Mike Tyson is a straight shooter.
Sometimes no one knows exactly what he is talking about, but if you really listen it makes a lot of sense. He was asked about T.O’s situation and here is what he had to say.
On T.O.’s recent appearance on Dr. Phil and T.O.’s financial woes:
“Well, listen, I can only say about myself. It took a good 18, 20 years for me to go broke, but he got broke pretty quick. It happened quick! We saw him, heard about him signing this contract, but from what you told me, he busted his whole bill. That can happen man when you take liberties for granted.”
If he thinks the upbringing he and T.O. experienced played a role in the kind of quick rise and fall:
“Oh, man, he’s not even in my same league as far as getting blood sucked. He’s not even in my league. But we’re talking about this issue, so, yeah, they’re out there. But in order to get your blood sucked, you have to be in position to want to suck some blood too. Even the con cons the con because he wants to con somebody.
If he thinks people should feel sorry for T.O. for his fall from grace:
“No, we should have no sympathy for him, he’s a grown man. We should be jealous and pissed off he has so much goddamned fun. Shoot! That’s what we should be jealous about. Listen, this is one thing. When you’re living that life you think you’re a big boy — and this is one thing I learned when I was rolling like a big boy — I said ‘don’t worry about it, I can handle it, I’m a big boy.’ Big boys have big responsibilities and big circumstances.”
He is correct T.O. is grown and the signs were there from the beginning, so it is hard to feel sorry for him. Human nature sometimes takes over and you don’t want to see anyone struggling.
There are times T.O.’s reputation clouds what is really going on, but the majority of the blames has to be laid at his feet.
If anything T.O. should look to Tyson as an inspiration, because he hit rock bottom and crawled his back up, hopefully Owens can do the same.