He famously chomped on Evander Holyfield’s ear during a boxing match back in 1997, so you wouldn’t expect Mike Tyson to be a fussy eater.
However the former champ – and self confessed pigeon fancier – has revealed an ex ate one of his prized birds, putting Iron Mike off for life.
During an interview with CBS New York’s Boomer & Carton, he was asked if he’d ever eaten pigeon.
Pigeon fancier: Mike Tyson
He replied: “I tried.
“I was dating this young lady and she said, ‘I don’t know why you’re flying those damn birds, you should be eating them.’… She happened to grab one and – and she cooked one and proceeded to eat it. And I just couldn’t do it.”
“It just wasn’t the right thing to do. That’s why she’s not my woman anymore.”
The 46-year-old’s love affair with the birds has been an enduring one. The Brooklyn native kept them as a teenager and it is reported his first fight was with a youth who pulled the head off one of his pigeons.
In 2011 Tyson explained: “The first thing I ever loved in my life – the pigeon. They’re so much like people.”
Tyson, who turned vegetarian last year and lost 100lbs, this month revealed he is now a vegan.
He told Oprah Winfrey: “Becoming a vegan gave me another opportunity to live a healthy life. I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine, I could hardly breathe, [I had] high blood pressure, [was] almost dying [and had] arthritis. And once I became a vegan, all that stuff diminished.”