Mike Tyson said he’s been lying about being sober and is on the verge of death because of alcoholism. During a startling news conference at the Turning Stone Resort in New York, Tyson said he hasn’t had any alcohol or drugs for six days, which for him is “a miracle,” and he seemed to plea for forgiveness for being “a bad guy.”
Tyson has lived an alternately crushing and soaring life. By the age of 16, his mother was dead and his father was locked up. Boxing trainer Cus D’Amato took him in and Tyson became “Iron” Mike, the most feared boxer in the world. That all imploded when he was convicted of rape in 1992. When he got out of prison, he recovered as a boxer to the point he fought Evander Holyfield twice, in two of the biggest fights of all time. Holyfield won the first fight by TKO, and the second one was the night a desperate Tyson took a bite of Holyfield’s ear, establishing him as one of the craziest guys in sports.
Tyson’s candor and self-awareness have served him well in his post-boxing life, but every now and then it seems like Tyson wants to remind everybody that he’s still a deeply hurt, deeply troubled person. On top of his aforementioned troubles, he’s endured two broken marriages and the death of a 4-year-old daughter, and has been diagnosed as bi-polar.
“I’m a bad guy sometimes,” he said. “I did a lot of bad things, and I want to be forgiven. So in order for me to be forgiven, I hope they can forgive me. I wanna change my life, I wanna live a different life now. I wanna live my sober life. I don’t wanna die. I’m on the verge of dying, because I’m a vicious alcoholic.” It has endeared him to a public that once considered him a lowlife, but it sounds like Tyson is having a hard time trusting that.
Tyson described a recent conflict and how he resolved it. He was vague about the conflict, but not how he felt about it. ”I hate myself,” he said. “I’m trying to kill myself. I hate myself a lot. But I made myself proud of myself, and I don’t do that much.”
