During a recent interview on T.I.’s ExpediTIously podcast, boxing legend Mike Tyson expressed his frustration at his children’s dating preferences while also admitting his own shortcomings as a father and husband.
In 2009, Tyson married his third wife, Lakiha Spicer, who, according to the retired heavyweight champion, has achieved the impossible by finally making him monogamous—kind of.
“She swooped down on me and told me, ‘This is what we’re gonna do,’ and that’s what happened,” Tyson explained on the popular podcast. “That’s why I believe in what I believe in now. ‘Cause there’s no way this could be happening.”
He added, “There’s no way I could’ve been married to my wife. I’m not faithful enough. I’m just not that kind of guy. I don’t care about nothing enough more than my dick, so how am I gonna be faithful to somebody? But it worked. I got 10 years with her. I’ve gone two years without ever fucking a bitch but my wife. For a nigga like me, I had to have them every day. I had to cum every second of the day. I’m the poster boy for Sexual Anonymous.”
So you’ve gone two years without cheating on your wife? Uhhh…Congrats?
Tyson also took the time to explain how maturity has strengthened his marriage.
“I look at women differently as I get older. When I was younger, I viewed them as pleasure. Now that I’m older, I look at them as the half,” he said. “It makes me realize that I’m a man. And at this stage in my life, they’re my teachers. If a man doesn’t have a little bit of fear of his wife, he’s not living his life right. That’s why I got married three times, ’cause I can’t live without a wife. If I don’t have a wife, I’ll kill myself. That’s real talk. I need somebody to listen to. I’m a soldier. I can’t think on my own. I need somebody to do it […] I know myself.”
Later on in the interview, the father of eight described himself as a “savage animal” without his wife and admitted that his dating history and his own behavior has contributed to the type of men and women his children chose to bring home.
“You know what bothers me, too, man? And I gotta say this. Why my kids don’t like black kids?” he asked. “They don’t date black kids. Why is that? […] Sometimes I look at my daughter, I see she’s attracted to white guys, and I think, ‘I didn’t set a good example as a black man,’ then […] They must have seen me sometimes when I was vulnerable and said, ‘Hey, I don’t wanna be with no one like that. He’s scary.’”
You can listen to the interview in its entirety here.