Even ‘Iron’ softens: Getting to know another Mike Tyson

For a generation, we knew exactly who Mike Tyson was.

Iron Mike. Heavyweight champion of the world. Baddest Man on the Planet. Admitted domestic abuser. Convicted rapist. A man who once said, “I come from filth and scum and sewage,” and who tried to prove it in the ring by once biting off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear – then leaning in for a second taste.

Which is what makes observing a 58-year-old Mike Tyson in settings like Sunday’s press conference at the Javits Center in New York City such an oddity. Engineered to jump-start the promotion for Tyson’s fight with Jake Paul, which had stalled after Tyson’s health scare in May, the presser seemed to focus solely on trotting Tyson out in front of an audience to prove his fitness while also getting him fired up enough to punch a hole through Paul.

The result: 0 for 2.

“I had a small adversity,” Tyson said when asked about the “medical emergency” that pushed back the original fight date from July 20 to Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. “I got sick, but I feel better. I feel good.”

WIth that official diagnosis out of the way, Tyson also confirmed – somewhat tepidly – that he is “in camp right now,” and has been for weeks. Maybe that was just a way of saying that he’s working out again, but let’s hope Tyson’s people aren’t putting a near-sexagenarian whose ticker was recently on the fritz through the rigors of a typical fight camp more than three months out from fight night.

In any case, Tyson took care to avoid any additional strain during the presser – like, any strain at all. While Paul mugged and egged on a belligerent crowd, Tyson – who in a long-ago presser once threatened to eat Lennox Lewis’ children – was zen almost to the point of bewilderment at the Javits Center. A small sampling:

“Is this event happening?” asked emcee Ryan Clark, seemingly hopped up on caffeine and hyperbole.

“It’s happening – we’re all here,” Tyson said somewhat wryly, as if speaking to someone who hadn’t noticed an entire fight promotion break out in front of him.

Clark: “How prepared are you to knock Jake Paul out?”

Tyson: “I’m very prepared. I’m very prepared.”

Clark: “Mike, you were used to being the most hated guy walking into a ring. What’s it like fighting someone that’s hated even more than you are?

Tyson: “I don’t know. Say it again. That’s interesting.”

Tyson did his best to play along as he was able, but those occasions were rare. He shoved Paul as the fighters were facing off, but he couldn’t suppress his grin in the moment. He challenged Paul to meet him in the middle of the ring, yet immediately blurted “I love you.” A convert to Islam who meditates and once conducted a podcast interview with Sadhguru, Tyson, in his dotage, has arguably had his hard edges and sharp points sanded down and smoothed over. Flattest Man on the Planet.

Even if Tyson is, at 58, capable of taking Paul apart – even if he does just that in November – he isn’t much interested in talking about it in advance. He has either become too chill, too rational or simply no longer has it in him to feign anger in the name of aggrandizing a fight, especially one as patently silly as this one.

At one point in Sunday’s presser, when Paul seized on Tyson’s health issue with a feeble “menopause” crack and mockingly asked if his “tummy” hurt, Clark followed up: “Were you truly sick,” he questioned Tyson, with Dan Rather seriousness, “or were you a little nervous about getting in the ring with Jake Paul?”

“I was terrified,” Tyson said, with deadpan perfection. “I was terrified.”

How about that? Mike Tyson, we hardly knew yet.

Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, has contributed to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be followed on X and LinkedIn, and emailed at [email protected].