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Piers Morgan Live
Interview with Mike Tyson
Aired November 27, 2013 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, HOST, THE PIERS MORGAN SHOW: This is PIERS MORGAN LIVE. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Tonight, the undisputed champion, the last man you'd want to bet against in or out of the ring. That was then, this is now. Mike Tyson getting ready for the next round of his life, telling me undisputed truths about everything. Years in the ring.
MIKE TYSON, (RET) AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BOXER: I used to despise myself with being so arrogant but it just came down when I was performing either on the stage and the ring.
MORGAN: And the years behind bars.
TYSON: I struggled with just surviving out there.
MORGAN: His family.
TYSON: My mother didn't like me that well.
MORGAN: His battle with addictions.
TYSON: I've lost all my friends, all my friends that I ever believed were my friends and not my friends anymore.
MORGAN: And even Evander Holyfield's ear.
TYSON: Oh no, it taste like hell.
MORGAN: Tonight in the ring with Mike Tyson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: And joining me now is the one and only Mike Tyson, he tells a story in the new book, Undisputed Truth and in the HBO film of the same name. Mike great to have you back.
TYSON: Thank you.
MORGAN: How are you?
TYSON: I'm awesome, I feel great.
MORGAN: Mike this knockout game, this sort of game because people have been killed by it.
TYSON: Have they been?
MORGAN: Yeah, people have been loosing their lives now from this, where these kids around America.
TYSON: I'm familiar with it.
MORGAN: Just going on to random strangers and punching them as hard as they can.
TYSON: They're doing it in Great Britain too.
MORGAN: What do you make of it?
TYSON: I don't make anything of it. It doesn't make any sense, it's a game to some people, I don't think it's cool. They're not hitting me, I saw one guy hit a woman, hit a girl from behind. And...
MORGAN: Have you ever, when you grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, would you ever have done something like that?
TYSON: Oh yeah, you know, if I was on a robbing spree as I'm robbing somebody when I was a young kid I've done something like that but this is just for fun. These guys -- there's just no purpose of doing that. I saw him hit a woman, I would never hit a girl in the face but nothing -- I just couldn't imagine. Like the only thing I could imagine that being my daughter or my wife.
MORGAN: Why do people do it you think?
TYSON: I have no idea. I don't have no idea. I just don't know, maybe they're just evil, they're just some evil people.
MORGAN: The last time you came on the show, I talked to you about healthcare and we have this exchange. Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: When you go back to your old street and you meet your old guys and so on. What do you think the real cares and fears of the average American on the street are right now?
TYSON: Healthcare, these people haven't been to the doctor in 20 years. Haven't seen the doctor because they can't afford it and man it's just some hunger, homelessness and we're talking about the land of plenty and so, it's just difficult so people (inaudible). We're in dire straits right now, as far as hoping. I believe Obama and Mr. Biden (inaudible) give the people in that desperational need, that hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: That's since then, that was a year ago. Obviously they tried to do this with ObamaCare, they tried...
TYSON: This thing really, it just really went horrible, isn't it?
MORGAN: Yeah.
TYSON: It's really, it's really bad.
MORGAN: I mean the idea behind it, would you be supportive of the idea of bringing millions of Americans into healthcare, who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford it?
TYSON: If they can get the healthcare, but as of now it doesn't seem they can get it. I was for it a 100 percent but we just have to come to the reality that it didn't work.
MORGAN: And when you say Barack Obama, the first African American President in the country's history, staring down at cameras repeatedly before this happens saying, if you want to keep the doctor or keep your plan you can do that. And now it turns out that's completely untrue, he basically told a falsehood. Does that diminish him to you? Does it reduce his standing as a President?
TYSON: Well, maybe as a President, I don't know what it takes to become a President. I don't know how many buts how much you've got to be around those to be a President, you know, but just from his symbol of looking at him a black man in America being the President, the most powerful man in the world, it's very positive for young black kids like my son.
But the reality of this plan it didn't work. So we have to find another plan.
MORGAN: A lot of African Americans have come on my show, notable ones and said how disappointed they are that Barack Obama hasn't done enough for African Americans in this country in the time that he's been President. Do you think that's a fair criticism from what you hear on the streets?
TYSON: Well listen, we got to stop being involved with the knockout game. We have to conduct ourselves as respectable African American sometime and I'm not just saying, I'm not blaming Obama it has nothing to do with Obama. You know what I mean? Well he's the President of the United States and he's supposed to help us? That's never happened in the history, no President has ever only cared about the African American Community and I don't think that's ever going to happen.
