On January 5, 1988, former world champion Larry Holmes was 17 days away from being KO’d in the fourth round by a young Mike Tyson. But before their fight, Holmes said something eerily prescient: “And if he’s lucky enough to kick my butt, I still won’t respect him. I think that, in four or five years, he’ll be out of the picture. He’ll be in jail.”
Exactly four years and four days later, Mike Tyson’s trial for rape began.
Hoo boy: If you were impressed when Ali predicted which round he’d KO his opponent, you’ve got to stand in awe of Larry Holmes’ power of prophecy!
Of course, that was all a long time ago. And this Friday night, Iron Mike Tyson will return to the ring — at age 58! — to fight 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer (10-1 record) Jake Paul. The bout takes place on Netflix and will likely be the most-watched fight in decades.
Or, possibly, the most-watched fight in world history. (What a time to be alive!)
Much of the Netflix audience is too young to remember Tyson’s rape conviction. Netflix certainly isn’t eager to remind fight fans, and Iron Mike’s been a pop-culture icon for so long that it’s not always top-of-mind.
Besides, that rape trial (and three-year prison sentence) were mere bumps in the road in Mike Tyson’s Life Story. Afterward, he regained a few world titles. He became the biggest PPV attraction of his era. He was upset by Evander Holyfield — and later tried to EAT Evander Holyfield. He tattooed his face. One of his children tragically passed away. He became a marijuana entrepreneur. He cameoed in those silly “Hangover” movies. He backed Donald Trump for president.
And he’s always been one helluva quote:
(Anyone who can follow a threat to cannibalize children with a shout-out to Allah is my kind of guy!)
Mike Tyson is no stranger to controversy. But by a very wide margin, the biggest black cloud hanging over his reputation is his 1992 conviction for the rape of Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington. The allegation and many of the details were disgusting and disturbing.
Yet the question remains: Did he actually do it?
Personally, I think Tyson was railroaded.
Only Washington and Tyson know for sure what happened. I certainly wasn’t there. I did work in media with a woman who testified in Tyson’s trial: She was a contestant in the Miss Black American competition and was subpoenaed by the defense. According to her, Ms. Washington was extremely forward with Tyson and was hardly the shy, demure lady her lawyers had portrayed.
But my colleague wasn’t in the room either. And being “forward” certainly doesn’t excuse rape.
When you follow Tyson’s career, one of the things that stands out is his honesty. He’s been remarkably candid about his life. From his suicidal thoughts to his feelings of worthlessness to his raging impulse to commit horrible acts of violence, Tyson has all too often been the definition of “honest to a fault.”
“I didn’t violate her in any way,” Tyson testified on the witness stand on February 8, 1992. “She never told me to stop, or I was hurting her, nothing… All the time we were talking, she had her hand on my leg… She was racing to get out of her clothes.”
Tyson has openly spoken about his lawbreaking past — how he’d mug women and punch them in the face. He’s recounted the times he was arrested, mocked, and beaten. He’s revealed his greatest fears and worst personal humiliations. When he was struggling with alcoholism, he was honest about that, too.
And he’s always been 100% consistent that he NEVER raped Desiree Washington.
Here’s what Tyson said in 2013:
But some of my anger was understandable. I was a twenty-five-year-old kid facing sixty years in jail for a crime that I did not commit. Let me repeat here what I said before the grand jury, during the trial, at my sentencing, at my early release hearing, after I got out of prison, and what I will continue to say until they put me in the ground. I did not rape Desiree Washington. She knows it, God knows it, and the consequences of her actions are something that she’s got to live with for the rest of her life.
He already did his time. He can’t be further punished. And he already paid an “undisclosed amount” to Washington after she filed a civil suit against him. (Rumors abound that it was a multimillion-dollar settlement.) At this point, acknowledging guilt would be a sunken cost.
But for 30+ years, he’s always maintained that he absolutely did NOT rape that woman.
Mike Tyson is a violent, angry man. That’s obvious. But to me, he sounds like a violent, angry man who was wrongfully convicted — and still frickin’ furious about it! Consider this interview he had with Greta Van Susteren in 2003, when Tyson was asked about Desiree Washington: “I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don’t know. I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her.”
During his 58 years on this planet, Mike Tyson has said and done many despicable, unforgivable things. (And the above quote is unquestionably despicable: There’s no excuse for threatening violence against women.) He’s guilty of many crimes, sins, and heinous acts — some big, some small.
But with the vantage of 30+ years of hindsight, it seems increasingly likely that he was also convicted of a crime he didn’t commit.
