Physically Impressive Tyson Exercises His Jaw Talks About Mao, Prison, Music, Religion, And, Oh , Boxing
His torso rose up off the couch like a rock out of the sea. And, indeed, his dusky features and tight-fitting black T-shirt suggested a block of granite.
In one massive hand he held a remote to control the music flooding a living room, shaded from the blistering desert sun.
Occasionally, he would reach out a muscular arm and take a slice of apple or orange from a plate.
Mike Tyson was relaxing.
“I’m back,” he said with a laugh during a 75-minute interview Wednesday at promoter Don King’s house, where Tyson is living while his own house is being renovated. King was not present.
It was a freewheeling conversation, spanning subjects from boxing, of course, to music, Mao Tse-tung, Arthur Ashe, Aristotle and, of course, prison. It was a conversation of life in and out of the boxing ring to which he will return Aug. 19 against Peter McNeeley at the MGM Grand and on pay-per-view television.
This will be Tyson’s first fight in more than four years.
His body is honed by training and a strength and conditioning program. It is fueled by a nutritionist and a private chef.
“I’m basically pretty stable at this stage of my life,” said the 29-year-old former undisputed heavyweight champion.
Though his torso was hidden by the T-shirt, that wasn’t jello rippling beneath the fabric.
“I wish I was 20 and felt the way I do now,” Tyson said. “In life we’re thrown curves, and sometimes we get a hit and sometimes we strike out. Life is not about having grudges. You can’t grow holding grudges and being bitter.”
“Cus,” he said, referring to his mentor, the late Cus D’Amato, “told me there is no such thing as a free ride, but I didn’t understand it.”
When he was 20, he already was a champion, something he is confident he will be again. He thinks Mike Tyson II will surpass Mike Tyson I.
“This time I should be better, but I’m no fool, I know I’m a hard act to follow.”
His pride, obviously, is intact but tempered.
“Can you imagine me with my pride being told, ‘Get back in your cell nigger and count,”’ said Tyson, who was released March 25 from the Indiana Youth Correctional Facility after serving three years on a rape conviction.
“I know about humbleness.”
While in prison Tyson was quoted as saying he might not fight again.
“That I would say that shows I was feeling sorry for myself,” he said. “But then I thought, ‘Who am I going to hurt (by retiring)? I’m going to hurt myself.’
“I was miserable back then,” he added.
Converting to Islam helped.
“That’s the only thing that got me through. Most people have the wrong perception about Muslims. Most Muslims are humble, God-fearing people.”
Tyson was quick to laugh during the interview. While he didn’t volunteer much about “when I was away,” meaning prison, he did chuckle when he recalled the times inmates were allowed to watch films.
“Sometimes we could stay up late and watch karate and kung fu movies,” he said. “Everybody loved them and would go wild. It was like freedom.”
At first Tyson seemed distracted by the music video on the big screen, but as the interview progressed he seemed to enjoy the give and take, especially when the subject was not his boxing career.
But he likes talking music.
“I like rap and rhythm and blues,” he said. “The blues are No. 1 with me, but not contemporary blues. They have no feeling. I like Fats Waller and Satchmo Armstrong, Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald.
“When you listen to the blues or jazz you feel other people’s pain,” Tyson said.
The writings of Mao and a book by the late Arthur Ashe so impressed Tyson that he has tattoos of them on his arms.
“I like Mao’s persistence, his perseverance,” Tyson said. “He had more guts than anybody in the world.
“I never thought much of tennis, but I was reading Ashe’s books and just dug him. He gave me a lot of inspiration. He gave me a different outlook on myself.”
Told word was he was knocking people down in his sparring sessions, Tyson said, “That’s the name of the game, isn’t it?”
And then Iron Mike grinned.