I'm just talking as a black man, a person that lived on this planet for what? 47 years and watch the struggles to African American Community.
MORGAN: When you see so many young African American teenage boys in particular in, somewhere like Chicago shooting each other up.
TYSON: Well, it doesn't have to be Chicago, could be in New York.
MORGAN: Could be anywhere, right? TYSON: It could be in Los Angeles.
MORGAN: But the particular issue of gun violence amongst young black teenagers in America, how do you tackle that? What do you do about it?
TYSON: Listen, it was meant that way, that's why the jails are full of us. That's all of us in jail, this is before the gun trial, or this is a non violence. You have more of us in jail for non violence offenses than we are for violent offenses. You have to look at what they did with the (inaudible).There's more people than -- more of African American in minorities that are in prison for non violent crime. And do a more time than the violent offenders are doing. Double life sentence, triple life sentence, for Kingpin and all of it's -- so that's another issue in itself. And it's just in my own recollection, that is -- that's just the way it is. It's always been that way.
MORGAN: But what does America do about guns generally do you think?
TYSON: Listen everybody is going to get guns, what do think they're going to do with guns? Everybody's going to have guns.
MORGAN: Can you go on and on and on like that? Just more and more guns?
TYSON: White will have guns too. Whites will shoot people too. You know, everyone has guns, you know, because that's what happened to Trayvon Martin. He got shot and a couple other kids before him, way before him have been shot by people who own guns, legally owned guns, you know. So, if they believe that most black people said, "I'm going to get killed, I think I'm going to have a gun too for self defense, suppose all these people give their guns away. Now we don't them, this is the mentality now we don't have them. Now we just sit and duck for people that have guns legally to kill us.
So we can't have guns, we have family, so what that means, we can't defend ourselves, we can't defend our family. You could be a felon, we have to go asked somebody after the fact to defend our families, to help our family. No, people are not going to do that. People are going to have guns and people will defend themselves. And it's just really bad. We really live -- we're in a country where there's more guns than there are people. And it's really bad and it's really scary.
MORGAN: We had a big debate on the show, a week ago. I think it was about the use of the N word in America now. Whether it would help if the Black community also stop using that word, whether rappers stopped using it. And so on, you use it quite a lot on stage, in the book of it as well. What is your view about that debate?
TYSON: Hey, people go can do what they want to do in life and have nothing to do about what our community do. We have to think about how this word originated, where it came from. And just because we stopped saying it ain't going to stop them from saying it. Why are they mad that we're saying it because they can say it? And it's going to be a double standard if they say other than what we say amongst each other. I don't know, you tell me. I don't think I plan on stop saying it anytime soon.
MORGAN: Hold that Mike. When we come back, more undisputed truth with the great Mike Tyson.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON: You have to face your demons, you hear me Mike? Because if you don't, they'll follow you to eternity and you remember Mike to be careful how you fight your fight because the way you fight your fight would be the way you live your life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Dramatic moment from Mike Tyson in the HBO film Undisputed Truth and the man who was once the king of the ring is back with me now. What is it like being Mike Tyson?
TYSON: Oh wow, now it's pretty interesting. This is pretty interesting.
MORGAN: Where are you in your head (ph) because I read, you know, I have followed you for 25 years and the last time I interviewed you, you seemed peaceful and calm but you said to me then there's always a slight feeling inside you that the you may blow up the again. And there were reports recently that you've had a few wobbles, falling of the wagon that kind of thing. Where would you describe your piece of mind now? Your state of mind?
TYSON: I'm just -- I'm very I don't want to say I'm a complete person by any means. I'm just -- day by day -- my day by day life hoping to survive every moment of the day. You know, I struggle with just surviving out here. You know, I'm doing well. I'm working and I'm very grateful I'm getting along with my family and everything is well but I'm just -- I'm just happy just to be here and to be here with you.
MORGAN: Did you feel always even now that you're a slight ticking time bomb but because of all the demons that were in you from an early age that you could loose control? How hard is it to keep that away?
TYSON: Well, like that as was explained earlier it's a struggle. I'm going to -- the quintessential conventional type, type of person and I, you know, and I'm just living my life moment by moment, you know. It's a battle. You know, I mean, I have no -- I have no exclusivity to the disease after this. There's millions of people that are out there, live their life like me just happy to get through the day.
