Tyson loses temper during interview with Sky Sports – News

By Boxing News - 11/03/2009 - Comments

tyson4534By Scott Gilfoid: Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson got a little heated during an interview with Dermot Murnaghan from Sky News earlier today due to the interview method of the British reporter. I could see it coming as soon as the interview started because Tyson looked keyed up. The British interviewer appeared to have no clue on how to talk to Tyson and quickly turned the interview into a grill session which seemed like a mini interrogation of Tyson.

That kind of interview method may work on some people, but it clearly wasn’t going to fly with Tyson who was having none of it. I myself would have been upset and annoyed with the way that the interviewer was questioning Tyson. The interviewer brought up Tyson’s rape conviction, and that’s kind of where things turned sour. It seemed as if the interviewer wasn’t aware that this was a hot button issue with Tyson. That poisoned the entire interview from what I could see. Tyson said “I’m 43 years old and you’re still dwelling on something I did when I was 20. What do you want to get from this interview?” You could see that Tyson was trying to be patient with the interviewer, who appeared to be all thumbs with his questioning. However, the interviewer continued to annoy Tyson by bringing up the ear biting incident with Evander Holyfield. That was the wrong thing to bring up with an already upset Tyson.

“You’re irritating me now. I guess I did change because I’m not assailing you,” Tyson said. Murnaghan, the interviewer, would try to back off and ask some more harmless questions but he seemed to be an irritant to Tyson by saying “I want to see how much you’ve changed.” It was as if Tyson had prove to this guy, someone he doesn’t know, that he’s a changed person from the questionable things that Tyson did earlier in his career. It was a bad way to interview Tyson and I don’t imagine it made for good television in the UK.

The British interviewer said “You said things before the fight. I want to punch them on the top of their nose and drive his bone up through their brain.” Again, it seemed as if the interviewer was pushing Tyson’s buttons because he had to see how agitated that Tyson was during his questioning.

Tyson said “You’re irritating me right now because I feel as though you’re evoking stuff from the past — that stuff is from 15 or 20 years ago.”

A little while later, the interviewer tried to get Tyson to speak about his daughter who recently died on a treadmill accident. Tyson responded by learning forward and saying, “I’d rather you not talk about that.” The interview, instead of just saying okay, he said “You don’t want to talk about that?” Tyson then said once again “I’d rather not talk about that.” It seemed like the subject should have never been brought up in the first place given Tyson’s testy mood at the time, and when Tyson told the interviewer that he didn’t want to talk about the subject, that should have been the end of the subject. There was no point to mention it again.

The interviewer then asked Tyson about whether he was going to fight again and Tyson said “Who told you that? Who am I going to fight? I’m 43-years-old, I’m fat and overweight. Who am I going to fight? Really be honest?” The interviewer than bizarrely said “George Foreman.” Tyson, with a look of disgust on his face then said “No, I’m not going to do that.” Why the interviewer mentioned Foreman of all people for Tyson to fight. Doesn’t the interviewer know that Foreman is now 60-years-old? I suppose he probably had a moment where his brain was disengaged and he just threw out any old name at random, but he should have been prepared for the interview by saying ‘Evander Holyfield’ when Tyson asked who he should fight. That’s the fight that many boxing fans are interested in seeing and one that would make Tyson money.

Still on the subject of making a comeback, Tyson said “I’m not going to be successful. I’m just not that kind of guy. I don’t love this stuff no more. I don’t love this boxing stuff no more.”



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