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Mike Tyson Lashes Out at Sports Media
September 15, 2000 10:08 am EST

By Jill Serjeant
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) - Declaring himself an animal, a hell-raiser and a "convicted rapist," Mike Tyson lashed out at the media for dubbing his upcoming bout with Andrew Golota a freak show between two of the dirtiest fighters in the business.

"We are in the hurting business and you criticize us for doing our jobs. You don't have the merit to judge us. You are the freaks because you don't have the audacity to face us in the ring," railed the former world heavyweight champion.

By his own admission, Tyson was heavily medicated during the news conference Thursday, which likely contributed to wild mood swings.

He cursed, stripped off his shirt and offered to put a bullet through the head of current heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in a rambling, expletive-filled news conference that veered from jaunty showmanship to naked aggression.

Tyson, 34, meets Polish-born Golota in Detroit on Oct. 22 in a bout that Golota's trainer Al Certo predicted would be "a real war". Tyson's assistant trainer Stacy McKinley retorted that "Mike will try to damn near kill him (Golota)."

The pay per view bout pits two of boxing's most notorious fighters.

Tyson (48-3) had his boxing license suspended for a year after biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear in their June 1997 bout. Outside the ring, he was spent three years in prison for rape and was jailed in Maryland for kicking two motorists after a minor traffic accident.

Golota (36-4), who now lives in Chicago, has been twice disqualified from bouts for hitting below the belt.

"Somebody said I'm dirty, but it's not true. I take a shower three times a day," joked a scowling Golota from behind reflecting sunglasses.

Tyson missed Golota's portion of the promotion circus, arriving almost three hours late for a chaotic news conference from which an impatient Golota had already abruptly departed.

Tyson, jumping on a table and stripping to the waist to show off his fitness, was clearly frustrated at the constant questions over his notorious reputation.

"I am many things. I am an animal. I am a convicted rapist, a hell-raiser, a loving father, a semi-good husband. You don't really know me," he lashed out, adding he was taking unspecified medication that had messed up his heart, his sex life and his speech.

"You don't know our pain, our sweat," he said,

Tyson claimed he did not want his heavyweight title back. But moments later he said he could "beat Lennox Lewis to oblivion."

"If he (Lewis) ever tries to intimidate me, I'm gonna put a (expletive) bullet through his (expletive) skull."

Tyson was fined in August by British boxing authorities for a similarly shocking verbal tirade against Lewis. "I want to eat your children," he said of Lewis in June.

Tyson said he had finally worked out that the media was against him, not because he was black "but because I get paid for this."

But he added, "I know you guys talk bad about me but your kids and grandkids will know me. They'll say 'Man, wasn't that a bizarre individual."'