Boxing legend Mike Tyson has confessed that he once knocked out a binman who chucked his beloved pet pigeon in the bin. There's a sentence I bet you never thought you'd read.
Tyson, 53, said he was heartbroken after his pigeon Julius died, and had planned to grieve for his pet and hold a memorial service.
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However, he says he was robbed of the chance when a binman put the animal carcass in the bin after finding it on a crate.
It probably goes without saying, but one place you never want to be is on the wrong side of a former heavyweight champ, which the binman quickly found out when Tyson whacked him and knocked him out.
Tyson told World Boxing Council: "One morning I woke up and found my favourite pigeon, Julius, had died. I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honour him.
"I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher.
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"I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand and he was out cold."
This isn't the first time Tyson has spoken out about his love of pigeons.
Speaking on Taking on Tyson in 2011, he opened up about confronting a boy who cruelly ripped off one of his pigeon's heads.
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He explained: "The guy ripped the head off my pigeon. This was the first thing I ever loved in my life, the pigeon.
"I don't know why, I feel ridiculous just trying to explain it. [Pigeons] are just so much like people."
He said: "I was fat and ugly. Kids teased me all the time. The only joy I had was pigeons."
His latest admission comes just days after he gave a candid interview to Sugar Ray Leonard on his Hotboxin' podcast, in which he hinted at a sense of nostalgia for the person he used to be in the ring, but also seemed slightly worried that version of himself could one day return.
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He said: "I know all the warriors. From Charlemagne to Achilles - the number one warrior of all warriors - and then Alexander and Napoleon, I know them all. I read about them all. I know the art of fighting, I know the art of war. That's all I've ever studied. That's why I'm so feared, that's why they feared me when I was in the ring. I was an annihilator, that's all I was born for. Now those days are gone, it's empty, I'm nothing.
"I'm working on being the art of humbleness [sic]. That's the reason I'm crying, 'cause I'm not that person no more, and I miss him. Sometimes I feel like a b***h because I don't want that person to come out ... 'cause if he comes out hell is coming with him. And, it's not funny at all. It's not cool like I'm a tough guy. It's just that I hate that guy, I'm scared of him.
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"That guy's kind of dead now... but that wasn't easy. That guy didn't want to leave. He wasn't leaving easy. He fought, screamed and cried and scratched all the way until he died, you know?"
Featured Image Credit: PA
Topics: Boxing