Mike Tyson is back on stage, but the biggest star in the room may be his wife, Lakiha “Kiki” Tyson. She’s the one spinning his wild life into the one-man-show “Return of the Mike,” coming to a Hard Rock Live venue near you.
Starting in November, the 59-year-old heavyweight champ steps into the spotlight right after announcing a face-off with Floyd Mayweather. “Return of the Mike” is billed as a “no filter” performance where Tyson dives into his greatest hits—past scandals, rocky relationships, and the ups and downs of a legendary career.
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While Mike is listed as a co-writer, he’s quick to pass the pen. “She writes it all. She writes it,” he explains, admitting he might add a suggestion here or there but leaves the heavy lifting to Kiki. “She loves it, she’s excited about it… she likes doing that stuff,” he says of the wife he’s been with for 16 years.
Whether his marriage will spark chatter inside the show, which producers say is still being fine-tuned as of September 8, remains a “wait and see,” he tells fans. “I think we’ll roll the marriage into the final chapters, maybe squeeze the whole story in at the end.”
Tyson adds that he’ll unpack “a whole lot of noise that piled up during my time away from the spotlight,” tossing in that the show will cover “more lawsuits than I can count and a whole lot of nonsense that came my way when the camera switched off.”
Tyson and Kiki tied the knot on June 6, 2009, as reported by The New York Times. They said “I do” at a chapel inside the Las Vegas Hilton and then threw a surprise vow renewal in June 2011 that guests thought was simply a birthday bash for the couple.
Their first child, daughter Milan, arrived on December 15, 2008. A few years later, son Morocco joined the crew on January 25, 2011.
Tyson first stepped onto the stage solo with his show “The Undisputed Truth” back in 2013. Sure, he knows the spotlight, but nerves still creep in. “I get shaky, but I love it, you know? I’ve been at it forever, took a break for a few years, then I got some open days, so I dove back in. Free time makes me crazy, so I had to fill it with something crazy, like this,” he laughs.
While we’re chatting, he drops that the script is still open. “Thinking about sprinkling in stories about the old girlfriends,” he says. “Maybe, maybe not. I can’t decide.”
Tyson believes some fans will do a double-take. “Wait until they hear what I share about the night of my first fight with Jake—there’re bits in my head that haven’t made it into a ring or a doc, same with my headspace around the whole thing.”
Even in the ring they called him the “baddest man on the planet.” Yet Tyson rewrites that label. “The truth? I love to laugh, I love to travel, I love my family and I’m happiest at the kitchen table. But that happy kitchen table can flip to a serious board meeting in a second,” he finishes.