MORGAN: It's thanksgiving on Thursday. Who do you feel like giving the most thanks to in your life? TYSON: Hey. Listen, I'm just grateful that I'm alive and the moment I was born and I don't know is, you know, so many people that contribute to my life, you know. You know, I would never been a fighter I will never been here talking to you. I will never been to the trials and tribulations that I experienced to try to become the person that I want to be in life. And I'm just very grateful to God that I had this journey in life not finished of course but so far has been pretty stimulating for me.
MORGAN: It certainly has. It's an extraordinary book. I mean, it's over 500 pages just a very stark cover and the picture of you in your absolute peak there. And when you read it, I mean, it's going to be a remarkable kind of roller coaster ride, isn't it? I think you could almost not invent this kind of life story. When you finished it, you read the final version what did you think?
TYSON: I said this is a well done book. This is the truth and I thought this is my truth.
MORGAN: I saw the one man show in Vegas I took my three sons to see it and they found it absolutely gripping, your life story and they had no idea about most of it until you talked about it. But you stood there on your own on the stage for much of the time. Being remarkably honest about the failings in your life, the difficulties you'd had, the challenges you've faced. How hard is it being for you to be that open?
TYSON: Well, it haven't been difficult. You know, maybe there are -- the first week I opened the show it was kind of difficult, I didn't know how to take people laugh at things that I took serious and so pretty much like a month or two into the show. I started to really feel well since this is funny it's a good show and so I enjoyed the laugh at some other grim things in my life but doing a book is just a totally different dynamics. It's just find your demons, you find out things about yourself, that's really don't even, you know, think you like, you know, and then I'm talking about my writer Mr. Sloman, Larry Sloman and I'm just realizing that just -- man, I was a born sucker, you know, no doubt about that I'm sucker and ...
MORGAN: You see you say that and you're very self defecating in -- in the show that I saw. But you're not a sucker you're actually a very smart guy. I mean I always say to people when I talk about you. Think about Mike Tyson he's very eloquent, not well educated because he didn't t have the benefit of great education but you're certainly very smart and street wise.
TYSON: It's just that sounds like I involved with people I shouldn't never gotten involved with -- it's just -- I don't know. It must have been I was looking for something that never existed in -- in this particular world, it was just chasing pipe dreams.
MORGAN: Let's take a look at a clip from Undisputed Truth. This is what you talked about your -- your family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TYSON: When this guys right here -- this is my father, Curly Lee Kirkpatrick (ph). Wait a minute now if Curly Kirkpatrick is supposed to be my father then who the fuck is this dude on my birth certificate?. This is where this (inaudible) get really tricky right? So, listen to this. My mom said Curly is my dad but Percel (inaudible) Tyson is on the birth certificate. How did this happen? No wonder I'm so fucked up here's the early proof.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: You see what's interesting here, that's the classic example of the audience all laughing. And yet really for you that's not a laughing matter not knowing who your father really was, not having that kind of figure in your life. That's not a subject of humor really is it?
TYSON: No it's not but the fact is that who is my father is -- whose been in my life for that period in time that I know was, you know Curly Kirkpatrick and that's why I always consider my father. Me and mom we made amends in 1990. We became friends 1991. We started associating and cultivating a relationship. And I thought I was just happy to do that. You know, most people see their father and they're very successful. You see, I don't want to talk to you no more. I don't want to talk to you, they now find that's insane to come between them something that's destined to be.
Regardless, and I just wanted to know who he was. I wanted to know why -- the way did my family was like a showman like my brother no one's like him the way very gregarious or very charismatic but I find a lot of things about my father. Besides I'm living in the street life. We have to be charismatic to do what he did and so many women in particular fashion but he also -- he was a gospel man. And he was a gospel singer and him and the sisters, they all -- when they have company, they all move the chairs and couches over and then they entertain the company.
MORGAN: He's a performer, a showman.
TYSON: Yes, so I'm -- I realized this is what I keep this stuff because during my career even now since I walk around and you know, I prance like a cocktail. Like a peacock on stage or in the ring. And I -- I despise this -- why am I doing this? And I look at myself as if why am I doing it? And then I realized after really knowing about my father side of the family. It's hereditary and I used to despise my self as being so arrogant. But it just came out when I was performing. Either on the stage in the ring. And ...
MORGAN: Many people who've either been professional boxers or great sportsman in big arenas and stadiums and have big crowds. They desperately miss the buzz of that crowd when they -- when they have to retire. You've now had it back in a certain degree. They told that you've been doing, How important has it been for you to have that audience's reaction again to work out hear people cheering for you?
