Legendary heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson appeared at a press conference on Friday, Jan. 19 at Dave & Buster’s to promote his acclaimed one-man show, “Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth, Round Two.” The show is set for Saturday, Jan. 20 at 8:00 p.m. at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall. Tickets are available at the Blaisdell Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations and online at ticketmaster.com.

 

Highlights from the press conference:

 

On Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth, Round Two:

“This is ‘part two’ of [my story]. Part one was about the telling of my life chronologically. This is about me talking about my life and all the things that happened to me, the experiences in my life. I’ve been doing this for about three months in Las Vegas, and this is the first time I’m doing [the show outside] Vegas.”

 

On whether he was surprised about how well “Round One” was received:

“I was very grateful. In Round One, it got really deep and I started talking about personal things. It starts to affect you. You don’t think it does, but it does affect you.”

 

On why his show is so successful:
“Because I want it to be successful. I’ve trained really hard to be successful, and I have the right people working with me for this show. I’m just really grateful to be here. I’m happy and ready to go.”

 

On whether “Round Two” is more fun:

“Yeah, exactly. It’s going to be a lot more fun. You’re going to laugh a lot more instead of cry like the last show [Round One].

 

On advice to young people aspiring to achieve success in combat sports:

“Just be very dedicated. Be very sincere about being a fighter.”

 

On what advice he would give to his twenty-year-old self:

“Spend less.” (Laughs.) Yeah, I was a really heavy spender.

 

On how much arm-twisting it took for him to start his one-man show:

“It did. I saw Chazz Palminteri do his one-man show, ‘A Bronx Tale.’ That really inspired me to do “Part One.”

 

On his wife, Lakiha “Kiki” Spicer:

“She’s my life. She’s my rock.”

 

On visiting Hawaii:

“This island is so exotic and beautiful. There’s nothing bad I can say about it.”

 

On similarities between his career in the ring and on stage:

“[With both] you get butterflies in your stomach; you get nervous in the beginning. You don’t want to fail. You want to succeed. That’s your only objective, is to be successful. I had to work on [the transition]. Nothing comes naturally. You have to work at everything. I did a lot of rehearsing with my wife. We rehearsed for weeks before we actually started the show.”

 

On sharing his life’s experiences:

“I tell my wife that I have to say the truth. Sometimes she wants to cover things up because it might not make me look good. But I say, “No, we have to tell it the way it really was. She does try to protect me.”

 

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