Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson traveled nearly 6000 miles from Las Vegas to the remote village of Piatnica Poduchowna in Poland, driven by his love for pigeons.
In the village, with a population of 1,800 and located three hours north of Warsaw, Tyson surprised locals by purchasing 100 pigeons from a local dealer.
Tyson‘s connection to Poland extends beyond this visit, as his face was featured on a popular energy drink called ‘Mike Tyson’s Black Sex Energy,’ which became a bestseller in the country and was available in UK supermarkets.
His affinity for pigeons goes back to his youth, where these birds played a significant role in his life. Pigeons were not only the cause of the end of a past relationship for Tyson but also led to his first-ever fight.
“I always loved pigeons ever since I was a child,” Tyson noted.
“They teach us the importance of being compassionate. They were my escape. I was fat and ugly. Kids teased me all the time, the only joy I had was pigeons.”
“I tried [to eat one]. I was dating this young lady and she said ‘I don’t know why you’re flying those damn birds, you should be eating them’. She happened to grab one and cooked one and proceeded to eat it and I just couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t the right thing to do. That’s why she’s not my woman anymore.”
Binman KO
In his early days, Tyson knocked out a binman who had disposed of the body of his favorite pigeon in a dumpster.
“One morning I woke up and found my favourite pigeon, Julius, had died,” he noted.
“I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honour him. I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher.
“I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand! He was out cold, convulsing on the floor.”