Mike Tyson talks about being ‘snatched off the street’ and sexually assaulted as a child

Mike Tyson shared details of his life to ESPN’s Jeremy Schapp like he never has before.

In an interview with Schapp on ESPN’s “E:60,” Tyson talked about the time he was sexually abused as a child. He told Schapp he was grabbed by a man who tried to pull him into a building, but wouldn’t go into details about what was done to him.

“Well I don’t like to talk about that, I like to keep that where it was in the past, but I was molested as a child,” Tyson said.

When asked what kind of impact it made on him, Tyson said “it made me have to be tough for the world I lived in.”

Schapp said he’s interviewed Tyson several times over the last 25 years, but this topic was one they never discussed.

“It was no one’s business to know, people just don’t talk about it because to some people they believe it’s demasculating them,” Tyson said.

The former boxing champ said he “probably” felt shame because of what happened to him.

“I learned that it doesn’t make you any less of a man because it happened,” Tyson said.

Schapp continued to ask Tyson about what happened, leading the boxer to ask the reporter why he wanted to continue talking about his past. When Schapp said it was because he never heard Tyson talk about it, the fighter said he never told anyone about it before.

Although he said he never talked about it, Tyson actually discussed being sexually assaulted by a stranger in SiriusXM’s Opie Radio in 2014.

The former boxer said a man he didn’t know snatched him off the street and abused him when he was 7. He eventually escaped by running away from the man.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of anything from that perspective,” Tyson said.

While Tyson got serious during his ESPN interview, he also appeared on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast Monday where he weighed in on the Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight next month.

The former champ doesn’t think McGregor stands a chance.

“McGregor is going to get killed boxing,” Tyson said. “I got mad because I thought they were going to use MMA rules against boxing because that’s what it’s all about: Can the boxer beat the MMA guy? McConor (sic) put his dumba– in a position where he’s gonna get knocked out because this guy’s been doing this all his life since he was a baby. McConor (sic) can’t kick and grab and stuff so he won’t stand much of a chance.”

Tyson added that if he were fighting McGregor, he’d allow the UFC fighter to kick and use his knees in a fight.