Mike Tyson

Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the face.
– Mike Tyson

I’m gonna make sure you talk about me, and your grandkids and kids after that gonna know
about me… your great grandkids will say, “Wow, wasn’t that a bizarre individual?”
– Mike Tyson

It’s interesting that you put me in the league with those illustrious fighters (Muhammad Ali,
Joe Louis, Jack Johnson), but I’ve proved since my career I’ve surpassed them as far my
popularity. I’m the biggest fighter in the history of the sport. If you don’t believe it, check
the cash register.
– Mike Tyson

I’m addicted to perfection. Problem with my life is I was always also addicted to chaos.
Perfect chaos.
– Mike Tyson

Everybody thinks this is a tough man’s sport. This is not a tough man’s sport. This is a
thinking man’s sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport.
– Mike Tyson

Y’all guys know what I do… I put people in body bags.
– Mike Tyson

There are nine million people who see me in the ring and hate my guts. Most of them are
white. That’s OK. Just spell my name right.
– Mike Tyson

When you have something in life that you want to accomplish greatly, you have to be willing
to give up your happiness… I’ve lost all my sensitivity as far as being embarrassed, being
shy, you just have to lose that.
– Mike Tyson

I may like to fornicate more than other people – it’s just who I am. I sacrifice so much of my
life, can I at least get laid? I mean, I been robbed of my most of my money, can I at least
get a blowjob without the people wanting to harass me and wanting to throw me in jail?
– Mike Tyson

When I fight someone, I want to break his will. I want to take his manhood. I want to rip out
his heart and show it to him.
– Mike Tyson

People say “Poor guy.” That insults me. I despise sympathy. So I screwed up. I made some
mistakes. “Poor guy,” like I’m some victim. There’s nothing poor about me.
– Mike Tyson

It’s no doubt I am going to win this fight and I feel confident about winning this fight. I
normally don’t do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them. So you shouldn’t talk
anymore… Unless you want to, you know.
– Mike Tyson

I can sell out Madison Square Garden masturbating.
– Mike Tyson

I still can’t believe (Muhammad Ali) knows my name. It astounds me he knows who I am. I
first met Ali in 1976. I was locked up in a juvenile home and he came to visit. I’ve never
forgotten it.
– Mike Tyson

– Mike Tyson: By the way man, where you get that cop car from?
Stu Price: We uh, stole it from these dumbass cops.
– Mike Tyson: Nice!
– Mike Tyson, The Hangover

The act of treachery is an art, but the traitor himself is a piece of shit.
– Mike Tyson

Whatever you want, especially when you’re striving to be the best in the world at something,
there’ll always be disappointments, and you can’t be emotionally tied to them, cos’ they’ll
break your spirit.
– Mike Tyson

I found out that someone I believed was my surrogate father, my brother, my blood figure
turns out to be the true Uncle Tom, the true nigger, the true sellout. He did more bad to
black fighters than any white promoter ever in the history of boxing.
– Mike Tyson, on Don King

My problem is that I always took myself too damn seriously and that got me in a lot of
trouble.
– Mike Tyson

One minute I’m robbing a dope house. Next minute I’m the youngest heavyweight champion of
the world. I’m only 20, 19, with a lot of money. Who am I? What am I? I don’t even know who
I am. I’m just a dumb child who’s being abused and robbed by lawyers. I’m just a dumb
pugnacious fool. I’m just a fool who thinks he’s someone. Then you tell me I should be
responsible.
– Mike Tyson

My main objective in the fight is to be a professional but to kill him.
– Mike Tyson, on Lennox Lewis

Reporter: They determined that you were suffering from depression, low self-esteem, and
that you had problems with anger management. How have you tried to address those
problems?
Tyson: That’s all they said was wrong with me?
– Mike Tyson

I’m in trouble because I’m normal and slightly arrogant. A lot of people don’t like themselves
and I happen to be totally in love with myself.
– Mike Tyson

White boy, faggot, you can’t touch me, you’re not man enough, I eat your ass all alive, you
bitch, can’t anybody in here fuck with this, this is the ultimate. Fuck you, you hoe! Come say
it to my face, you bitch. Come on you bitch, you’re a scared coward, you’re not man enough
to fuck with me, you can’t last two minutes in my world bitch. Look you scared now, you
hoe. Scared like a little cracker bitch. Scared of the real man! I’ll fuck you till you love me.
– Mike Tyson, to a reporter

