Mike Tyson on Oprah Winfrey Show

Today, Mike Tyson appeared on Oprah to talk about his life’s ups and downs–from his beginnings in boxing to his marriages to the death of his daughter Exodus and his future plans. Here is a bit of the interview:

On the beginning of his fighting career..sort of

“I deal with a huge inferiority complex,” he says. “As a little boy, I was fat and everybody picked on me.”

Long before he slipped on boxing gloves for the first time, Mike learned to fight in Brooklyn’s schoolyards and back alleys. One day, he says neighborhood bullies found out he was raising pigeons, and they came to take his birds.

“I said: ‘Mommy, please. They’re taking my birds.’ I called my mom to help me. One guy took the bird, and he just ripped open the neck, and he just puts the bird in my face,” he says. “Somebody said, ‘Mike, fight him.’ And I just fought him.”

“And that was the beginning,” Oprah says.

“Yes,” Mike says. “That was a wrap.”

On the 1988 Barbara Walters Interview with Robin Givens

“I couldn’t believe Robin Givens was saying those lies about me. … I was flabbergasted,” he says. “When I look back at it now, I can’t believe I sat there and didn’t say anything. But then again, if I were to act crazy and start smashing and going crazy in front of television, that’s what they would have wanted.”

Robin’s accusations made Mike furious. “At that particular moment, I truly wanted to sock her, but I just didn’t do it. I was young at that time,” he says. “I have socked her before, and she socked me before, as well. It was just that kind of relationship.”

“You are a very big guy, so it would be hard for some woman to stand up against you physically,” Oprah says. “Is there ever an instance where a woman deserves to be struck?”

“I don’t know. … Women do kill people and hurt people too,” he says. “I just know we’re both human beings. … And we have to treat this human being a certain way just from a physical perspective. When I was in this marriage, I was wide open like a puppy dog. She could have done anything. I would have said: ‘Okay. I love you still.’”

On the death of his daughter Exodus earlier this year

Mike says he doesn’t know what really happened, and he doesn’t want to know. “I started off to go about this in the wrong direction,” he says. “But once I got there, I think from more of my experience in the rehab and all this, it just kicked in. Boom. It was all about being responsible. … She had to be buried. She had to be taken care of, and I have no animosity. I didn’t have anger toward anybody.”

If he knows the details of his daughter’s death, Mike says there might be someone to blame. “And if there’s somebody to blame for it,” he says, “there will be a problem.”

Mike says he’s using tools he learned in rehabilitation to deal with the loss and stay on the right course.

Interview Excerpt via Oprah.com