When Mike Tyson steps between the ropes on Friday night, he will do so in the knowledge a familiar and unwanted force will return.
It is not the punches of Jake Paul, his opponent at the AT&T Stadium, that Tyson fears the consequences of, but rather the re-emergence of ‘Iron Mike’ as he fights as a professional for the first time in 19 years.
“Here is what I learned from prior experience — when that tough guy Mike Tyson comes out when it’s not necessary to come out, I’m always in handcuffs,” Tyson told the Impaulsive podcast, hosted by Paul's brother Logan, in August. “So, I’m always careful when that guy comes out.
“Unfortunately, I have to fight and be that guy. I wish I could stop that guy. That guy haunts me. I wish I could stop that guy. I wish that guy died, but he’s here to stay.”
That guy, as Tyson put it, was among the most feared fighters in boxing history, but the battle to contain that character to the ring has not always been won. The wrecking ball has broken out beyond the four ropes.
Tyson had been arrested 38 times by the age of 13. At 18 he made his professional debut, within a year had 18 knockout wins, and by 20 he was world champion. At 23 he lost his unbeaten record, and at 26 he was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released three years later.
At 30 he bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear, at 33 he returned to prison for assault, at 37 he declared bankruptcy, and at 38 he retired. That was until this week, when Tyson, at the age of 58, steps back into the ring to fight Paul in a professional bout.
He had been due to do so in July, only for that fight date to be pushed back after Tyson suffered a medical emergency on a plane two months earlier.
He became nauseous and dizzy on the flight from Los Angeles to Miami and passengers were asked by the crew if there was a doctor on board. Paramedics were required to treat Tyson on landing.
"Coming here from Miami on the plane, I went to the bathroom and I threw up blood,” Tyson has since explained.
“The next thing I know I'm on the floor. I was defecating tar. So I came here and they found I had a big ulcer, two-and-a-half inches, and it was bleeding. All my friends were calling me like I was dying.
"I asked the doctor if I was going to die and she didn't say no. She said we have options though, and that's when I got nervous. I can't wait to get out of this motherf*****, man.”
That episode was concerning in itself, but Tyson’s comments that followed have garnered just as much attention.
"God, I want to fight and start training,” he continued. “I don't want to die in the hospital bedroom, I want to die in the ring.”
That Tyson is willing to face the risk of entering the ring against a man 30 years his junior, with no headguard on and six months after a major health scare, speaks to the enduring fighter instincts within him.
It also, though, points to boxing still serving as an escape for Tyson, a necessary crutch decades on from the peaks of his career.
Tyson lost his mother and then Cus D'Amato, his coach and mentor, while still a young man. He has since fought addiction, bankruptcy and tragedy, following the loss of his four-year-old daughter in 2009 after she became entangled in a cord from a treadmill.
Tyson's existence out of the ring has rarely been without struggle, self-inflicted or otherwise. His experiences have enabled him to speak with searing honesty, a jarring contrast between 'Iron Mike' and the vulnerable, often troubled Tyson.
“From my experience, from what I believe, the more I know about not existing, the more willing I am to die,” he said in 2020.
“I don’t fear it. Living might be more complicated than dying to me. Living takes a lot of courage. Without the courage, you can’t handle living. Living is a journey; living is a struggle.”
Tyson has said he has trained three to four times a day to prepare for Paul and a multimillion-dollar night, including four-mile runs on a treadmill and long rowing machine sessions to go with his sparring. But he is now financially secure, with a lucrative cannabis empire alongside a successful podcast - why put himself through this? Tyson has admitted there is a fight he will never truly win.
“Listen, I was born an addict,” he said earlier this year. “I was born that way. I'm a junkie.
“I don't know what to do. I don't get high now, but that's who I am. I switch my addiction to something else."
That, once again, is boxing.
