Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson claims his rough upbringing led him to have murderous thoughts as a youth, admitting in a candid UK TV interview to shooting at people while growing up in the New York gang culture.
Speaking to Piers Morgan on UK television’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ about the rise in knife crime statistics in some of England’s major cities, Tyson said young people are attracted to crime when they don’t see any future for themselves.
“They don’t believe there’s any hope in life. If they believed there was hope for a better life then they wouldn’t conduct themselves in that way,” he said.
“The only reason I conducted myself… I didn’t believe there was hope for a better life and then I started boxing and saw hope. Other than that, I thought about killing people, peoples lives didn’t mean anything and all that stuff too.
Tyson says the people susceptible to becoming involved in crimes such as this are often the most vulnerable.
“I was the same way as these kids,” he explains. “I used to be in gangs, I used to have guns, I used to shoot at people, I used to be shot at and all that stuff. I don’t want to live my life like that any more.”
Watch below:
Iron Mike has lived a pretty full life.
Somehow he’s managed to stay alive.
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