Mike Tyson Has 74 Pigeons – and He Can Tell Them All Apart

Former Heavyweight Champ talks to TheWrap about his love of birds, boxing and that old Nintendo classic, “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!”

Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson on December 1, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mike Tyson currently has 74 pigeons, and yes, he can tell the difference between all of them, the former heavyweight champion of the world told TheWrap during a recent interview.

Why did that even come up, you ask? Well, Tyson was talking about his lifelong love of birds, which recently took him to South America’s Republic of Suriname to film an episode of Fusion’s “Outpost.”

On his “Wild Coast” episode of the program, Tyson traveled to learn about the long-running tradition of songbird contests, where small birds compete against one another in signing battles. The boxing legend even adopted a bird to challenge the reigning champ, losing by a slim-enough margin to be pretty proud of.

Of course, while we had him, TheWrap had to ask Tyson about his regular sport. The Cus D’Amato protege told us that he doesn’t think the constantly chirped-about Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather match will ever happen, though he’s definitely betting on the boxer if it does. Tyson also said he was totally down to for-real train Chris Brown to fight Soulja Boy, though that one has been called off.

For our most important question about the sweet science, TheWrap went back to 1987 — the 8-bit days. Tyson, like this writer, never beat himself in “Mike Tyson‘s Punch-Out!” on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

“No way,” he told us. Sounds like Glass Joe was more his speed.

“Outpost” debuts Sunday nights with its English versions airing on Fusion at 8 p.m. and 11, and with Spanish versions airing on UniMas at 11.

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