Mike Tyson gets too real with 14-year-old interviewer, talks of death and nothingness

“I don’t believe in the word ‘legacy.’ I think that’s another word for ego. Legacy doesn’t mean nothing. That’s just some word everybody grabbed on to. Someone said that word and everyone grabbed on to that word, now it’s used every five seconds,” Tyson said in an interview that posted on Thursday.

“It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that?”

After a brief awkward pause, Iron Mike continued with his crushingly existential musings.

“So I’m gonna die. I want people to think that I’m this, I’m great?” he continued. “No, we’re nothing. We’re just dead. We’re dust. We’re absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing.”

The teen interviewer appeared to be briefly surprised by Tyson’s tough look at life. But she kept her composure, didn’t break stride and thanked the champ for his wisdom.

“Well thank you so much for sharing that,” she said. “That is something that I have not heard before.”

Tyson wouldn’t let up and kept hammering home that all of humanity is just running out the clock.

“Can you really imagine somebody saying, ‘I want my legacy to be this way?’ You’re dead!” Tyson said. “Who the f— cares about me when I’m gone? My kids, maybe, or grand kids?”

Tyson was one of the most feared fighters in the 1980s and ’90s. But he might be best known for serving three years in prison after being convicted of rape and biting off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a match in 1997.

Paul, 27, is relatively new to boxing, after making his professional debut in the ring in 2020. He has more than 27 million Instagram followers and nearly 21 million YouTube subscribers.