Mike Tyson sleeps with his tiger — yes, a real tiger

Billy Heyen

Mike Tyson sleeps with his tiger — yes, a real tiger image

You didn't misread the headline.

Mike Tyson. A tiger (a white tiger, specifically). And the process of domestication so the tiger doesn't kill Mike.

Seriously.

The legendary boxer relayed this story to Shaquille O'Neal on a recent podcast episode.

The story started when Shaq described coming to Tyson's house, having a tiger come running down the stairs and watching Tyson wrestle the tiger into submission.

But then Tyson threw this out:

"I sleep with my tiger. He'd kill me. You've gotta be with him every day, for two years, every day. When I traveled, I got an 18-wheeler, so when I went to another state, he'd come with me."

To be fair to Tyson, it's sound logic. You can't just expect the tiger to be comfortable after a day or two.

But we'll leave it to him to figure that out.

MORE: Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson once had the most legendary clash at Yankee Stadium

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle