MIKE Tyson has revealed he feels “guilty” about Tupac Shakur’s death after “pressuring” him to come to Las Vegas to watch him fight.
The ring legend says he urged the rapper to come and see him take on Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand on September 7, 1996.
Hours after Tyson stopped his rival in the first round, Tupac was gunned down in a drive-by shooting as he headed to a gig at Club 662 in Sin City.
Rap mogul Suge Knight was in a black BMW next to Tupac when they were targeted by a mystery gunman in a suspected revenge hit.
And Tyson also revealed he was due to hook up with his pal at the nightspot but instead stayed in to look after his new baby.
In a VladTV interview, boxer Zab Judah asks the former heavyweight champ how he felt when he heard Tupac had been killed.
Tyson replied: “It was a really bad day when that happened….it was really bad.
“I felt a little guilty about him coming to the fight….me pressuring him (saying) ‘hey you wanna bring the tape, don’t forget the tape.
“I was going to go out with him that night. I promised to go with him to the 662.
“But I had just had a little baby and her mother provoked me to stay at home.
“Someone called me that night and told me what happened….and I come to me senses.
“This is what happens in my world…that was part of my world. But just because it was Tupac and I was attached to it, it was different.
“I expect someone to die after a fight or somebody to get hurt or something crazy to happen but when it happened to him at was different.”
Tupac was involved in his own fight the night Tyson stepped into the ring in Vegas.
He and his crew – some with links to LA street gang the Bloods – attacked rival Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson in the casino-hotel.
It was a brawl some believe ultimately led to the much-loved rapper’s shocking death.
Tyson and Tupac were close friends in the 1990s and the boxer received prison visits from the music star while behind bars following his conviction for rape in 1992.
He was assigned to the Indiana Youth Center, where he would regularly be visited by celebrities.
But Tyson revealed recently the most respected guest that came to see him was the hip hop legend.
He told rapper TI: “The guards didn’t like him, the inmates got rowdy and pumped up when he came which is a safety concern.
“He was a bolt of energy there. When he came in everybody knew him, he had mad respect. That’s how he lived his life, he had mad respect.”
Shakur himself served time for sexual assault after being convicted during a showcase trial in 1994.
Tyson returned to the ring in 1995 after his release, with his comeback fight against Peter McNeeley grossing £79m worldwide and selling a then record 1.52m PPV’s, equating to £51m.
Just a year later he beat Frank Bruno to win the WBC title, but then lost to Evander Holyfield before infamously biting his ear in their 1997 rematch.
Tyson retired in 2005 after losing to Kevin McBride and left the sport with a record of 50–6-2 and remains one of the most celebrated heavyweights of all time.
