Many celebrities have raised odd animals as their pets, like Justin Beiber having a monkey, Miley Cyrus raising a pig, and the names go on.
One of the celebrities who also fall on this list is the former professional boxer, Mike Tyson. The fearless and undisputed champion raised not only one but three royal Bengal tigers.
If we believe rumors, then he has raised a total of seven tigers through time. However, information about only three of them is out.
One of these three even appeared during his time in the movie The Hangover. Tyson loved his tigers more than anything, but he had to give them up. Currently, the most infamous and undefeated boxer owns a poodle whom he has named Mars.
Purchase of Tiger Cubs
Initially, Tyson purchased three tiger cubs in 1992 while he was serving jail time for a case of sexual harassment and even rape.
He was in jail when he called his car dealer to buy a car. But instead of buying a car, he asked his dealer to arrange for tiger cubs.
His dealer had to take money from someone who was in the animal selling and buying business. When Tyson came to know about this from his dealer, he asked his dealer to buy him tigers instead of cars. The dealer then arranged three cubs and sold them to Tyson for 71 thousand USD each. Tyson purchased those cubs as he wanted to be loved by something fierce.
Raising of the Cubs
After purchasing the cubs from his care dealer, Tyson started raising them as pets in his house in Los Angeles.
He named the female cubs Kenya and Storm and the male cub Boris. Tyson spent 4 thousand USD monthly to raise his cubs. However, he did not have the proper license to keep all of them as pets, so he was forced to send two of them back to the refugee.
He then had only Kenya, whom he raised for the next sixteen years. He was as attached to Kenya as Kenya was to him. Kenya used to play with him and even sleep with him.
He loved Kenya as his child and even took her during the shooting of the movie The Hangover. The tiger seen in The Hangover, along with Tyson, is his own tigress Kenya. He shared a genuine bond with Kenya, which continued until he had to sell her because of an unfortunate incident.
Selling Kenya
Tyson had no wish to sell his pet tigress, Kenya. He was raising her and enjoying his time with her. However, after an incident, he was compelled to sell her.
Once, while Kenya was playing in the garden, one of Tyson’s neighbors trespassed on his property to play with Kenya. However, Kenya was not familiar with the neighbor. Kenya was also old and had problems with her sight. All these led Kenya to bite off the neighbor’s arm.
After this incident, Tyson had to pay 25 thousand as compensation and sold his last remaining tigress Kenya.
Where are Mike Tyson’s Tigers now?
In 2024, the famous boxer has none of his tigers with him. Though he had many tigers in the past, the most known three tigers were Kenya, Storm, and Borris.
However, Tyson had to send two of them to a refugee in Colorado. Though he lost his cubs, he still had Kenya until 2020. However, Tyson also had to sell Kenya away because she ripped off the arm of his neighbor. Even though the neighbor was trespassing his property, he paid for compensation and got rid of Kenya.
