JAKARTA - Mike Tyson shared a story about the loss of his favorite pet. The boxing legend was forced to give up his white Bengal tiger after nearly eating his neighbour's dog.
Tyson decided to buy and keep a tiger in 1995. Exactly three years after he was released from prison.
Overall, Tyson is known to have three tigers. Each of the big cats is estimated to have been bought for more than £50,000 per head.
Although not a natural pet star, Tyson really loves his tigers. Until one day he had to give up parting with the pet because of an incident.
According to Shelly Finkel, who is his former manager, Tyson was forced to relinquish ownership of his tiger after his pet nearly ate his neighbour's dog.
“The (Mike Tyson) house is between two houses in Vegas where the right side facing the street is next to the house of the famous Vegas player. While on the other left side next to a businessman who has several dogs," said Finke quoted from The Sun, Tuesday.
"One day Mike decided to walk with one of his Bengal tigers, but just then the tiger saw the neighbor's dog and tried to climb over the wall to eat the dog," he said.
"The man who owned the house was looking out the window and was surprised to see a tiger jumping over the wall to try to eat his dog while Mike was trying to pull him down," Finkel said.
Because of this incident, that night Tyson was visited by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The presence of the organization aims to revoke Tyson's license to keep tigers.
“He (Mike Tyson) got him (the tiger) off the neighbor's fence and that night Mike called me and said, 'Shelly, the ASPCA is here, I'm not allowed to keep cats, how do you think they know?' Finkel's story about Tyson's fear.
Finkel then answered based on the existing situation and said it happened because of reports from neighbors.
"'How do you think they found out? Your neighbors saw it (the tiger) coming over the wall to eat the dog. How do you think they found out!'
“For me it was my favorite story with Mike,” recalls Finkel.
Finkel became Tyson's manager until the star finally decided to retire in 2005. Their story of togetherness began when Iron Mike was a teenager and was doing amateur boxing.
The two first worked together in 1988, when Finkel brokered a closed-circuit pay-per-view deal for Tyson's win over Michael Spinks.
Finkel was a part-time manager for Tyson. The incident occurred when the star was disqualified from heavyweight in 1997 for biting Evander Holyfield's ear.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