TYSON: You know, this is where it's very tricky in this particular situation. I only want it when I'm performing. I wan to earn it and even though you may say, you pranced it (ph) over the years. Now I want to earn at at the second. I want to add why I'm performing. It doesn't mean as much. When I'm walking the street and everybody, "hey, you're the greatest, you're the great". And people were, you know, approach and crowd me. This -- I want to start to earn that. At the moment, I want to feel that. I don't feel it like I feel it when I'm performing. It's that the same feeling?
MORGAN: There was a time when you were the most infamous fighter on the planet, the most dangerous guy out there and you played up to that, baddest man on the planet and so on. Now you're different character when you walk around. Do you prefer the Mike Tyson now or was the Mike Tyson that's on the back of this book was that somebody who had to be like that at a time (inaudible).
TYSON: I love being that guy because I was doing that job at the time. You know, I'm not doing that job at the time so I had to be that gentlemen no more. I'm the gentlemen I am now because the job that I'm doing now. People like to see me on stage. People like to seen to movies and entertain them and that's what I do. I work as entertainer now. And I love doing this work because it give me the same gratification that boxing once gave me at the level that I was when I was boxing.
MORGAN: Do you like fame? And if I can say to you now, look you can have money and success but you won't be recognized, would you take that option or is there a part of it that you like?
TYSON: Money doesn't mean anything to me, I don't know that's just who I am. I'm an entertainer, you know, I live from respect from my peers, that's the most important thing in the word to me, respect from my peers.
MORGAN: Well you got respect from this Piers.
TYSON: Thank you. Morgan Piers.
MORGAN: Let's take a break, let's comeback and talk about, the addiction problems that you tackle very bravely and honestly in the book, I want to talk to you about that, and how you do -- deal with all this today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON: I'm a vicious, alcoholic. I haven't drink or took drugs in six days and for me that's a miracle. I've been lying to everybody else to think I was sober but I'm not, this is my 6th day, I'm never going to use again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Mike Tyson at a press conference back in August, talking about his struggles with drugs and alcohol and he's back with me now. Everyone was quite shocked by that, because they assumed that you were, back in the straight and narrow, I wasn't massively shocked having interviewed you a few times, and seen you perform. Because you talk so honestly about the battle that you face all the time. How are you doing with that today, I mean, how is ...
TYSON: I have a hundred days, I'm a hundred days clean, and I'm just am -- in that moment I'm just have to -- at the point in my life, I've lost all my friend, all my friends that I ever believed were my friends not my friends anymore and all I have now is just a ....
And all I have now is just my wife and myself and this is what we do and I have nobody to lie to, I have nothing to lie to the only person I'm lying to is myself. And this is just what it is --
MORGAN: How many people do you trust completely?
TYSON: Hey, I'm just, anything I trust complicity is with my wife.
MORGAN: You've been married only five years?
TYSON: Yeah.
MORGAN: Are you proud of that?
TYSON: I'm extremely proud of that. I'm extremely proud. It wasn't easy but it was worth it.
MORGAN: She's a great lady. I've had the pleasure of meeting her. And she's a great lady. Do you feel lucky that she came into your life?
TYSON: Hey, I'm more than lucky, I'm just very grateful as well, you know, and it's just -- it was something I never dreamed that I'd be capable of doing. And I realize that you always have to -- and show them that you love them, your wife (inaudible) you always have to ensure them because a couple of days that go by without saying I love you, then they may start saying, hey, acting funny, looking at you funny, I think it's doing something (inaudible) I love her. And it's been something that allowed me to grow great deal.
MORGAN: Are you difficult to live with? Are you difficult to be around?
TYSON: Hey, I'm -- I can't live with myself so how do you think is going to be easy for somebody else to live with me if I'm really -- I'm very difficult to live with myself. So, I know I must have put her through so much in life, so much is her in this stuff in life in which I'm just really grateful that she's still with me.
MORGAN: I want to play another clip from Undisputed Truth where you talked about your mother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON: This is where it really began right here with this woman, my mother, Lorna Mae Tyson. (Inaudible) but moved up north to try to live up her dream but it never came to form. I was the youngest of three children, my brother Rodney, my sister Denise, they're more like my mother. And I always felt like the odd guys, the black sheep.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Your mother was obviously a hugely important person in your life. Would you think you would have even made it out of your teenage years without your mother?
TYSON: I don't know. My mother was a complex woman that have very -- a lot of men issue, you know, she didn't have a good -- I don't know, she didn't have a good common decency with men, how men -- they didn't get along well except her last boyfriend who stayed with her until she died. But she is just one of those ladies that always had (inaudible), you know. And being the woman, being the strongest woman figure in my life and when I see her be disrespected by this men and she accept it, that allowed me to have not really functional relationship with women.
