By Scoop Malinowski
Mike Tyson admittedly loves tennis. In fact he may be more interested and intrigued now by professional tennis than he is with the current dull state of pro boxing, which has been corrupted by the majority of top name fighters avoiding and being protected from the most high risk fights.
But tennis does not have that problem. To be the best, a tennis player has to conquer the best to win the biggest tournaments. And Mike Tyson, once the best in his sport, appreciates greatness in one on one sport.
Tyson relocated this year to south Florida, a move intended to help his 14 year old daughter Milan train full time at an undisclosed academy. Milan Tyson is progressing well, she has already trained with Patrick Mouratoglou and Nick Bollettieri. She recently won two rounds in the qualifying tournament for Eddie Herr at IMG Academy in Bradenton, one of the biggest international junior tournaments in the world. Milan Tyson also competes in high level tournaments in Florida and nationals across America. She has also hit tennis balls and trained with the likes of Sonia Kenin and Yulia Putintseva, among others.
Her father Mike Tyson has become an avid follower of tennis. A mutual friend told me Tyson watches a lot of tennis on TV and can analyze and breakdown the styles of most of the ATP and WTA players. Similar to how he could do with professional fighters from history when he was a devout student of boxing in the 1980s.
But the state of modern boxing has become rather boring today, I can testify to that due to all the ducking and dodging and promoter protection that is cheating the sport and history out of the most important championship fights. To put it more bluntly, if the great Sugar Ray Leonard was around today there is little chance his management and promoter would have allowed him to fight Roberto Duran, Wilfred Benitez, Thomas Hearns or Marvin Hagler, or vice versa. Those fights exploded the popularity of boxing to new heights. Those kinds of superfights are not happening as frequently as they did back then. Boxing now is all about greed and maintaining and protecting money making fighters long term by not putting them at risk and taking the career path of least resistance.
Tyson clearly is gravitating from boxing to tennis where every Grand Slam features the excitement and fascination to see best vs. the best duke it out on court for the ultimate high stakes. There is no protection and ducking in tennis – and let’s hope it stays that way.
Hopefully in 2023 I will be able to do an in-depth interview with Mike Tyson about his love for tennis and analysis of all the styles.
By the way, Milan Tyson already launched her own “unapologetically fearless” activewear brand in 2021 called Milan Miyla.
Mike Tyson · Milan Tyson · Novak Djokovic
