Mike Tyson believes his former promoter, Don King, fixed fights for him and against him, with perhaps the most egregious example being his loss to Buster Douglas in 1990.
During a recent episode of the Boxing Arabia podcast, which features John Fury, the father of current WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, ‘Iron Mike’ made several inflammatory comments when it came to King.
It all came about when Fury began to talk about what many believe was a long 10-count given to Douglas in their now infamous 1990 fight in Tokyo.
Douglas had been sent to the ground with an uppercut in the eighth round, but by the 10th, it was Tyson was KO’d for what was the first loss of his career and one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
When discussing the matter, Tyson shed light on the underground dealings of professional boxing.
“Don King did that bulls**t; Don King set me up,” Tyson said. “I never said that before, but it made sense. The 42-1 (odds), I could win this, him and the referee talk that bullsh-t, because I don’t want to tell you what we did before.
“I’m not going to mention no promoters; there were fights I had where the opponent didn’t know they’re fighting me and the referee.
“That’s just how it went: people are betting, the odds, they got ahold of the referee; they’re fighting me and the referee.
“I don’t know, the guy don’t even know then I found out later what’s going on … and then they did it to me.”
Tyson didn’t take the fight seriously
The claims from Tyson are sensational. He has always said that he didn’t take the fight seriously, to the point that he was out partying in Tokyo with singer Bobby Brown the night before.
In fact, in his memoirs he said that during training camp he ran away every night and that his team was forced to go looking for him in nightclubs. When he arrived in Japan he became even more unleashed.
Apparently, Iron Mike even looked a little thin in the fight against Douglas.
“I think I lost most of the weight from having sex with Japanese ladies. I don’t remember doing any running work for that fight, maybe once or twice. So I lost weight in other ways,” he recounted.
It should be recalled that Tyson filed a $100 million lawsuit against King in 1998 and received $14 million after reaching a settlement with his former promoter.