MIKE TYSON revealed his brother is a brain surgeon who has saved a couple of his friends’ lives after they were shot.
The heavyweight legend opened up about his brother Rodney, who is five years older, on his podcast with guest Canelo Alvarez.
Tyson – one of the most famed punchers of all time – highlighted the contrast between himself and Rodney.
He said: “I have a brother that’s a brain surgeon. I can f***ing barely read and write and this guy’s a brain surgeon and s***.
“A couple of my friends were shot, he went there and sewn them up. He says, ‘Mike, that’s your brother?’
“Yeah, my brother saved a couple of my friends’ lives. They’ve been shot or something and he’s sewn them up.
“He says, ‘That’s your brother?’ Yes it is my brother.”
Tyson, now 54, wrote extensively about his brother in his 2014 book, Undisputed Truth.
He remarked: “We’re black guys from the ghetto and he was like a scientist – he had these little test tubes and was always experimenting.
“I was like, ‘White people do this stuff.’ He once went to the chemistry lab at Pratt Institute, a nearby college, and got some chemicals to do an experiment.
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“A few days later, when he was out, I snuck into his room and started adding water to his test tubes, and I blew out the whole back window, starting a fire in his room.”
As well as starting fires in Rodney’s room and the occasional scuffle, Tyson also cut his brother with a razor while he was sleeping.
He recalled: “I fought with him a lot, but it was just typical stuff. Except for the day that I cut him with a razor.
“He had beaten me up for some reason and then he had gone to sleep.
“My sister, Denise, and I were watching one of those doctor-type soap operas and she said, ‘We could do that and Rodney could be the patient.’”
“So we rolled up his sleeve and got to work on his left arm, ‘scalpel,’ I said and my sister handed me the razor. I cut him a bit and he started bleeding.
“I said, ‘We need the alcohol, nurse’ and she passed it to me and I poured it onto his cuts.
“He woke up screaming and yelling, chasing us around the house – he still has those slices to this day.”
Tyson soon left his troubled life in Brooklyn aged 13 when he was introduced to his mentor and former trainer Cus D’Amato while staying in a facility for juvenile delinquents
D’Amato later legally adopted and housed the promising boxer and coached him in his gym in the Catskill.
Sadly, D’Amato died while Tyson was 19, but a year later Iron Mike won the title, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion of all time.
Tyson went on to have one of the most famous careers in boxing, with equal ups and downs before he retired in 2005.
In his tell-all book released seven years ago, he revealed his relationship with brother Rodney broke down.
But he once more spoke about how the lives of his friends were saved by his older sibling.
Tyson wrote: “I was used to living in a slum, in a condemned building. But my brother never talks about that. It must affect him.
“He said to me last time we spoke: ‘I heard you have a magnificent book’. But he hasn’t read it. He’s just so far away from that world.
“He’s the No1 trauma guy in the country. He’s awesome. He’s taken bullets out of some of my friends.
“He’s stitched them up and they’ve said: ‘Mike do you know your brother is a surgeon’.
“I say, ‘Yeah, I know.’ We don’t have a close connection. Too many demons, too much pain.”
