Who filed the sexual abuse charges against ex-heavyweight champion Mike Tyson?
In 1991, Mike Tyson was arrested for rape after being accused of the same by Miss Black Rhode Island, Desiree Washington.
Washington, 18 years old at the time, said that she had accompanied ‘Iron Mike’ back to his room at the Canterbury Hotel in Indianapolis after a rehearsal of the Miss Black America pageant.
A day later, she checked into the emergency room at Methodist Hospital and reported that she had been raped. Washington told the police and subsequently testified in court that Tyson had invited her over to his room, where he forced himself on her.
However, the then 25-year-old Tyson claimed that any act performed in the room was consensual. After a heavily publicized two-week trial, the boxer was convicted by the courts.
A month later, Judge Patricia J. Gifford sentenced him to 10 years in jail, but suspended the last four years of the sentence. After spending three years in prison, Tyson was granted freedom on account of good behavior. However, the former heavyweight world champion has always maintained innocence.
In his autobiography “Undisputed Truth”, Tyson said:
"I did not rape Desiree Washington. She knows it, God knows it, and the consequences of her actions are something that she's got to live with for the rest of her life."
Mike Tyson says he only had one fight while in prison
Mike Tyson said he only had one fight during his incarceration.
Speaking on his podcast Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson in 2020, the former heavyweight champion discussed the one time he got into an altercation in prison:
“Just one time [I had to punch someone in prison]. Somebody said something and I just went over there and hit him. We were locked down for a long time and it was just something that was irritable and I went over there and hit him.”
Following Tyson's spell in prison, he embarked on a comeback boxing run which saw him win the WBA and WBC heavyweight titles.
His comeback trail led him to the Evander Holyfield series, which ended with the infamous ear bite. To this day, the ear bite incident remains one of boxing's most controversial moments.