Joe Calzaghe recently reminisced the time when he alongside his father came across the legendary boxer Mike Tyson. It was back in 2000, and ‘The Italian Dragon’ was set to fight on ‘Iron Mike’s undercard. The card itself was heavily hypedas it was Tyson’s debut in the U.K. The former heavyweight champion had squared off against England’s Julius Francis in the main event.
Calzaghe was set to defend his WBO Super Middleweight Title against David Starie on the undercard. Tyson and his camp set up time to train at the same gym as the WBO Super Middleweight Champion. Calzaghe’s father decided to ask ‘Iron Mike’ for a picture.
Joe Cazaghe recalls his experience of meeting Mike Tyson
While Tyson agreed to take the picture, he seemed less than thrilled. That sort of attitude caused Calzaghe’s father to sternly tell him to smile. Recalling the story in an interview with talkSPORT, ‘The Italian Dragon’ said:
“I thought [Mike Tyson] was going to rip his head off… I thought, ‘Dad, don’t start man.’ But Mike just said that he’d had a long day, so I thought, ‘What a p****!'”
When Joe Calzaghe got his dad away from Mike Tyson, the two had a conversation. At that point in time, Tyson was an extremely controversial figure, as he was just a few years removed from prison and biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear.
While he didn’t discuss any of that, Calzaghe revealed what he and Tyson spoke about in an interview with talkSPORT. The undefeated great noted that ‘Iron Mike’ mostly just discussed his former promoter, Don King, and how he was screwed over by him. Recalling the story, Calzaghe said:
“[Tyson] goes, ‘You know, man? I’ve been f***** by Don King about all this money.’ And he says, ‘You know it makes you want to f****** kill him man and eat his f****** children, man.’ And I’m thinking in my head, ‘You’re f****** nuts,’ and just nodding. So, to be honest, he’s just a very strange and complicated character.”
