Mike Tyson says his “finest hour in entertainment” will happen Sept. 10 in Toronto. For a man who bit off part of an ear, spent time in prison, battled drugs and booze, and was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, that’s one heck of a tall order.
The youngest-ever heavyweight champion of the world, who’s now 48, was on Prime Time Sports Wednesday with Sid Seixeiro, and said he’s looking forward to his upcoming Canadian visit for his bio-play, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, at Air Canada Centre.
“Everybody knows what to expect,” Tyson said of the play, which was written by his wife, Kiki, and has been broadcast on HBO. “But what they don’t know is the energy is different in every crowd.”
Tyson also said a biopic of his life is in discussion, with Jamie Foxx earmarked to portray him, and the possibility of special effects and make-up being used so Foxx can play Tyson as a young fighter. ” He brought it up and said he would play me. I watch him on television, he’s imitating me, busting my chops,” Tyson said. “He’s magnificent and I wouldn’t want no one else to portray me but him.” Martin Scorsese, Tyson said, could also be involved.
Sid and Tyson got into a range of other topics, including whether Tyson regrets anything he ever did in the ring.
“Even though I bit Evander’s ear and stuff, right now I wish I wouldn’t have did it, but I don’t have no regrets,” Tyson said. “It happened, it was meant to happen. I don’t know, I don’t understand. There’s a lot of things I don’t understand, but I know it works…I don’t know anything about electricity, but it works. I don’t know anything about my car…”
Tyson said he doesn’t watch his old fights. “Thinkin’ about hurtin’ people like that…I really enjoyed it back then. I don’t like to think of those feelings anymore,” he said. “As a person or a human being I didn’t conduct myself the way I should have. Of course I was a young, but sometimes it’s hard for me to look at that in the state of mind that I’m in now.”
As for anything he hasn’t done yet that he’d like to do, Tyson said, “Maybe a musical.” Imagine that, Mike Tyson in song and dance.
“I just want to do everything from an entertainment perspective. I’d like to be a present parent. There’s a lot of things that I wanna do better that I’m doing now, but I know it all comes with stages of my life and developing myself as a most productive person in society.”