MORGAN: Do you think affected you --
TYSON: 100 percent, yes, 100 percent, because, you know, you'll see her and a guy fighting her scolding a guy -- or other guy beating her and then next thing you know, guy buys her presents and they're friends again and that's been my life with the woman I've been when we have conflicts or fight, you buy them a gift and then we're friends again. And now I'm addressing the issue that cost me to buy this gift to make them happy again, you know, there's very few women in my life and have not been driven by materialism.
MORGAN: You did a very special thing for your mother, you had her body exhumed and you put it -- her body in the most expensive coffin that you could possibly buy. Why did you that?
TYSON: Hey, listen, that was partly for me, I don't know why would you that she was dead, how could that -- how could you enjoy that, you know, maybe that's my guilt of being a horrible son. I know why I did it because I could. But --
MORGAN: Was it your way of thanking her or be it belatedly?
TYSON: Maybe it wasn't thanking her but maybe to tell and show that I love her, you know, but that's how my life has always been, by my love, you know. Maybe that wasn't a good idea either.
MORGAN: Did you ever get the chance to tell her that you loved her?
TYSON: I don't know, we didn't have that relationship. I always hugged and kissed her. My mother, I think my mother was disappointed in me as a person, you know, I did a lot of bad things. I've robbed a lot of friend's houses and stuffs like that, so my mother, she didn't have hope for me. And I came from upstate in New York with Cus telling me I'm going to be the world's greatest fighter and no one could beat me, she thought I was insane. I'm 14 years old so she must have thought I was insane.
MORGAN: When she thought, you quote her saying, she never imagined her boy would make it out of Brooklyn unless it was in handcuffs or a wooden box .
TYSON: Well, she -- I was arrested a lot and of course she had to come get me out of the precincts most of my life in the juvenile. And she hasn't see any good happening, you know, people coming to the house looking for me, grown men, so she probably thought somebody is going to kill me, so.
MORGAN: She would have been thought Mike very proud of what you'd become I think.
TYSON: I don't know. You know when I used to fight -- when I first became champion at the fight in Vegas. And I used to drive around the hotel at the Las Vegas Hilton. And you just see all that -- you just see outside the arena it was just packed to the hill. I wonder what she would have did if she saw the crowd to see me. I always wanted that but I don't know I never would find out. My mother didn't like me that well. Sometimes, to me they're very angry.
MORGAN: What would you, what would you -- if you had the chance to talk to her again, what would you say to her now at the stage of your life?
TYSON: Well, I don't know. The only thing I'm capable of saying it wouldn't be deep. Just I made it. I did something with my life. And so, I would tell her, you know, but she probably would say something "But you're not a good person though. So, you can't buy people." Because that's all I ever did I probably would try to buy her, buy her love, give her gifts, buy her houses. That's how always she sees my love before. Never from a personal perspective.
MORGAN: At one stage, you know, you blew $400 million. I don't know what exact figure is but it varies depending on what time of period you're talking about. But, what did you learn about money?
TYSON: Not much. You give me money now. You know my wife pretty much handles that stuff with accountants and stuff but I don't know, I'm just not money guy and stuff. It doesn't mean much to me and stuff. That's why I don't handle money really that much.
MORGAN: Let's take another break. Let's just lighten the mood over here Mike, let's have a bit of fun let's talk about Evander Holyfield's ear.
TYSON: Oh no, it taste like hell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON I'm sorry Evander. It's your ear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MYERS: Hi everyone. I'm Meteorologist Chad Myers with a quick look at your weather and the delays that are still out there. Thousands of planes still in the sky at this hour. And most of the east coast planes are late. They're late because the plane that you were supposed to take came in two hours late. So, there's no way that you're plane could take off on time. That's what it looks like still at this hour.
Here's what the flight boards look like. Many planes are in route. But if you go down here a little bit closer you'll see delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed and that's the story of the day. But, the story of the day is not cancelled. That's some good news. We didn't cancel a lot of planes today probably less than 50 which means we didn't have to try to put people on other planes where seats were essentially sold out.
Here's the problem really. I mean this was the -- essentially the problem all day was the wind and then the low ceilings. We had a lot of cloud cover that was very close to the ground. And that couldn't allow planes to land as quickly as many of them as they would like to get on the ground in an hour span or two hour span or three hour span.
