MIKE TYSON might be fighting Jake Paul tomorrow night but the biggest battle of his life has come outside the ring.

The legendary heavyweight, 58, who became the youngest world champion in the division’s history at the age of just 20, suffered years of addiction to sex and drug addiction.

Nowadays he has a calmer persona, largely thanks to the influence of his third wife, Lakiha Spicer.

He does still regularly smoke cannabis – although he has claimed he has given it up while training for the showdown with YouTuber Paul.

But his current dabbling in recreational drugs pales in comparison with stories of his various addictions from years ago – which stretches all the way back to him taking acid at the age of just 11.

Many of Tyson’s sexual exploits took place during the height of his boxing fame in the 1980s.

His former bodyguard and chauffeur, Rudy Gonzalez, recalled back in 2021 that Tyson would have sex with “groupies” in the dressing room before fights to avoid “killing” his opponents. Gonzalez explained: “One of the greatest secrets with Mike was that he needed to have sex in the dressing room before fights.

“I would have to find a groupie, it did not matter who it was. He’d say ‘if I do not get laid I will kill this guy right now’.

“Mike had to get laid to disengage some of the strength he had. So I had girls tucked away in bathrooms and changing rooms.

“Sometimes he’d go in with them for a minute, bang the s*** out of them, snap his neck and say: ‘Okay this guy is going to live tonight’.

“His biggest fear was that he would kill someone in that ring. He knew he could do it.

“I still see some of the guys he fought. I was there at ringside seeing these huge men crying, bones shattering or their blood flying everywhere.

“It is no exaggeration to say Mike was like a train hitting these guys. Having sex was his way of disengaging that power and loosening up a bit.”
‘Pure hell’ living with Tyson
Tyson had a whirlwind 12-month marriage to his first wife, actress Robin Givens, in the late 80s.

Prior to their official separation, Givens described her husband as a “manic depressive” and labelled living with him as “torture, pure hell”.

They continued seeing each other after their divorce, before Tyson walked in on Givens sleeping with Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. Tyson went to prison for three years in 1992 for the rape of Desiree Washington.

But being locked up did not curb his sex addiction as he claimed he slept with a prison counsellor in the hope of having his sentence reduced.

They ended up having two children together — Rayna and Amir — but the relationship did not last as Turner filed for divorce after claiming adultery.

Many of the years which could have been Tyson’s best in the ring were curtailed by addiction issues. — Sun.