I’m scared every time I go into the ring, but it’s how you handle it. What you have to do is
plant your feet, bite down on your mouthpiece and say, “Let’s go.”
– Mike Tyson

I know I was a tough, bad-ass talking fighter, but I ain’t no mob figure. I did my time for the
rape. I paid my money to Las Vegas. I paid my dues. I ain’t the same person I was when I bit
that guy’s ear off.
– Mike Tyson

He was screaming like my wife.
– Mike Tyson, on Tyrell Biggs

My power is discombobulating devastating. I could feel his muscle tissues collapse under my
force. It’s ludicrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm.
– Mike Tyson

I’m the best ever. I’m the most brutal and vicious, and most ruthless champion there’s ever
been. There’s no one can stop me. Lennox is a conqueror? No, I’m Alexander, he’s no
Alexander. I’m the best ever! There’s never been anybody as ruthless! I’m Sonny Liston, I’m
Jack Dempsey. There’s no one like me. I’m from their cloth. There’s no one that can match
me. My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your
heart! I want to eat his children! Praise be to Allah!
– Mike Tyson

It’s good to be successful and have financial status but if you’re only gonna live for the
money, you’re only gonna reach a certain status and I’m in there for greatness and peace of
mind.
– Mike Tyson

Discipline – doing what you hate to do but do it like you love it.
– Mike Tyson

Everyone says “I wish I was in your shoes…” The hundreds of people that wish they were in
my shoes don’t know the tenth of it. If they were in my shoes they would cry like a baby.
– Mike Tyson

I overshadowed a lot of guys during my time, but he is inconceivably the most competitive
human being I ever competed against. It’s easy to overlook that because he’s such a
smooth, kind-hearted guy.
– Mike Tyson, on Evander Holyfield

Sometimes I put on a ski mask and dress in old clothes, go out on the streets and beg for
quarters.
– Mike Tyson

If they don’t have that extreme addict personality, you can never understand how a guy can
blow 300 or 400 million dollars. If I have to live at the top of the world, I also have to live at
the bottom of the ocean. I don’t know how to live in the middle of life.
– Mike Tyson

I’m not Mother Teresa, but I’m not Charles Manson, either.
– Mike Tyson

I feel like sometimes that I was born, that I’m not meant for this society because everyone
here is a fucking hypocrite. Everybody says they believe in God but they don’t do God’s work.
Everybody counteracts what God is really about. If Jesus was here, do you think Jesus would
show me any love? Do you think Jesus would love me? I’m a Muslim, but do you think Jesus
would love me… I think Jesus would have a drink with me and discuss… why you acting like
that? Now, he would be cool. He would talk to me. No Christian ever did that and said in the
name of Jesus even… They’d throw me in jail and write bad articles about me and then go to
church on Sunday and say Jesus is a wonderful man and he’s coming back to save us. But
they don’t understand that when he comes back, that these crazy, greedy, capitalistic men
are gonna kill him again.
– Mike Tyson

You’re sweet. I’m going to make sure you kiss me good with those big lips. I’m gonna make
you my girlfriend.
– Mike Tyson, on Razor Ruddock

I can talk about humility, but I’m not humble. I mean, if you say, “I’m humble,” you’ve just
contradicted yourself. But I’m trying to be, man, I’m trying so hard.
– Mike Tyson

I had a 9th grade education. But my kids go to Ivy League schools. I’m dumb as shit but I did
something right.
– Mike Tyson

This is a weird feeling in my life I have to deal with, not being a violent man anymore when
my whole life’s reputation was built on being extremely violent. I just don’t know how to deal
with that right now. I don’t even go to strip clubs no more. I don’t know who I am sometimes,
but I am not the guy I used to be. I’m not an angel or anything. I’m still lascivious,
periodically. I’m just looking for some balance in my life.
– Mike Tyson

One day some guy is going to get a billion-dollar fight.
– Mike Tyson

I love to hit people. I love to. Most celebrities are afraid someone’s going to attack them. I
want someone to attack me. No weapons. Just me and him. I like to beat men and beat them
bad.
– Mike Tyson

I paid a worker at New York’s zoo to re-open it just for me and Robin (his wife). When we got
to the gorilla cage there was one big Silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas.
They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant. I offered the attendant
$10,000 to open the cage and let me smash that silverback’s snotbox! He declined.
– Mike Tyson

Anyone with a grain of sense would know that if I punched my wife I would rip her head off.
It’s all lies. I have never laid a finger on her.
– Mike Tyson