So here we go, Wednesday, 9:00, that's where we are right now. The wind is 36-38 miles per hour, by tonight, down to 30. These are gusts 22 in Washington DC but with the gusts also coming in some of the snow flurries across the Northeast have to watch those too.
Many roadways across parts of New York State were wet for most of the day and flurries came in late in the day and had caused some slick spots there and those slick spots are still around at this hour.
There goes the storm. That's the big story. This storm is completely gone for tomorrow. Now, the winds will still be gusty. There's a threshold. For the balloons in the Macy's Day parade tomorrow, those balloons have to fly below 34 mile per hour wind gust and they're going to make a game day decision whether that's going to happen or not because right now, the forecast, believe it or not, is for 34 miles per hour. So they'll have to decide whether they fly those early in the morning to see what those winds do on the overnight hours.
Mike Tyson and Piers Morgan come back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSOON COOPER: I'm Anderson Cooper. This is CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON: (Inaudible)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Tyson? With my favorite part coming out right now.
TYSON: I can feel it coming in the air tonight.
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble. Not much between despair and ecstasy. I can feel the devil walking next to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: The unforgettable musical stylings of Mike Tyson of the Hangover franchise and Mike's back with me now. Those two movies' grossed of $500 million.
TYSON: I'm very grateful to be a part of that.
MORGAN: Great fun, right.
TYSON: Yeah but for the guys were awesome. They're really awesome guys, very awesome.
MORGAN: When you go around the world, is that one of the things that most people not talked to you about, the Hangover?
TYSON: Well, the younger kids do. Most of the younger kids do. Teenagers, college kid, high school kid, all of them comes and say, "I watched you in the Hangover, I love your movies. I was like your fan and stuff and most of the guys run around and ask me what was 2pac like?
MORGAN: Let me play the commercial. We teased it a little bit earlier. Let's play the commercial of you and Evander Holyfield's ear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYSON: I'm sorry Evander. It's your ear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you okay?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well it's great. But a man's got to know when to walk away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So Mr. Rodman, roundtrip to North Korea?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got. We're coming back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Now, I'll actually sat down, it was during the London Olympics actually with Evander and also Lennox Lewis and we talked about you. Let's listen to what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: That moment when you realized Mike Tyson has decided to eat your ear in the middle of a fight, what goes to your mind?
EVANDER HOLYFIELD, (RET) AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BOXER: Shocked. I was shocked. At all the thing that could have happen, I never would've thought that way (inaudible).
MORGAN: I mean, Lewis, when you were watching that, what did you think?
LENNOX LEWIS, (RET) PROFESSIONAL BOXER: I was horrified. I was like, you know, we're gladiators man, we don't bite, you know, that's -- from amateur days to pro. We don't even think about biting. We're guys that settle it all with our fist but to be bitten. And you don't even know this but Mike Tyson bit me on the leg too.
MORGAN: He did?
LEWIS: So we're both sitting here. We're both being bitten.
MORGAN: So I'm the only person in the room right who wasn't bitten with Mike Tyson.
LEWIS: Right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: I don't want it to stay that way.
TYSON: It's not over yet, the show.
MORGAN: Did you bite Lennox Lewis' leg?
TYSON: Yes, I did bite his leg.
MORGAN: And you did get any chunk of it to keep or?
TYSON: No.
MORGAN: You would return in his leg.
TYSON: Kind of tough, you know. It wasn't tender like Evander's ear, you know.
MORGAN: When you see the video of you biting Holyfield's ear, what do you think?
TYSON: I don't know. I thought, man, I'm sorry. I really wish I didn't do that.
MORGAN: Do you? Even though it has become such a funny thing for everyone in the world to laugh at.
TYSON: Yes. I wish I didn't do that. My fight (inaudible) scored that one round knockout. My fight (inaudible) right now.
MORGAN: And you deserve the news?
TYSON: Yes.
MORGAN: So you're pleased about that?
TYSON: Big time.
MORGAN: Do you get a lot of pleasure now from these young boxers that you're helping to mentor?
TYSON: Hey man, you can't imagine. You just can't imagine. This is just what I want to do with my life now. Work with young kids and like when I see that stuff about people talk about me biting them. I know this is crazy stuff but, you know, it just -- it happens. What are you going to do? I don't allow my past to imprison me for my future and my present. I just continue to live my life and if I did allowed it to imprison me and all that crazy stuff, I wouldn't be here with you. I'll still be sulking about that stuff and being bitter and stuff.
