Why did Mike Tyson go to jail? A look at the boxer’s rape conviction from 1992

Boxing legend Mike Tyson is scheduled to appear in his first sanctioned fight in decades on Friday.

The 58-year-old former heavyweight champion takes on 27-year-old Jake Paul – a social media star turned boxer – in Texas, Tyson’s first professional fight since his 2005 retirement.

Tyson retired from boxing with a record of 50-6 and 44 knockouts under his belt. Paul has been boxing professionally since 2020. Sources estimate Tyson will earn around $20 million to go along with Friday’s fight, per DraftKing’s Network. Paul is estimated to earn $40 million.

The match will be streamed by Netflix at 8:00 PM EST.

Mike Tyson’s professional boxing career

Tyson first rose to fame in the 1980s after winning his debut fight against Hector Mercedes with a first-round knockout. By the time he turned 21, his record was 30-0 and he held the WBA and WBC heavyweight titles. In his 31st fight, Tyson defeated Tony Tucker for the IBF title, becoming the first heavyweight boxer to hold all three.

Less than a decade later, however, Tysons’ personal life began to shake. Per report from The athletic, Tyson’s first wife, Robin Givens, filed for divorce in 1989, citing spousal abuse.

In 1992, 25-year-old Tyson was convicted of raping 18-year-old Desiree Washington and was sentenced to six years in prison. At the time, Washington was a college student and the reigning Miss Black Rhode Island. She met Tyson at the Miss Black American pageant in Indianapolis in 1991.

Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison but was released in 1995 after serving only three years. He maintains his innocence, including writing in his 2013 autobiography, “I did not rape Desiree Washington.”

“She knows it, God knows it, and the consequences of her actions are something she will have to live with for the rest of her life,” Tyson wrote.

Mike Tyson’s story with Jake Paul

Tyson and Paul were originally scheduled to fight in July, although the fight had to be postponed after Tyson suffered a stomach ulcer in May. In an interview for Netflix’s preview series for the match, Countdown: Paul vs Tyson, Tyson said the wound was over two inches long and caused him to lose 26 pounds.

“All my friends called me like I was dying,” Tyson said. “I asked the doctor if I was going to die and she didn’t say ‘No’. … You wouldn’t believe what I endured from my wound.”

When Tyson and Paul met for their official weigh-in on Thursday, Tyson punched his opponent in the face. It’s unclear what set Tyson off, but Paul has said in several interviews leading up to Friday that he plans to knock his opponent out.

During an episode of the Netflix countdown series, Tyson said: “There’s a fundamental difference between me and Jake. He’s a manufactured killer. Television and newspapers made him a killer. I’m a natural born killer.”