By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-15 00:02:01 | Updated at 2024-11-22 23:08:57
1 week ago
For better or worse, Mike Tyson's cross-generational bout with Jake Paul is exposing the former heavyweight champion to younger audiences.
Take this week's exchange with 14-year-old interviewer Jazzy, who asked the 58-year-old Tyson about his legacy.
'What do I care about my legacy?' responded Tyson, whose past is complicated by drug abuse, financial ruin, and his 1992 rape conviction, among other things. 'I never knew what a legacy was and people started throwing that word around so loosely. A legacy sounds like ego to me. I'm going to be dead soon.'
Tyson wasn't finished with his lesson.
'Who cares what somebody is going to think about me when I'm dead?' he asked. 'We don't talk about Charles Manson. No one cares about nobody when they're dead and gone.
Mike Tyson gave 14-year-old interviewer Jazzy a lesson on existentialism this week
'I'm just passing through,' he continued 'I'ma die and it's gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that?
'We're nothing. We're just dead. We're just dust. We're absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing.'
To her credit, Jazzy remained upbeat after learning that humanity is 'nothing.'
'Thank you so much for sharing that,' she said. 'That is something I've not heard as an answer.'
Again, Tyson was not finished.
'Can you really imagine somebody saying: 'I really want my legacy to be this way when I'm' — you're dead ... Who the f*** cares about me when I'm gone?' Tyson asked.
The interview, posted on the Jazzys World TV YouTube channel, drew a significant response.
'Mike Tyson talks to everyone the same regardless of their age,' one person remarked, echoing a comment made by many others.
Tyson grabbed the Dagestani social media star and jokingly nibbled on his ear on Hotboxin
Tyson will square off with the 27-year-old Paul at AT&T Stadium near Dallas on Friday night
Tyson has struggled to give age-appropriate responses in the past.
During an interview on Hotboxin with 20-something fight fan Hasbulla – who stands just 3-feet-4 – the 5-foot-10 Tyson picked up the smaller man and began kissing him on the cheek and nibbling on his ear as if he were a young boy.
As one fan remarked on YouTube at the time, 'if Mike Tyson says you're a kid, you're a kid.'
Over a year later, Tyson admitted he mistook Hasbulla as a child, not realizing he had a form of dwarfism that stunted his growth.
'I thought it was a baby,' Tyson told Andre Ward on The Art Of Ward podcast.
'I didn't know. He was punching me. I don't know, man. That's how I am with children. I was hugging on this guy. He's like 26 years old,' he added. 'No, no. I did not know.'
Tyson will square off with the 27-year-old Paul at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas on Friday night. The fight is scheduled for eight two-minute rounds as opposed to the normal three-minute frames. Furthermore, gloves for the bout will be 14 ounces rather than the usual 10.
