Mike Tyson admitted that even he doesn’t think he hit a former opponent who was accused of taking a dive against him.
In 1996, Mike Tyson paid Lennox Lewis $4 million to step aside so he could challenge Bruce Seldon for his WBA Heavyweight title belt.
The fight went as you’d expect, with Tyson landing a first-round knockout as he continued his post-prison comeback with an emphatic win.
However, there were issues with the victory that were immediately spotted by just about everyone watching.
Seldon was barely struck before he threw himself to the ground, with the crowd chanting “Fix!” at the end of the fight in protest.
The loser that night has never admitted to taking a dive, but Tyson previously opened up about his feelings on what happened in the fight.
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Mike Tyson doesn’t even think he hit Bruce Seldon
The fans in attendance and watching at home thought Seldon took a dive, and even Tyson is dubious that he even punched the former champion.
Speaking with Stephen A. Smith, Tyson admitted that he thought Seldon had fainted and didn’t think he’d even hit the former champion before he got knocked out.
While his friends tried to convince him that he had landed the knockout blow, Tyson was sure that he had little to do with Seldon’s knockout that night.
Tyson said: “Man, what I remember is I thought the guy just fainted, and I didn’t hit him. I didn’t hit the guy.
“None of my friends saw it. I said, ‘You gotta see, I didn’t hit this guy.’ But none of my friends saw it. They said, ‘Mike, you caught him on the head!’”
Mike Tyson felt guilty about Tupac being shot after the Bruce Seldon fight
The same night that Tyson beat Seldon, rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down and killed in the street after attending the fight at the all-time great Heavyweight’s behest.
The 25-year-old was shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas while stopped at a red light, being struck four times before dying in the hospital six days later.
Tyson revealed his guilt in an interview with djvlad in 2020, admitting he felt guilty for pressuring the rapper to come to the fight that night.
He explained: “I felt that was really something I couldn’t even explain. I just knew it was a really bad day when that happened. I just knew it was really bad.
“And I felt a little guilty about him coming to defy me—pressuring him, like, ‘Hey, bring the tape, don’t forget the tape.’ You know?
“And I was going to go out with him that night. I promised to go to 662 that night, but I had a little baby, and her mother was provoking me to stay home.
“So I stayed with the baby. Then someone called me that night and told me what happened.”
It was all around a terrible night for boxing and music, and one that Tyson would probably like to forget.