Why did Mike Tyson have tigers as pets and what happened to them?
MIKE TYSON was fearless both in and out of the ring – especially in his choice of pets.
The heavyweight boxer – who will return to the ring to fight Jake Paul on July 20 – raised a few eyebrows when he could be seen with pet tigers at his home.
Why did Mike Tyson have a tiger?
At the peak of his career, a young Mike Tyson had more money than he knew what to do with.
Mainly spending his money on luxury cars, he recalls a conversation he once had with his car dealer.
He told Tyson how if somebody didn’t pay for the cars he was owed money for, he was going to get some horses for them.
This blew the mind of young ‘Iron Mike’ and he quizzed him how he was going to get horses for cars.
As he had a lot of luxury cars at the time, he decided he was going to get himself some horses.
He asked him if he could broker the exchange, to which he replied “Yeah man, you can get cougars, lions, tigers”.
At this stage, Tyson became interested in getting some tigers instead.
“You do?! Can you get me some tigers?”
What happened to Mike Tyson’s tiger?
At one point, Mike Tyson owned three Bengal tigers.
As they got bigger, he donated two of the cats to a local sanctuary.
When he got the pets they were babies but they soon grew up and before he knew it, he had 400lb tigers to look after.
He kept one of the Bengal tigers, named Kenya, for 16 years.
Tyson told GQ magazine: “I had to get rid of her when her eyes and her head got bad.
“Oh and she ripped somebody’s arm off.”
As it turned out, the tiger did not randomly attack anyone but someone jumped over the fence of his property to play with the pet.
It turned sour when the person had an incident with the tiger which resulted in their arm being badly damaged.
They tried to sue Tyson but once the judge heard that they were trespassing on his property, the claim was dismissed.
The ex-boxer added: “And listen, when I saw what the tiger did to her hand, I had a lot of money back then, so I gave her $250,000 or whatever it was.”
What film did Mike Tyson’s tiger feature in?
One of his pet tigers, Kenya, appeared in the film The Hangover with him.
In the scene, his pet was stolen from his home and he is seen watching the CCTV footage of someone taking his then-500lb tiger.
Stars Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms are then startled as they wake to find the beast in their bathroom.
Mike Tyson decided to get rid of his pet tiger after the incident with the woman’s arm saying, “I was foolish. There’s no way you’re gonna domesticate these cats 100%, there’s no way that’s gonna happen.”