I was able to attend Mike Tyson’s “Undisputed Truth” performance at the Grove of Anaheim Wednesday night. I left with mixed emotions of the re-shaped and transformed Mike Tyson.
If you’re not familiar with the “Undisputed Truth”, its Mike Tyson live on stage giving you a personal over view of the life and mind of one of the most feared men ever to wear the heavyweight crown. He talks about growing up in Brooklyn, the absence of his father and the substance addiction he inherited from his mother.
It was definitely entertaining as he stands on the stage with his high pitched lisping voice saying “Fuck” Don King and his ex wife Robin Givens. He talks about having a $400-million fortune, his 1992 rape conviction that led to a three-year prison sentence and his cocaine addiction.
With a wig on, he also took us back to his 1988 street fight incident with Mitch Green. He reveals how Teddy Atlas put a gun to his head after he touched his niece’s ass.
Mike Tyson is not your typical role model. This is the guy that once said “I’ll eat your children” and the guy who bit Evander Holyfield’s ear during a re-match in 1997. By the age of 13 he had been arrested more than 30 times.
Tyson, 46, also accomplished a lot. He was the youngest person at age 20 to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He has gone on to appear in several films including a documentary on his life.
I got a bit emotional when he talked about his four-year-old daughter, Exodus, who accidentally strangled herself on a treadmill cord. The tragedy was yet another dark period in Tyson’s troubled life.
It was also sad to see the one man who was considered “The Baddest Man on the Planet” jump around a stage to make a living. At the same time it was nice seeing Tyson being honest and accepting his past. He is now living sober and rebooted to a re-branded version of “Iron” Mike Tyson.