MORGAN: It was interesting in the book because, you know, it goes through all the criminal stuff and the rough stuff and the bad stuff and, you know, the drug addictions and so on. But it's also -- it's very funny and you are a very funny guy as well as ...
TYSON: I don't think I'm funny. You know, Eddie Griffin's a very funny and nationally funny comedian in our country, you know, he's really hilarious, good, great comedian. And he thought I was very funny, he called me and tell me I was very funny and that meant a lot to me, you know. It really meant a lot to me.
MORGAN: There's a dedication in the book and it says, "To all the outcast, everyone who has ever been mesmerized, marginalized, tranquilized, beaten down, and falsely accused and incapable of receiving love." I mean how many of those applied to you? All of them?
TYSON: All of them. Yes, I will say that. Yes. You should have been a psychiatrist (inaudible).
MORGAN: I'll consider it as a career option.
TYSON: Psychiatrist.
MORGAN: Do you ever get into fights anymore? Proper fights with ...
TYSON: No. No.
MORGAN: When was the last time?
TYSON: Haven't been getting arguments now.
MORGAN: You done. Because people must still tried on with you, right?
TYSON: No time recently.
MORGAN: How would you react if they did?
TYSON: I will -- I don't know. I have to be in the situation. I don't want to fight anybody but that's my original stand. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it.
MORGAN: But if you have to, you would?
TYSON: I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. No.
MORGAN: Do you still work out a lot?
TYSON: Yes.
MORGAN: You look fit.
TYSON: I like working out. Yes.
MORGAN: What do you get out of it now? Now that you're not training on fight.
TYSON: I work still. I'm still in front of the camera. I'm still doing shows. I'm still doing movies and I have to look the part and stuff. And so the first Hangover, I'm like 300 pounds and wasn't that cool and stuff. I didn't like that picture. So I wanted to be in better shape for the second Hangover.
MORGAN: What is, a way from the stage thing that you're doing? How do you like to spend your time? I mean I know you use to read lots of books and what kind of things you like to read?
TYSON: I got a book that's the history of warfare and the histories of all the generals and warfare. I think they're really awesome. I should have been -- I should have went to the army. Everyone in my family -- the men in my family -- when I'm the only man in my family in my father side that haven't served in the military and anything, you know, probably because I was involved with Cus and I got a lot of felonies early and stuff. But I'm the only man probably in my -- the men in all my family that never been in the service.
MORGAN: Who would be your sporting hero?
TYSON: Mine? Ali, Duran, you know, fighter.
MORGAN: All boxers.
TYSON: Yes.
MORGAN: Any sportsman from other sports?
TYSON: Man, there's a lot of great other sports to, with a lot of great women athletes too. Mary Decker, was awesome the runner. Yes. She was awesome playing to I don't know. To Serena Williams and her sister, they've both sensational athletes as well outside of boxing.
You know, but the main source of my interests is fighters. I love fighters.
MORGAN: And was Ali the guy that you would love to have fought? TYSON: No way. You know, I looked up in those guy, it was like groupies to those guy -- those guys are like my gods. I worship those guys.
MORGAN: Let's take a little break. Let's come back and talk -- there's a question I guess a lot of people still ask you is will you fight again? Will you get back in the ring? If the money was right.
TYSON: No way.
MORGAN: We'll discuss the temptation after the break.
TYSON: No way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Back with me now, the real Lord of the Rings, Iron Mike Tyson. If can now, would you ever get back in the ring?
TYSON: No.
MORGAN: You're done with that?
TYSON: Pretty much. Yes. Pretty much done.
MORGAN: In October, you launched the Mike Tyson Cares Foundation.
TYSON: I might say Holyfield wants to still fight and he has a fight coming up.
MORGAN: Would you fight Holyfield?
TYSON: I don't know.
MORGAN: Get back to the other ear.
TYSON: No. That one's not edible. He probably have boxing, he probably have ear guards. We did it right, ear guards.
MORGAN: You've got this Mike Tyson Cares Foundation, a charity setup in October last years as an auction to have lunch with you and sit ringside it's going currently for $80,000.
TYSON: Wow.
MORGAN: So I want anyone watching who wants to join in that to get stuck into this, it's an amazing thing.
TYSON: Well listen it's just, for amazing cause. You know, it's going to help give kids in the city a fighting chance for a better life and like we were talking about this crazy city, it's like Chicago and New York City, people are knocking out and shooting people. The reason why they're doing that because they don't believe it's a better life and they don't got hope for a better life. If they had hope for a better life do you think they'd be doing that? If they knew they had some -- there was something at the end of the rainbow do you think they'd be shooting other people? Risk going to jail for a small percentage of money the rest of their life? No they wouldn't do that, because they would have hope and better life.
