Former boxing champion Mike Tyson has been criticized by boxing manager and promoter Frank Warren and called a “terrible manipulative bully.” Tyson’s matches were promoted in Britain by Warren, a renowned promoter and boxing manager.
When questioned about the 56-year-old after streaming site Hulu debuted a new series last week named “Mike” that chronicles Tyson’s life, Warren was harsh.
Warren told The Guardian that Mike was a horrible manipulator. He said,
‘He is a terrible manipulative bully. Every fighter that’s beaten him, he couldn’t intimidate.’
‘Everyone who he’s beaten, he could intimidate. If he can’t intimidate you, that’s a killer for him.’
Tyson notoriously attacked Warren in a hotel room once after the two argued Tyson’s jewelry bill, proving there was no love lost between the two.
As per Warren (via as a guest on the Crisis What Crisis? podcast ) the jewelry altercation was rooted in Tyson’s shopping spree he didn’t actually pay for.
‘The first time he came over [to England] no problems, he was great. And then he went into a jewelers I came out with an invoice for about two million. He never paid the bill and quite rightly the jewelers wanted to get paid.
‘They kept ringing me and I kept ringing the States and they’re telling me don’t worry we’ll sort it, let’s do another fight and we’ll pay it out of that, so I’m passing that information back on.
‘But when he came back the second time he was just awful, beyond awful. He was petulant, he was aggressive… a totally different scenario. The bill hadn’t been paid still and he’d gone into the jewellers.’
‘I got a call and someone said “Mike’s not happy” so I go up to the hotel and it’s all meetings. I stand there talking and the next thing he’s took a swing at me, well he actually caught me.”
‘So there was a big commotion in the room, there were a lot of people in there. I didn’t expect it to be honest I wasn’t prepared for it, it was a cheap shot.
‘I got up and it was all pandemonium, it was crazy. He was a lunatic but it all ended. I was absolutely fuming. The lawyer from Showtime wanted to call the police but I said no no.
‘He owed Showtime, Mike Tyson, around 20 million dollars allegedly. All the newspapers had said my jaw was broken, ribs were broken, but that was bulls***, I had a burst blood vessel in my eye that was it.”
He added to Guardian:
‘He is a compelling character, and he’s one of those fellas who gets you to feel that he’s misunderstood but, when you get into it, he is what he is, which is a thug and a bully and a misogynist.”
‘He’s very homophobic when he’s cursing somebody or he’s shouting at them.’
Homophobia is an interesting accusation given that Tyson’s daughter is self described as ‘transmasculine’.
The father daughter duo even got into it with a rapper who was making fun of Dwayne Wade’s trans child.
“[Tyson] was like, ‘My daughter wanna ask you some questions’. I said, ‘Bring her in here’. You know, I’m full of answers for questions. She asked me questions, I asked her questions. She said what she had to say, I said what I had to say.”
Tyson received praises for challenging Badazz earlier on his Hotboxin’ podcast. The musician was questioned about why he criticizes the LGBTQ+ community.
Mike Tyson questioned at one point, “If you are a real man, then why do you offend people?”
Tyson was a multiple-time world champion with a record of 50 wins and six defeats. However, Warren criticized his attitude and thought Tyson might have been even better.
Warren added: ‘He was an unbelievably exciting fighter – menacing, devastating – but that lasted a very short time, and then he just p****d his career away.”
“He didn’t live the life he should have led. You could sit with him right now and you’d think this guy’s totally been misunderstood, he’s a good bloke.”
“I’m telling you, he’s very manipulative.”
On the other hand, heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson expressed his unhappiness on Instagram in the weeks before the release of Mike, the new Hulu limited series based on his life. It is obvious why he is protesting this life tale adaption. Tyson announced in 2014 that he and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx would work together on a biopic.
Initially, Wolf of Wall Street screenwriter Terence Winter was attached to the project, and Martin Scorsese was scheduled to helm it. In the years that followed, Foxx periodically published information along with images showing his physical metamorphosis for the project. The enthusiasm Tyson and Foxx worked so hard to create around his most recent redemption endeavor is compromised by the momentum surrounding ‘Mike’, which stars Trevante Rhodes as Tyson at his best.
Mike wrote, “They stole my life story and didn’t pay me…To Hulu executives, I’m just a n****r they can sell on the auction block.”