Mike Tyson the Peterborough United fan
The life and times of Mike Tyson have seen stranger comings and goings than the bus that ferries the criminally insane to the funny farm.
However there is no cut-off point for the bizarre as far as “Iron Mike” is concerned. He arguably took surreal to another level yesterday when he turned up at a Peterborough United v West Ham pre-season friendly, decked out in Posh colours.
The onetime “baddest man on the planet” took to the pitch at London Road and delivered a rousing motivational speech to the masses through the loudspeaker. The former champ said: “I’ve never heard of Peterborough before but as soon as I heard it was West Ham I thought, we’ve got to really give it to them.” That’s up there with Churchill.
So what on earth is Tyson doing strolling around middle England? He’s currently working the after-dinner speaking circuit and having a very good time while he’s at it. He told a crowd at Smackdown Boxing Gym in Hampton: “I have had a wonderful time in Peterborough. I always like seeing smaller places, because that is the real England.
“I have been around the city centre and you have a great mall. I also liked the fountains – those things are cool.
“The people here have been great. I have been greeted with nothing but respect, everyone here greets me like I’m a president or a prime minister.”
“In America I get greeted by the National Guard.”
That’s right Mike, who needs Las Vegas when you have the second-biggest city in Cambridgeshire? He’s been living it up in Tesco’s, went for a six-course curry meal and been to meet a top pigeon breeder. What more could a man want to do?
To be fair it’s good to see Tyson enjoying life and not doing something mad or getting arrested. Earlier this week he said to Details magazine: “The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn’t necessarily deserve it.
“Now I’m 44, and I realize that my whole life is just a f****** waste. ‘Greatest man on the planet’? I wasn’t half the man I thought I was. So if there’s a big plan now, it’s just to give – it’s selflessness, caring for the people who deserve it.
“Because I think I’m a pig. I have this uncanny ability to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘This is a pig. You are a f****** piece of s**t.’”
Standard craziness from Tyson there, but it does sound like he has been thinking things through and looking to move his life on from boxing and the troubles that overshadowed a stunningly talented fighter.
Iron Mike has looked in better shape recently, prompting speculation that he was going to return to the sport, which he has denied. Tyson has never really seemed like he wanted to return after his defeat to Kevin McBride, he knew it was one bout too many and stated: “the fighting guts or the heart anymore". It’s probably for the best, the defeats against McBride and Danny Williams were bad enough to watch, no one wants to see him laid out by some nobody and he’s better off watching Gary Johnson’s boys.
With a life incorporating world titles, prison, tigers, bankruptcy, gold, pigeons and ear removals perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Tyson pop up at a League One club.
After the season they just had they could probably use him at centre-back.
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