Mike Tyson on being sexually abused in childhood: ‘It made me have to be tough’

HE’S always put up an invincible front in the ring and in public, but there’s something Mike Tyson still struggles to face.

MIKE Tyson has opened up on the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, revealing how much impact it has had on his life.

In an interview with ESPN’s E60, the former boxing champion told Jeremy Schapp how the molestation made him tough, and how he still found it difficult to talk about what happened.

Schapp, who has interviewed Tyson regularly during the past 25 years, asked why was the first time he had opened up about the abuse to him.

“Well I don’t like to talk about that, I like to keep that where it was in the past, but I was molested as a child,” Tyson replied.

It’s not the first time the former heavyweight champion of the world has talked about the abuse.

In a 2014 interview with SiriusXM’s Opie Radio, he told co-host Jim Norton how he was snatched off the street at age seven and abused by an older man.

Tyson said it only happened the once and he managed to escape by running away.

In the latest ESPN interview, the now 51-year-old told Schapp how he was grabbed by a stranger and taken into a building but wouldn’t say exactly what happened to him.

He did however reveal the effect it has had on him today saying: “It made me have to be tough for the world I lived in.”

The former boxing champ told ESPN’s Jeremy Schapp the abuse shaped him. Picture: Screengrab/ESPN

Tyson said he felt some shame at what happened to him and the reason some people didn’t want to talk about it was because they felt it emasculated them.

“I learned that it doesn’t make you any less of a man because it happened,” Tyson said.

Tyson has been open about his troubled childhood.

In his recently released book Iron Ambition: Lessons I’ve Learned From The Man Who Made Me A Champion Tyson details how he grew up on the rough streets of Brownsville in Brooklyn.

Tyson never knew his father, and his mother died when he was 16.

He was a violent street fighter and spent his days in and out of youth detention centres before becoming the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title at just 20.

The fighter also revealed how legendary boxing trainer Cus D’Amato shaped him into a champion and an “arrogant sociopath” and encouraged him to have a ruthless attitude.

James “Buster” Douglas, right, hits Tyson with a hard right in the face during their world heavyweight title bout in Tokyo in 1990. The fight result was one of the most stunning upsets in sports history. Picture: Sadayuki Mikami/AP

A pro fighter since the age of 18, Tyson had won all but two of his first 28 fights by knockout or technical knockout.

However both his career and personal life have been marred in controversy.

His career began unravelling, and in January 1990, he lost a fight against Buster Douglas and his title as heavyweight champion of the world.

The following year, beauty-pageant contestant named Desiree Washington accused him of raping her in a hotel room in Indianapolis.

He claimed the sex was consensual, but was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison the following February. He served less than half of his sentence.

In 1997, he bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight, a stunt which got him banned from boxing for one year.

In and out of rehab, Tyson appeared in the 2009 film The Hangover, admitting he was drunk and high during filming.

Married three times, Tyson has seven children, one of whom died when she was just four.

He also turned to veganism for four years and began working out for three hours a day. He has also spoken about how Islam has helped him in his battle to stay sober.

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