MORGAN: You're a couple of years shy of turning 50. Does that bother you?
TYSON: Well it is -- I'm not as young as I used to be. I don't have the same temptations that I used to have so I don't think that's really making an issue. My issue now is just trying to be of service and help people less fortunate than myself. And help people that have been in the same situation as myself, you know, I'm not looking for anymore clubs or fancy cars or fancy hangouts riding in private planes anymore. I'm just, I'm at service and make this a better place.
MORGAN: If I could say to you, look I can let you relive one moment in your life again. It's not kind of involve getting married or having children, what moment would you choose? Everything that's happened to you that's in this extraordinary book?
TYSON: Well I never thought about that, just being free again. Being a young kid being free in Brooklyn, there was nothing like that, that was just an amazing life. Getting in trouble the stuff that was going to happen with just amazing life for me as a young kid.
MORGAN: Why did you like it so much?
TYSON: I've never been that free before. I was, I didn't have any restrictions or anything. You know, when I became a fighter, I have restrictions and I was hiding, sneaky, being sneaky about the way I was living my life but when I was young I had not restriction, I didn't care if people say, I'm 10 or nine or eleven years old, 12 years I had no restrictions and it was just pretty awesome for me you know.
MORGAN: Now what would you -- if you had a chance to talk to the 10 year old Mike Tyson and warn him about what was coming.
TYSON: He wouldn't listen, he wouldn't listen, I wouldn't listen.
MORGAN: He wouldn't listen.
TYSON: I love having my fancy clothes, being a little kid with grown men clothes and have his Jheri on and people looking at me and all that attention. I was just really misguided back then but it was just an amazing time in my life. I was learning so much so fast at that time in my life.
MORGAN: Would you change anything Mike? When you read the book, would you go back and change things or do you think everything happens for a reason and you are the...
TYSON: I just hope my daughter didn't die, only that, that's the only I would have change, that she wouldn't have died. Other than that everything will stay the same. Divorces, you know, loosing my mother loosing Cus but yes, if my daughter didn't die.
MORGAN: It was an awful thing to happen. Actually she was four years old?
TYSON: Yes.
MORGAN: Just, got caught in a treadmill, I mean I've got a young daughter, I can't imagine anything worse. How did you deal with it?
TYSON: Hey, I used to -- this way, I used to feel like that when I was at the hospital where other people's children had died or was dying as my daughter died and I realized I don't have no exclusives of either pain and I have to handle it like everyone else handled it and try to be a better father for the children that I have living with me now and to the best of my ability and that's just what it is and that's all I can do, unless I can kill myself and deal with the pain that way and I don't think that's the best way to do it.
MORGAN: What advice do you give your other children now? What do you say to them as a father?
TYSON: Hey listen, whatever situation arise I try to help them to the best of my ability. You know, sometime my oldest son he have problems with -- he's 16 so he's dealing with dating and young girls now and...
MORGAN: And what do you say to him about that?
TYSON: Well I (inaudible) was to be kind to them and treat them nice and yeah so, it's just difficult situation, you know, I mean dealing with children with matters like that, matters of the heart and I try to give them the best advice possible they can with those situations and I just hope that he listens to me because he's going to make his decisions.
He believe that he knows everything, mostly when they're 16 they believe they know everything, they believe what they see in television is the right guide to life and I just hope, I just wish him the best of luck. Because he's just a wonderful kid and he has so many great opportunities that I would never been able to possess if I would have never been able to be than a fighter. You see 16 years old, when I was 16 years old my goal was already being heavyweight champ of the world. I didn't have, I can't go to school and play with my friend, I didn't have no school dances and, you know, I have to train I was living as a man and as a boy at his age. I wasn't having fun like him.
You know, everything was hard and, you know, I had a lot of doubt, you know, and the doubts that he has -- he feels some situations, he may still have a better chance of surviving the life tonight that I didn't have a chance to. There's no mistake that I allowed in my life, I can't make any mistakes.
MORGAN: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MORGAN: I want to thank Mike Tyson for joining me tonight, Mike always great to see you. Thanks so much.
TYSON: Great to be here, thank you very much.
MORGAN: His book Undisputed Truth is available now and the Spike Lee film of the same name is airing on HBO and of course check out miketysoncares.org for more information on his terrific charity. That's all for us tonight. See you back here next time.
