boys, he went to live with D’Amato and soon the trainer became his legal guardian, and it's been reported that he is the only person who could strike fear into Tyson, as Sports Casting reports.

He's been a regular fixture on popular podcasts in recent years, including the Joe Rogan Experience

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( DIGITAL/EROTEME.CO.UK)

In his autobiography, Mike wrote: "I was petrified when I was alone with him. If he called me – 'Mike, I need to talk to you' – I didn’t feel good going over to him.

"That's when he'd start giving me his detailed criticisms of my fights. People see the public celebrations of my sensational knockouts but they don't hear Cus talking to me alone after the fight."

Before his training, Mike was terrified of confrontation and only got into fighting after beating up a man who killed his pet pigeon.

Speaking on The Pivot podcast, Tyson revealed his early experiences of altercations and how the death of his pet pigeon introduced him to boxing.

Tyson Fury and Mike Tyson

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( tysonfury/Instagram)

He sad: "This is no bad***, I was a baby and a guy would be picking on me. My right hand to god, I'd be like 'stop', I was so scared and didn't know what to do.

"Then one guy said to me 'you better f****ng fight him back' and I started fighting. This guy killed my pigeon and it was a wrap. That was the first fight ever in my life because of a pigeon.

"I then got locked up someplace as a kid and met some guy who used to be a fighter. He introduced me to somebody who was a great trainer and I just wanted more and more and more. I wanted to crush the world to my feet.

"I have a big deep hole in me, but I had to have everything, all of it. Even when I was a young kid, I wasn't balanced. It was either everything or nothing."

Mike life has been dramatised for a Hulu series

'Iron Mike' is well known for his love of pigeons. The legendary boxer used to keep the birds as pets during his upbringing in New York. Tyson even dumped one of his ex-girlfriends after she killed and boiled one of his pets.

The former heavyweight champion even knocked out a bin man after he threw a crate containing the remains of his favourite pigeon, Julius, following its death.

"One morning I woke up and found my favourite pigeon, Julius, had died. I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honour him," Tyson told the WBC.

"I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher. I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand! He was out cold, convulsing on the floor."

D'Amato died when Mike was 19-years-old, but he was already well on his way to becoming a professional boxer by that point.

He won his first 19 professional fights by knockout, 12 of which were in the first round, and in 1986, Mike claimed his first heavyweight title - becoming the youngest person ever to do so, at 20 years, four months, and 22 days old.

He tasted defeat only six times in his 20-year career, with 50 wins to his name and a remarkable 44 wins via knockout.

A few years later, in 1992, Mike's life took a bitter turn as he was convicted of rape and sentenced to ten years behind bars, but the last four years of his sentence were suspended.

He always protested his innocence and was freed in March 1995.

He then embarked on a comeback tour and fought some of the biggest names in the business, including Geroge Foreman, Muhammad Ali, and Evander Holyfield.

His fight with Holyfield would go down in history. Billed as 'the Sound and the Fury', it later became known as 'The Bite Fight', as Mike bit off part of his opponent's ear and was disqualified from the match.

He once bit off an opponent's ear during a heavyweight fight

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( AFP/Getty Images)

In 2005, the heavyweight stunned the boxing world by announcing his retirement.

Four years later, father-of-seven Tyson's world was shattered when his four-year-old daughter, Exodus, died in a horrifying and tragic accident.

The little girl's body was found at their home in Phoenix, Arizona.

She was discovered on the treadmill and it appeared she had been strangled by a cord attached to the machine.

Sgt Andy Hill from the Phoenix Police Department said at the time: "We believe the child was on the treadmill but it was not running at the time. She might have been playing like it was."

Mike Tyson and Amir Khan, years before the latter shot to success

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( PA)

Exodus was rushed to hospital, where she was placed on life support, and Tyson, who was in Los Angeles at the time, rushed to be at his little girl's bedside.

But there was nothing that could be done and Exodus passed away on May 25, 2009.

Tyson gave an emotional interview following her death where he admitted his initial reaction had been to "get my gun, automatic just like this and go crazy".

However, he realised other parents were going through the same heartbreaking experience as he was when he arrived at the hospital.

But he admits he "couldn't handle" what had happened.

During his career, Mike earned almost $500million but admitted he blew it all in just 15 years.

Mike Tyson is a great lover of pigeons and has got into fights in the past over their deaths

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( Birmingham Post and Mail)

He earned the sum across two decades in the ring, but he admitted he used to do "crazy s***" with his fortunes and that he spent his last $1m on rehab.

"When you're making that much money it lasts for a long time," he said on The Pivot podcast. "That didn't die right away, it took like 15 or 16 years to go broke.

"I'm throwing s*** like 'hey baby, you like that car? Ok you come and spend the weekend with me', just crazy s*** you can do with your money.

"I spent the last money that I had from fighting on rehab, around a million bucks. I had enough money left like two million dollars and I bought a house in Phoenix. The house was difficult to sell, but somebody loved it and boom they gave me the money. This is God working."

Tyson admitted he also borrowed money from a man in China to buy a mansion after moving out of his house in Las Vegas. Whilst reflecting on the money he made from boxing, Tyson said that the worst thing he could do for his eight children would be passing down his fortune.

"To pray the most and to work the most," Tyson said when asked what he should pass down to his children. "Be the hardest worker and believe yourself, I can't help them by giving them money. I can only hurt them if I give them money.

He regularly comments on contemporary boxing matches

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( AFP/Getty Images)

"They have to learn because if they don't have no aspiration and they don't experience no adversity, under the slightest struggle they are going to give in."

Since his success, the boxing legend has come forward about his mental health and said he had a devastating mental illness, describing himself as "so sick".

As his star continued to rise, huge cracks started to show in Tyson's personal life. He was married to actress Robin Givens, but just a year after they wed the relationship had crumbled.

There were rumours of violence and domestic abuse and in a bombshell interview, with her husband sitting next to her, Givens described life with the boxer as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine".

She claimed her husband was a manic depressive and just a month later, she filed for divorce.

Tyson himself admits he squandered his massive fortune when he was still at the top of his game and has described himself as "an animal with money".

And he admits that his problems with mental health stretched back to the 1980s when he was at the height of his fame.

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Speaking on his popular Hotboxin’ podcast, the boxer explained: "Giving people money like f*** everybody, party with everybody and f*** their mothers, their sisters and their cousins... orgies. I was crazy

"I was so sick and I had no idea I was so sick. I bought a lot of cars for girls too."

In a former interview, Mike said that he used to be "insane", and added: "I think I was insane for a great period of my life.

"I didn’t know what to do once I got to the top. I’ve learned to live a boring life and love it. I’m too young for regrets."

A dramatisation of Mike's life has just been premiered on Hulu, where he is played by Trevante Rhodes who stars alongside Russell Hornsby and Harvey Keitel.

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