Mike Tyson Tried To Fight A Gorilla For $10,000

Mike Tyson is known for many things. In 1986 he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever when he was just 20 years old, he’s known as “The Baddest Man on the Planet”, and he even had his own cartoon series, Mike Tyson Mysteries, where he had some of his greatest matches ever. Dude, he beat up a T.Rex.

Throughout his later years, though, he’s become known for much more tame things than pummelling the crap out of heavyweight boxers and cartoon dinosaurs. Namely, his love of animals. Whether it’s his beloved white Bengal tigers or pigeons, Tyson’s got a big ol’ soft spot for critters of all shapes and sizes.

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So you can imagine my surprise when I learned that apparently our man Mike Tyson once offered a zookeeper $10,000 to let him fight a silverback gorilla.

Uhhhhhhhhhhh

What

Back in the 80’s, Tyson greased a zookeepers palm to open up a zoo after hours so he and his wife could take a late night stroll through the grounds, just the two of them. So romantic, right? And what goes well with moonlight walks through a zoo? Well, apparently beating up one of the baddest animals in it.

Tyson claims that one of the gorillas in the enclosure, the largest male gorilla in the enclosure to be exact, was bullying the others and he just wasn’t gonna stand for it. So he did what any reasonable, obscenely wealthy boxing champion would do, and offered the zookeeper ten. thousand. dollars. to let him go a few rounds with the animal.

I bet his wife was just swooning.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the zookeeper said no, and Tyson didn’t get a chance to take his skills from the ring to the animal kingdom… which is good news for him. I’m not a boxing expert and I know that a gorilla wouldn’t be a technically sound fighter, but uhhhhhh, they weight around 400lbs. Just a little bit more than Mike Tyson.

Published at Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:34:42 +0000