Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson surprised a teenage girl on Thursday by asking her a simple feel-good question. But what came back was a surprisingly dark response about death and eternal nothingness.
The surprising comments came as Tyson, 58, gave a series of interviews ahead of his high-profile bout with YouTube personality Jake Paul, which will be staged in Arlington, Texas, on Friday and streamed on Netflix. Announced.
When 14-year-old Jazzlynn Guerra, a young journalist from Jazzy’s World TV, asks him what kind of “legacy” he hopes to leave behind, an unflinching Tyson responds with a simple, seemingly ephemeral look at how walking this planet is. I explained how it seemed pointless.
“I don’t believe in the word ‘legacy’. I think it’s just another word for ego. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just that someone said the word and everyone grabbed onto it. It’s now being used every five seconds,” Tyson said in an interview. Posted on Thursday.
“It doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m just passing by. When I die, it’s over. Who cares about the legacy?”
After a brief, awkward silence, Iron Mike continued his overwhelming existential musings.
“So I’m going to die. Do I want people to think I’m great at this?” he continued. “No, we are nothing. We are just dead. We are dust. We are nothing at all. Our heritage is nothing.”
The teenage interviewer seemed momentarily surprised by Tyson’s harsh outlook on life. But she remained calm, kept pace, and appreciated the wisdom of the champion.
“Well, thank you so much for sharing that,” she said. “That’s something I’ve never heard before.”
Tyson did not give up and continued to make a strong case that time was running out for all humanity.
“Can you really imagine someone saying, ‘This is what I want my legacy to be?’ Dead!” Tyson said. “Who will care about me when I’m gone? My children or my grandchildren?”
Tyson was one of the most feared fighters of the 1980s and ’90s. But perhaps he is best known for the three years he served in prison after being convicted of rape and biting off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a 1997 match. .
Paul, 27, is relatively new to boxing, having made his professional debut in the ring in 2020. The number of followers on Instagram is over 27 million, and the number of subscribers on YouTube is about 21 million.
