Mike Tyson fought for the first time in 15 years. So much had changed.
The sport that brought him stardom and adulation, not to mention countless millions of dollars, was becoming secondary, almost a nuisance, interfering with a drug habit.
Which makes the present day version of the former “Baddest Man on the Planet” all the more striking.
He spends much of his time at home with his third wife, Kiki, and his children. He ruminates on how to help the underserved via his various charities, several of which, Tyson said, are receiving a boost from proceeds of Saturday’s pay-per-view exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr. in Los Angeles that ended in a draw.
The notion that Tyson, 54, would live to become a humanitarian and family man was virtually unthinkable during his turbulent first act.
“I’m capable of helping a lot of people less fortunate than myself — that’s what I’m capable of doing, all over the world,” Tyson said during his post-fight news conference. “In a perfect world, I’m a missionary, in a perfect world. What I’m doing in the ring, I realize, is a gift not only for myself.
“Before it was all about me and the hot chick and the nice car and plane and the boats. It doesn’t do it for me anymore, so I want another way. I help somebody else, I guess, right, because I don’t get into that no more. I like my pigeons and my fancy clothes, but other than that, I don’t want anything. I have a life.”
Tyson (50-6, 44 knockouts) then chuckled over his current circumstances, underscoring the stark contrast to the demons he overcame in leaving behind his former enigmatic persona not long after becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.
“Isn’t that a trip?” said Tyson, who was only 20 when he knocked out Trevor Berbick in the second round in 1986 to win the World Boxing Council belt. “My pigeons and my clothes.”
Even Tyson’s conduct inside the ropes mirrors a dramatic shift in priorities. The previous iteration of Iron Mike sought to punish his opponents without mercy in pursuit of an immediate knockout.
Instant gratification no longer is part of his fight plan. Tyson revealed in the aftermath of Saturday’s extravaganza that he had been training to go the distance with Jones, 51, over eight two-minute rounds at Staples Center.
A naturally larger fighter than Jones (66-9, 47 KOs), Tyson at times flashed the power that made him the most feared boxer in the world and a box-office draw who became a must-see international attraction for his brutality in the ring and antics outside it.
But he didn’t press Jones, a former four-division champion, for more than brief stretches, instead holding his ground in the center of the ring to conserve energy as Jones, in the trademark style of his glory days, danced around the outside with arms hanging at his side and head bobbing.
“This is all about going the distance, and that’s what I wanted to do,” Tyson said. “I’m really interested in that. I’ve been training forever, and I got old. I’m training for duration now. Before I was always interested in the quick kill, and I really learned at 54, I really found out I didn’t know nothing as the champ. That was just youth.”
Tyson’s serene world in 2020 bears no resemblance to his hardscrabble upbringing in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where some of his philanthropic work is targeted.
By his 12th birthday, Tyson had been arrested dozens of times. He went to prison after a jury found him guilty of raping an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant in an Indianapolis hotel room in 1992. Just 25 at the time of his conviction, Tyson served less than three years of a six-year sentence.
His rebooted life has included acting on the big screen, most notably a memorable cameo in “The Hangover,” and on Broadway in “Undisputed Truth,” a one-man production starring Tyson that his wife wrote and Spike Lee directed.
He also owns a cannabis resort called Tyson Ranch in California City, not far from Edwards Air Force Base. Tyson has spoken extensively about assisting military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder through the use of marijuana.
“I’m 54 years old, and I can tell you everything about me,” he said. “I don’t know really that much. I just want to be who I am. I like who I am. I never liked who I was before. I like who I am now.”
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