Mike Tyson, arrested 38 times before he was 13, was locked up in a detention centre before meeting Cus D’Amato at the Bridges Juvenile Center in the Bronx, Brooklyn. It was D’Amato who introduced him to boxing.
Speaking to his Hotboxin podcast, the Baddest Man on the Planet said: “After I was locked up, I started boxing.
‘They became killers and I became a boxer’
“And I said I wasn’t going to do that anymore.
“But I would still see my friends that I robbed with and they would still be at the club.
“I was still hanging out with them, watching them do that s***.
“I was never into it – I was doing a career and they thought ‘what the f*** is he doing hanging out with them
We went in two different directions. They became killers and I became a boxer.
“I’m happy I’m not in prison with them but I still go and visit them. They’ve got four or five life sentences, 90 years.
“They’ve been the oldest friends I’ve ever had in my life, my longest friends.”
Tyson was sentenced to six years in 1992. He served three years, during which he was visited by rap star Tupac
