{"id":227845,"date":"2025-06-30T23:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T23:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227845\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T23:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T23:42:08","slug":"mike-tyson-admitted-he-fought-like-a-coward-in-defeat-i-wont-disrespect-the-sport-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227845\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson Admitted He ‘Fought Like A Coward’ In Defeat: “I Won’t Disrespect The Sport Again”"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the height of his career, Mike Tyson<\/a> was the most formidable fighter on the planet.<\/p>\n

Tyson entered the professional ranks back in 1985 when he was just 18-years-old, establishing himself as a serious heavyweight contender in no time at all.<\/p>\n

After an outstanding start to his career, which saw him win his first nineteen bouts via stoppage, \u2018Iron\u2019 Mike made history in 1986 when he blasted out WBC heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick in the 2nd round of their showdown to become the youngest heavyweight champion of all time.<\/p>\n

He followed this historic victory with wins over WBA champion James Smith and IBF champion Tony Tucker to achieve undisputed status just one month after his 21st birthday.<\/p>\n

After a number of personal issues outside of the ring, Tyson\u2019s career was hampered significantly and by the early 2000\u2019s he was a shadow of his once ferocious self, which was made clear in his performance against Ireland\u2019s Kevin McBride in 2005.<\/p>\n

Speaking after he was beaten by McBride, Tyson admitted to fighting like a \u2018coward\u2019 against the Irishman, as he claims he had \u2018fallen out of love\u2019 with boxing.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI got the ability to stay in shape, but I don\u2019t got the fighting guts I don\u2019t think anymore\u2026 I\u2019m just sorry I let everyone down, I don\u2019t have this in my heart anymore.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m more conscious of my children and those guys, I\u2019m looking at my opponents, I just don\u2019t have that ferocity, I\u2019m not an animal anymore. Yeah, most likely I\u2019m not going to fight again, I\u2019m not going to disrespect the sport anymore by losing like a coward in fights.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll find something to do, boxing doesn\u2019t define me, I\u2019m just sorry to the people in this city, I know I didn\u2019t have it in my stomach no more, but I was in dire needs and I need to take care of my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not taking nothing away from Kevin, I don\u2019t love this no more, I just don\u2019t love this no more, I\u2019ve not loved fighting since 1990, but Kevin congratulations on your career and good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Iron Mike\u2019 made a sensational return to the ring last November, suffering a points defeat to Youtuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial showdown at the AT&T Stadium in Texas on November 15, his first professional outing in just shy of two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the height of his career, Mike Tyson was the most formidable fighter on the planet. Tyson entered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-227845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114774969121146234","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}