Mike Tyson speaks about being sexually

assaulted when he was seven after being

snatched off the street.

Tyson as a young boy growing up on the streets of Brooklyn

In an interview with ESPN’s E60, the former heavyweight champion 

of the world told Jeremy Schapp the molestation made him tough – 

but said he still found it difficult to talk about what happened.

Mike Tyson has spoken out about how the abuse he suffered 

as a small boy has affected him

Schapp, who has interviewed Tyson regularly during the past 25 years, 

asked why this was the first time he had opened up about the abuse.

Iron Mike replied: “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.

“It made me have to be tough for the world I lived in.”

Tyson said he felt some shame at what happened to him and the

 reason some people didn’t want to talk about it was because they 

felt it emasculated them.

He added: “I learned that it doesn’t make you any less of a man

 because it happened.”

It’s not the first time the former boxer has discussed the abuse.

In a 2014 interview with SiriusXM’s Opie Radio, he told co-host

Jim Norton how he was snatched off the street at age seven 

and abused by an older man.

Iron Mike told ESPN that he was snatched off the street 

aged seven by an ‘older man’

Tyson said it only happened once and he managed to escape

 by running away.

In the latest ESPN interview, the now 51-year-old told Schapp 

how he was grabbed by a stranger and taken into a building 

but chose to keep private exactly what happened to him.

Also talking about the hotly anticipated bout between 

Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor the former champ

 claimed the Irishman would “get killed”.

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Tyson as a young boy growing up on the streets of Brooklyn

Tyson has been open about his troubled childhood.

In his recently released book Iron Ambition: Lessons I’ve

Learned From The Man Who Made Me A Champion, 

Tyson details how he grew up on the rough streets of Brownsville 

in Brooklyn, New York.

Tyson never knew his father, and his mother died when he was just 16.

As a youth he was a violent street fighter and spent his days

 in and out of detention centres before becoming the youngest 

boxer to win a heavyweight title at just 20.

The fighter also revealed how legendary boxing trainer Cus

 D’Amato shaped him into a champion and an “arrogant sociopath” 

and encouraged him to have a ruthless attitude.

A pro fighter since the age of 18, Tyson had won all but two

 of his first 28 fights by knockout.

However both his career and personal life have

been marred in controversy.

His career began unravelling, and in January 1990, he lost

 his title after being knocked out by Buster Douglas.

The former heavyweight champion of the world declined to 

go into detail about what happened to him but did say

 it taught him he had to be ‘tough’

The following year, beauty-pageant contestant named Desiree 

Washington accused him of raping her in a hotel room in Indianapolis.

He claimed the sex was consensual, but was convicted of rape

and sentenced to six years in prison the following February.

He served less than half of his sentence.

In 1997, he bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight,

 a stunt which got him banned from boxing for one year.

In and out of rehab, Tyson appeared in the 2009 film The Hangover, 

admitting he was drunk and high during filming.

Married three times, Tyson has seven children, one of whom

 died in a horrific gym accident when she was just four.