»Mike Tyson is mashed potatoes and history«

Mike Tyson was sprawled on the canvas, his head stuck oddly between the first and second ropes. Kevin McBride had shoved him down and now he sat there, trying to contemplate whether to get up.
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Tyson sat on his stool and told Cortez he had enough. Enough for this fight, enough for a tortured career that began with greatness only to spiral out of control and finally end in desperation and sadness.

He said he would fight no more. The sport that allowed him to earn more than $300 million had passed him by, and it was time for Tyson to admit as much.

“This is it,” Tyson said. “It’s finished.”
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He was just a shell of that fighter, much as he had been since losing to Buster Douglas in what was one of boxing’s greatest upsets in 1990. Tyson hadn’t beaten anyone of significance since stopping Razor Ruddock the next year, yet fans bought tickets to his fights thinking they would see the young lion who thought he would never lose.
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Tyson was becoming desperate, just as he was in the third round of his 1997 fight with Evander Holyfield when he bit Holyfield’s ears. He searched for a way to win, a way to end the fight.

Early in the sixth round, he grabbed McBride’s arm and tried to break it. He hit him with a low blow and, finally, he intentionally rammed his bald head against the head of his bigger opponent, drawing both blood and a two-point penalty from referee Joe Cortez.

“I was desperate,” Tyson said. “I wanted to win.”

By the end of the round, Tyson was not just desperate. He was a beaten fighter, sitting on the canvas and trying to figure out where it had all gone wrong.

“I didn’t want to get up. I was tired,” Tyson said.

Tyson did get up, walking back to his corner and sitting on his stool. Cortez came by and Tyson told him he wasn’t going to fight anymore.

Just like that, it was over.

“I’m not going to lie to myself,” Tyson said. “I’m not going to embarrass this sport any more.”
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He talked about doing missionary work in Africa to help heal his life, but Tyson has said a lot of wild things before.