Source: Andres Ortiz / Level Man
In a thorough interview, Mike Tyson talks freely about aging and being an involved father among other topics including his influence on Hip-Hop.
The former world heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson sat down for an interview with Level Man and talked frankly about his perspective on being an involved father at this stage of his life. “I suck at it,” he said of being an engaged parent to his two youngest children, Milan and Morocco. “My wife and kids think I’m good [at it] because now my life is with my children, I’m present. I’ve never been that way before in my life. Now that I have [children who are] 14 and 12, I’m just really present in their life.”
Continuing on that topic, he admitted being more stringent in parenting his sons than his daughters and needing to pull back a bit “because they didn’t grow up in Brownsville, so they don’t need to be treated hard.” When queried about that difference, Tyson responded: “There’s a part of us that we don’t want nobody to know, but it comes out in our children. We see things that we don’t like about ourselves and we try to check him on that so he won’t be like us.”
When asked about aging and the lessons on humility it can bring, Tyson was honest, citing “a lot of toxic activity when I was younger. I just wanted to do it all. I didn’t think I was going to live long. Fifty-seven? No way I was going to make 57, so I was running. I got old too fast and smart too late, I guess, at that time in my life.”
The 57-year-old also spoke about being beloved by Hip-Hop culture. “I’m just humbled that they mentioned my name. I consider myself the hip-hop champion. I’m the first champion that the hip-hop generation ever had,” he stated. “I say that I’m the champion of the generation of hip-hop and that’s the reason why I’m in their world. That’s why they mention me in their songs and that’s not me being, I don’t know, egotistical. They rap about their life, what’s involved in their life. What did they do? What did they see? They saw me in a club. They saw me on television fighting. They saw who I had hanging out with us. I’m one of those guys. If I wasn’t a fighter, maybe I’d be a rapper or something.”
Be sure to read the full story over at Level Man.
