“I Wasn’t Part Of That Win”-Mike Tyson’s Coach Opens Up On Bizarre Face-Tattoo Story

Mike Tyson as we all know it has an infamous face tattoo. But very few of us know the actual story behind it. And the consequences he had to face because of it.

Former world champion and veteran trainer Jeff Fenech was recently part of an interview where he discussed his relationship with Mike Tyson. He also spoke of why he left Tyson’s camp just a week before Tyson fought Clifford Etienne.

One day, a week before the fight, Tyson didn’t show up to training. Instead, he went out to meet a friend who was a tattoo artist. And ended up getting a tattoo on his face. Jeff Fenech was so upset with Tyson’s decision to skip training for a tattoo. He left that very night and refused to train Tyson for the rest of the camp.

Explaining how it went down, Fenech said, “Mike Tyson was a freak at his peak and I think that the only person that ever beat Mike was himself. That day he didn’t turn up to training and that would happen sometimes with Mike he would go a bit AWOL. This time he didn’t turn up so I went home and I was staying at Mike’s house in Vegas. All of a sudden the door opened and I saw his car coming so I straight away went to see what the problem was and what had happened.”

Mike Tyson fights without a Coach

Jeff Fenech continued, “ As I looked at him he had this huge tattoo down the side of his face and I thought wow. My first impression was that I’ve never had a tattoo in my life, but I thought we are fighting in a week and when you get a tattoo you can’t fight because they scab up and it wouldn’t be healthy to do that.”

Tyson couldn’t fight with the tattoo still healing. He had got it in an attempt to skip the fight. Fenech was so disappointed in Tyson he decides to leave that very night.

He said, “We sat down and spoke and he didn’t really want to fight and he wasn’t prepared to and that was one of the reasons he got the tattoo. After a good hour’s talk, I was in tears when I left the house that night. I went and stayed in a hotel because I was pretty despondent. I was away from home for eight weeks in Vegas getting him ready for the fight and I stayed in a hotel and got on the first flight back to my family because that was my priority. A week later he fought and knocked out Clifford in one round and I was upset. I was happy for Mike that he won, but I was also upset that I had trained him for eight weeks and I wasn’t a part of that win.”

Tyson did go out and fight Etienne. He won with an incredible 49-second knockout. But the coach that had been with him almost the entire way wasn’t by his side to witness this.