I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds.
– Mike Tyson

You guys have written so much bad stuff about me I can’t remember the last time I fucked a
decent woman. I have to go with strippers and ‘ho’s’ and bitches because you put that image
on me..
– Mike Tyson

One of my friends once saw another guy’s (criminal) record and said, “Look, this guy is a born
troublemaker, just a loser.” I had to tell him, “No, that’s my record – and it doesn”t include my
juvenile history.”
– Mike Tyson

March 16th, – Mike Tyson vs Razor Ruddock, Razor Ruddock dies. If he doesn’t die, it doesn’t
count. If he’s not dead, it doesn’t count.
– Mike Tyson

You can’t be disturbed by anything. There’s no emotion involved. You can’t feel sorrow, you
can’t feel pity, there’s nothing you feel. The job has to be done.
– Mike Tyson

People love you when you’re successful, but if you’re not, who really cares about you?
– Mike Tyson

These books ain’t window dressing. I think Machiavelli’s the most sophisticated writer outside
of Shakespeare. Way ahead of his time. Such a manipulative person. Everything he
accomplished he did by kissin’ ass.
– Mike Tyson

You can’t stay married in a situation where you are afraid to go to sleep in case your wife
might cut your throat.
– Mike Tyson

I try to catch them right on the tip of his nose because I try to punch the bone into the
brain.
– Mike Tyson

I’ve been a prima-donna. I was taken care of since I was 13. That’s why I am the way I am
today. I was spoiled, like a brat. I had anything I wanted. That’s crazy to be that way all
your life. Everybody’s taking care of you, but manipulating you at the same time. Very few
people have a life like that. Most people have to work like slaves their whole lives. I’ve never
had a job in my life. What I know how to do is hurt big, tough men – in the street and off.
– Mike Tyson

You’re smart too late and old too soon.
– Mike Tyson

I wish that you guys had children so I could kick them in the fucking head or stomp on their
testicles so you could feel my pain because that’s the pain I have waking up every day.
– Mike Tyson, on the media

I like my tattoo a lot. I wouldn’t want to take it off. I am who I am.
– Mike Tyson

I think the average person thinks I’m a nut and I deserve whatever happens to me. That’s
what I believe.
– Mike Tyson

I just have this thing inside me that wants to eat and conquer. Maybe it’s egotistical, but I
have it in me. I don’t want to be a tycoon. I just want to conquer people and their souls.
– Mike Tyson

Every shot was thrown with bad intentions.
– Mike Tyson

We live in a society where we basically live and strive on what people think about us. We’re
more visual people so what we see is basically what we believe which is not necessarily true.
– Mike Tyson

Like you said – we all do dumb shit when we’re fucked up.
– Mike Tyson, The Hangover

I am a better parent than my mother and my father and that’s a victory in itself.
– Mike Tyson

I’m not going to tell you I am a good father. I have to contribute to the world. I have to
teach (my children) how to contribute to the world. That’s our whole existence – to
contribute to the world and make it a better place in some way. In my life I contributed to
make it a bad place.
– Mike Tyson

I got a imam, I got a rabbi, I got a priest, I got a reverend – I got ’em all. But I don’t want to
be holier-than-thou. I want to help everybody and still get some (sex).
– Mike Tyson

My kids don’t have to fight. But if they did, I wouldn’t want them to fight anybody like me.
– Mike Tyson

Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn’t have a cent.
– Mike Tyson

I think the reality of prison is you don’t get anything unless you want it in there. Whatever
happens to you in prison, this is what you asked for. Nothing happens to you if you don’t give
that vibe.
– Mike Tyson

My career has been over since 1990.
– Mike Tyson

I don’t try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That’s nonsense. I intimidate people by
hitting them.
– Mike Tyson

I’m sorry I let everybody down, I’m fighting just to pay my bills. I don’t have the stomach for
this anymore… I don’t have the desire for it. I feel bad for the people… I wish they could get
their money back.
– Mike Tyson, after his loss to Kevin McBride

I could have knocked him out in the third round but I wanted to do it slowly, so he would
remember this night for a long time.
– Mike Tyson

I think I’m a pig. I have this uncanny ability to look at myself in the mirror and say, “This is a
pig. You are a fucking piece of shit.”
– Mike Tyson

I probably have a 20,000-word vocabulary. I’ll match my wits with anyone on literature,
science and the arts.
– Mike Tyson

It’s good to know how to read, but it’s dangerous to know how to read and not how to
interpret what you’re reading.
– Mike Tyson