Mike Tyson invited rapper Boosie Badazz to be on his podcast Hotboxin and was inspired by his daughter's strong convictions to confront the rapper about his homophobic and transphobic statements.
Mike Tyson On Homophobia
Mike Tyson was asked by TMZ about the delicate conversation he had with rapper Boosie Badazz and why he felt the need to confront the rapper about his past statements about Dwayne Wade's transgender daughter Zaya. The boxer explained, "My daughter, she flew all the way from New York City to Los Angeles, California where I'm at just to be there because she thought Boosie was so disrespectful she had to confront him."
Mike listened to his daughter and decided to take her points into his podcast conversation with Boosie instead of having her confront the rapper herself.
He asked Boosie point blank, "How do you feel about other people's feelings? You offend a lot of people [with his anti-gay slurs]." Mike listed the many hurtful words Boosie uses to describe others including Dwayne Wade's daughter. At first, Boosie defended himself by saying "No, a lot of times I need to shut the **** up." So Mike responded with "Why don't you?"
He brought up the time old phrase, "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say it at all." Mike went really deep into self-reflection and explained that he used to be like Boosie and realized, "Sometimes it's hard to say to yourself I don't like myself. I don't know how to change... I am an abused kid that abused people."
Mike Tyson and Boosie Badazz
He explained that his hurtful actions came from a place of hurt and insecurity, like "Why do I say these things about certain people. Why do you say things about a person who might be a homosexual? Why do say that about them? Do you feel that there's a possibility that you're a homosexual and you disrespect them so it furthers yourself from being a homosexual?"
Boosie claimed, "Naw naw, I'm straight as an arrow." "If you're straight why do you offend people [who are not]?" Mike explained to Boosie he was not judging him, simply "trying to understand" him.
"Check this out. Who the **** am I to say anything? What I think don't mean a mother ****ing thing... Who the ** are we to make a comment about somebody's life. Who are you? What happened to you that you think that you're somebody who can make a comment about somebody's life."
Boosie responded with, "My momma said the same thing, she said who am I to make a comment about somebody else's child?" Mike did an impressive job of being the devil's advocate in the conversation and explaining to Boosie the negative impact of his mean comments to the point where Boosie said, "Yeah, I apologize to Dwayne Wade. I mean what I said but... I shouldn't have said the s*** about your child."
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TMZ's hosts told Mike, "You handled it in such a classy way, and gentle, and felt like you got through to him in the end and he understood that some of the things he said were hateful." Mike said he felt, "I was Boosie at one time," and it was his daughter who helped him learn and that "You have to win the fight over those demons."
Mike has been working out again as he is returning to the ring on November 28th against Roy Jones Jr.! Check out the teaser here!
A sweet reward for democracy!
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