One of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, Mike Tyson, has shared how his oldest son, Amir, had indicated interest in becoming a boxer and his response.
Tyson, the former professional boxer competed between 1985 and 2005 was nicknamed “Iron Mike” and “Kid Dynamite” in his early career, and later known as “The Baddest Man on the Planet.”
While sharing his thoughts about his parenting experience, the 57-year-old retired boxer said, “I had my oldest son who was 16 telling me he wanted to become a professional boxer.
“But stop there, you’re stup!d, you went to a private school! You can’t be a boxer, you’ve taken trips to Europe, you’ve been around the world. You can’t be a fighter with that.
“You want to fight guys like me? Animals? I don’t want my kids to go through that, it’s degrading.
“He wants to do this so bad. I said: ‘Man, just chill the f— out.’ He wants to fight Logan Paul and those guys. He wants to do that.
“I said: ‘Man, just get a job. Get a real estate license. Just chill out, man. Why can’t you take advantage of your lightweight wealthiness? Just chill.’
“You don’t want none of that heat. I’m telling you … getting humiliated in front of millions of people. You gotta be able to take that pressure and heat. Not many people can do it.”
“Boxing, you do it when you have nothing. It’s a lot of sacrifices, pain, suffering. I took the blows so that my children wouldn’t have to do it.”
Continuing, the controversial figure said of his children, “When I look at them, I see middle-class children, who went to school, who do what they want.”
As for taking up boxing as a profession, he said, dismissively, “Boxing means wanting to be the best, to dominate everyone. I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on them.”
Meanwhile, the now 26-year-old Amir majored in broadcast journalism at university, is an entrepreneur, and even has a clothing line.
