Mike Tyson tried to fight a silverback gorilla for $10,000

Yes, you read that right. Mike Tyson actually tried to fight a silverback gorilla for $10,000.

Tyson's always been an animal lover. He likes his pigeons and famously owned and cared some cats. We're not talking about your ordinary domestic pets; we're talking exotic tigers.

However, he once wanted to fight an animal. Not just any animal but a f**king gorilla.

In the 80's, when Tyson was an unbeaten heavyweight-wrecking machine, he went to a zoo with his then-partner Robin Givens.

He had the whole zoo to himself after paying them to keep it open after it had closed.

As he sauntered past the gorilla enclosure, he noticed a gorilla picking on the other primates.

Any normal human being would've walked past without batting an eyelid. But Tyson isn't your ordinary human. He took offence and wanted to enter the exhibit. As you do...

But he didn't just want to walk in. Oh no, this is Tyson after all, he wanted to have a fight with the gorilla.

He was prepared to offer the zookeeper $10,000 to open the cage so he could go in there to smack a gorilla.

"I paid a worker at New York's zoo to re-open it just for me and Robin," said Tyson.

"When we got to the gorilla cage there was one big silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas.

"They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant. I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let smash that silverback's snotbox! He declined."

Mike Tyson on the red carpet in China. Image: Alamy

Another Tyson story shows a softer side to the former world heavyweight champion. Kind of. He didn't take too kindly to a garbage man putting his favourite dead bird in the trash.

A crate containing his favourite pigeon was put into the trash compacter by a garbage man, who felt the wrath.

Tyson rushed out and hit him with a 'titanic right hand' that knocked him out causing the garbage man to convulse on the floor like an 'infantile retard'.

Speaking about his childhood, he recalled: "One morning I woke up and found my favorite pigeon, Julius, had died I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honor him.

"I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher.

"I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard."

Topics: Mike Tyson, Boxing

Nasir Jabbar

Nasir Jabbar is a journalist at SPORTbible. He graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA in Media Communications. He's a combat sport aficionado and has contributed to MMA websites AddictedMMA and CagePotato. Nasir has covered some of the biggest fights, while interviewing the likes of Conor McGregor, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Darren Till. He's also an avid Bristol City fan.

@NasJabbar