Search icon

Boxing

12th Jun 2018

Mike Tyson explains why he threw water over Don King at Hall of Fame ceremony

That's one grudge that's going nowhere

Darragh Murphy

Mike Tyson has tried to let most of his grudges go but he’s definitely not going to warm to Don King any time soon.

Tyson has made no secret of his feelings towards King, who was sued by Tyson for $100 million after the former heavyweight champion accused his ex-promoter of cheating him out of millions of dollars from his boxing winnings. That case was settled for $14 million in 2004.

In one of the most infamous stories from Tyson’s autobiography, Undisputed Truth, ‘Iron Mike’ admitted to lashing out at King the year before the settlement, writing:

“Don picked us up at the private airport in his Rolls. We were driving down to Miami from Fort Lauderdale on the I-95. Don said some innocuous thing and all that jealousy and rage spilled out of me and I kicked him in his fucking head.”

The bad blood definitely seems to be there still, with Tyson tossing the contents of his glass of water over King at the Boxing Hall of Fame induction over the weekend in Canastota, New York.

As King took to the stage, he appeared to give Tyson a friendly pat on the shoulder but Tyson was not in the mood to pretend like they were pals.

Tyson has admitted that he shouldn’t have reacted as he did but he simply couldn’t keep his temper.

“That was me being immature, I shouldn’t have done that,” Tyson told Sirius XM. “But, you know, he touched me, he tapped me on my shoulder … it’s just, I don’t know.

“He talked in there like he was my friend and that was just bullcrap.”

https://twitter.com/SiriusXMBoxing/status/1005909223606226944

Katie Taylor Exclusive | Making history, Croke Park dreams, Jake Paul and life after boxing