On the latest episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal was joined by Mike Tyson, and the pair reminisced over the time the boxer's tiger chased the NBA legend when he visited his home.
At around the 3-minute mark of the episode, which can be seen in full above, Shaq recalled how he met Tyson for the first time while he was serving time in prison in the early '90s. When he was released on parole in 1995, he invited Shaq to visit his home before his first comeback fight. "Before his fight, he says, 'Hey, come to the house,'" said Shaq. "So, we come to his house, ring the bell. Ding-dong. I hear a, 'Come in!' So, I open the door, right? There's nobody in the lobby... I start walking, [and] a fucking tiger comes running down the stairs."
Around this time, Tyson owned a white tiger named Kenya that he was often photographed with. "I'm turning around, trying to get to the thing, and then Mike came and he start wrestling the tiger," he continued. "I told my boy, 'I'm not a gambling man, but I wish I had a million dollars to put on the fight. I just seen this man stop a fully grown tiger.'"
Shaq asked Tyson if he remembered the incident, and he confirmed and admitted that he would often sleep in the same bed as his tiger. "You gotta be with them everyday," said Tyson. "I'm getting ready to get a cheetah, but I'm not going to let my wife know." He added that he had Kenya pretty much from the moment they were born.
Asked if he was big spoon or little spoon when he would sleep in the same bed as his tiger, Tyson said, "Well, at one time I held them and as they got older, they held me." He said he never got bitten by his tiger, but when he owned a lion, he was bitten. Tyson also shared that he bought the house next to his so his other wild cats could live there. "My tiger didn't like them in the house," he laughed. "So, I let them have their house and let the tiger stay with me."
Watch the full interview up top.
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