The Ring Magazine / Contributor
Tiger King is the biggest thing right now, but before Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, and Bhagavan Antle were made famous by the viral Netflix documentary, Mike Tyson was the king of big cats.
In a new interview with Fat Joe, Tyson explained why he was “foolish” to own tigers and detailed how “incredibly quick” the beasts were and how “they could kill you in three seconds.” But the younger, much less wise Mike Tyson didn’t realize how deadly these 600-pound tigers could be. Not only did a young Mike Tyson have tigers at his home, but the heavyweight champ would actually play fight with the dangerous wild animals.
Mike Tyson talked about one of his three white Bengal tigers that he owned back in the 90s in a GQ video.
“I did have a pet tiger. Her name was Kenya and she was around 550 pounds,” Tyson said. “I had great affection for her; I kept her, I slept with her, I kept her in my room. She stayed with me.”
“I had her for probably sixteen years,” he continued. “She was a massive monster, you can’t imagine the size of her.”
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“But she got too old, and I had to get rid of her when her eyes and her head got bad,” Tyson said. “Plus, she ripped somebody’s arm off.” That will put a damper on keeping a tiger as a pet.
In a new Instagram post, Tyson shared a photo of him and Kenya with the caption: “The original #tigerking.”
In 1996, comedian Roseanne Barr visited boxer Mike Tyson at his estate in Las Vegas. The more than 11,000-square-foot mansion is where Kenya made her home. “One minute they look at you and take a chunk out of you, the 20 minutes later they come and lick you, so you’ve got to be very cautious with them,” Tyson told Roseanne.
The former world heavyweight champion was also seen play fighting with his tiger. “Physically, I don’t stand a chance,” Tyson said of fighting with Kenya. “She’s still a baby, she’s 220 pounds, she has another 110 pounds to go.”
That’s Mike Tyson near his prime of his incredible career saying that he is no match for a baby tiger. During the Inside Edition interview, Tyson said he planned to breed his tigers to have cubs.
Tyson told Jimmy Kimmel that his tigers never injured him, but a lion bit him. “I had to go to get some stitches because I was giving him a tetanus shot, and he bit me,” Tyson said. “And I wound up having to get a tetanus shot.”
“I had to lie and say a dog bit me because they would have taken my cat away,” Tyson said.
Iron Mike still spars with his pets to this day, thankfully they are no longer lions or tigers. Nowadays, Tyson play fights with his doodle dog named Mars. A smidge safer than a Bengal tiger. And Mars hasn’t gnawed off anyone’s arm as of yet.