The ex-wife of former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Robin Givens, has aired her views on the forthcoming movie about the returning fighter.
Givens, who was married to Tyson during his hellacious first reign as world ruler until they split controversially, was asked directly in a recent interview.
Jamie Foxx is due to play ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ – although did state recently that he’d like to play an older, softer Tyson.
“When we were talking about the movie, I said what’s interesting about Mike is not the ring now, it’s the Mike that we see now,” Foxx told Showtime’s All The Smoke Podcast.
“When I called Mike one time, I said ‘Mike, how are you doing?’ – And it’s this voice ‘All praise to Allah, my brother I’m just happy’.
“I said ‘why you happy?’ and ‘I’m happy I don’t have money anymore, I don’t have any money’.
“I said ‘why do you say that? Why does that make you happy?’ “‘Cause no one can take anything from me anymore. There are no vultures. Nobody out there trying to take anything from me. So I’m just happy.’
“I said ‘that’s the person we’ve got to show’. He’ll tell you ‘I either live on top of the mountain or on the bottom of the ocean’.
“I said to Mike ‘when I play you, I’m going to embody you so well that when I walk into your house your kids will run up and say dad’s home.”
Foxx added: “Martin Scorsese who hasn’t done a boxing film since Raging Bull has agreed to take on the helm.
“We want to show everybody evolves. Everybody comes from a good or bad place. “I think when we lay the layers on Mike Tyson in this story, I think everybody from young and old will be able to understand this man’s journey and the way we’ll place it.”
Full details of the film, due to begin production once the pandemic is under control, are yet to be released.
“That wasn’t, like, a fun ex for me,” Givens told Andy Cohen on SiriusXM on Tyson, who once stated: ‘the best punch I’ve ever thrown in my entire life’ was aimed at the actress.
“There were so many things that are so not true that it’s hard not to feel deeply disturbed by it. In a way, I hope I’m stronger because of this, or going through this process. But it’s really, it’s a little upsetting.”
Cohen asked Givens directly, ‘Are you hoping you’re not in the movie?’
She replied: “Of course. The absolute truth would be yes.”
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
