Mike Tyson has lived through an incredible sports career. The heavyweight boxing champ is one of the most famous athletes on planet Earth despite retiring from boxing years ago.
Tyson is now 56 years old and has a relatively modest personal wealth after blowing through an imaginable amount of money during the time he was active in boxing on various lavish purchases.
Tyson can live vicariously remembering various anecdotes from his life. One such anecdote was paid homage to in classic movie Rocky V.
Mike Tyson got into an infamous street altercation back in 1988. This incident left Tyson with a broken hand but that wasn’t the worst of it. Tyson actually feared he had slaughtered his opponent Mitch ‘Blood’ Green in process.
Green faced Tyson in the ring two years prior to the altercation, six months before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.
The bout lasted for 10 rounds and went to the judges scorecards where Tyson won an unanimous decision.
However things would play out differently on the streets.
The two ran into each other at 4am. Green had a previous beef with Tyson having claimed that he wasn’t sufficiently paid for their bout.
Green was also ganged up at the time and believed Tyson was stepping on his turf at the time.
Tyson was in Harlem, visiting a store called ‘Dapper Dan’s’ to pick up a $850 white leather jacket with “Don’t Believe the Hype”.
In his autobiography, Tyson described the encounter:
“Now, Mitch, you must consider what you are doing. I do not think that this course of action in the long run is advantageous for your health. You’ll remember that I already vanquished you when we met in the ring. You need to proceed to the nearest exit immediately.”
What followed was an unprecedented beating. The incident was sparked with Green ripping Tyson’s shirt pocket. Green disputes this claim and insists it was Tyson that turned his rings around then sucker punched him.
Tyson was out partying and wasn’t really himself.
“I was throwing punches and crunching this guy and he was weaving and wobbling from side to side like he was going to fall but he didn’t go down. So I did a Bruce Lee ‘Enter the Dragon’ roundhouse kick on his ass and he went down.”
Tyson and his driver headed to their car when Green appeared to regain consciousness and retaliate with a groin kick. Tyson once again knocked down Green, but his car was trapped with Green’s body in front of the front wheels.
Green once again got up and tore off a side mirror off of the car. Tyson insists he then landed “my signature punch, the right uppercut. Boom! Mitch went flying into the air and came down like a ragdoll, right on his head.”
Green was alive but ended up with facial bruising, a left eye that was swollen shut and a nasty cut on the bridge of his nose.