]Mike Tyson
reportedly offered a zookeeper £9,000 to fight a huge silverback gorilla,
because he’s Mike Tyson.
The alleged
animal-lover – whose infamous for keeping exotic pets, including tigers and the
less glamorous pigeons, at his mansion home – wanted to deck a gorilla so much,
he was willing to pay for the apparent privilege.
Luckily the
zoo-keeper he tried to bribe declined, but not before Tyson put up a good fight
in order to ‘smash that silverback’s snotbox’ – his words, not mine.
Tyson, 52,
tried to bribe a worker to open the zoo so he and his then-wife Robin Givens
could enjoy a private and romantic stroll among the animals.
Tyson tried
to explain his urge to The Sun, and failed, when he said:
I paid a worker at New York’s zoo to re-open it just for me and Robin. When we got to the gorilla cage there was one big silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas. They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant. I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let smash that silverback’s snotbox! He declined.
This was the
80s – a time when Tyson, in his twenties, admittedly was a little extravagant
with his pastimes out of the ring.
Tyson, who
holds the record as the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title at 20 years
old, began competing in 1985 from which time he reigned as the undisputed world
heavyweight champion until 1990.
He won the
WBC title in 1986 after stopping Trevor Berbick in the second round, and added
the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker in 1987.
This made
Tyson the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF
titles, and the only heavyweight to successively unify them.
But, a
gorilla? Really, Tyson? The silverback gorilla is, on average, heavier than
most fighters and has the added benefit of fangs.
Read more here.
Read more here.
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