Mike Tyson says high schoolers only know him from The Hangover

Most teenagers are too young to know Mike Tyson as a boxer. He’s the guy from The Hangover.

It’s been more than 10 years since Mike Tyson’s last fight, so you could forgive teenagers for not knowing he ever was a fighter. 

If Tyson gets recognized these days, it’s for being the guy with the face tattoo in The Hangover movies. 

During an interview in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, Tyson told SI’s Jon Wertheim that a whole generation of people doesn’t even know he used to box. 

You run into some kid, this is a real humbling experience. I went to this high school. Six hundred kids in the room, 700 kids, maybe 1,000. They had this big screen, giant, 10-by-10. They were showing the kids some of my fights because they didn’t know who I was. They just thought I was an actor from The Hangover. So [the teacher] had to explain, No, this is who he was. They didn’t know. This one guy, this little Mexican kid, said, ‘I think my grandfather told me about you.’ [He laughs.]. Never in my life am I going to forget that. You talk about a humbling experience.

• Mike Tyson on he and Muhammad Ali’s share love of pro wrestling

Tyson’s last fight was a sixth-round TKO loss against Kevin McBride in June 2005. His acting appearances have mostly been as himself, though he did play a death row inmate on an episode of Law & Order: SVU.

Read the full interview with Tyson here.