Former world champion boxer Mike Tyson is clearly not satisfied with his triumphs over fellow humans in the ring. In an interview with The Sun, he revealed that he once tried to bribe a zookeeper to let him fight a gorilla.
Tyson’s love of tigers has been well documented but this urge seemed to come from animosity towards the animal, rather than a deep-held desire to get closer to nature, which he surely experienced when he had white tigers strolling round a luxury mansion…..
The champion rented out the entirety of a New York zoo back in the late 1980s to allow him and his first wife, Robin Givens to enjoy a romantic stroll.
When they reached the home of the unfortunate gorilla, Tyson was perturbed by what he saw as its bullying behaviour. Let’s hear the story in his own words:
When we got to the gorilla cage there was one big silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas… I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let me smash that silverback’s snotbox! He declined.
A gorilla at Bronx Zoo, NYC – Could this be Tyson’s nemesis?
It’s certainly a good thing that the zookeeper was sensible enough to not let Mike Tyson get torn apart by gorillas, despite his obvious expertise in the group dynamics of primates.
After discovering that ridiculous incident, it isn’t surprising that Tyson’s divorce from Givens went through in 1989.
The moral of the story is simple. Don’t fight gorillas. And ‘snotbox’ is a dreadful word. Or, of course, there is always the possibility that this is completely made up. Surely not?
If you’ve not yet become immune to psychotic animal-related yarns, take a look at this series.
Featured Image Credit – Flickr
