MIKE Tyson was fearless both in and out of the ring, especially in his choice of pets.
The heavyweight boxer raised a few eyebrows when he was seen at home with pet tigers.
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Why did Mike Tyson have a tiger?
At the peak of his career, a young Mike Tyson had more money than he knew what to do with.
He spent most of his money on luxury cars and remembers a conversation he once had with his car dealer.
He told Tyson that if someone didn’t pay for the cars he owed money for, he would go get them horses.
This amazed the young “Iron Mike” and he asked him how he would get horses for cars.
Since he had a lot of luxury cars at that time, he decided he was going to buy some horses.
He asked him if he could broker the exchange, to which he replied “Yeah man you can get cougars, lions, tigers”.
At this stage, Tyson became interested in getting some tigers instead.
“Can you?! Can you get me some tigers?”
What happened to Mike Tyson’s tiger?
On a certain moment, Mike Tyson owned three Bengal tigers.
When they got bigger, he donated two of the cats to a local shelter.
When he got the pets they were babies, but they soon grew up and before he knew it he had 400 pounds of tigers to care for.
He kept one of the Bengal tigers, named Kenya, for 16 years.
Tyson told GQ magazine, “I had to get rid of her when her eyes and head got bad.
“Oh and she ripped someone’s arm off.”
As it turns out, the tiger wasn’t randomly attacking someone, but someone jumped over the fence of his property to play with the pet.
Things turned sour when the person had an incident with the tiger that left his arm badly damaged.
They tried to sue Tyson, but when the judge heard they were trespassing on his property, the claim was dismissed.
The ex-boxer said, “And listen, when I saw what the tiger did with her hand, I had a lot of money at the time, so I gave her $250,000 or whatever it was.”
What movie did Mike Tyson’s tiger appear in?
One of his pet tigers, Kenya, appeared in the movie The hangover with him.
In the scene, his pet was stolen from his house and he watches the CCTV footage of someone taking his then 500 pound tiger.
Stars Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are startled when they wake up to find the beast in their bathroom.
Mike Tyson decided to get rid of his pet tiger with the woman’s arm after the incident, saying, “I was foolish. There’s no way you’re going to tame these cats 100%, there’s no way that’s going to happen.”