Mike Tyson Makes Cameo on Madonna's New Album 'Rebel Heart' & Opens Up About His Life-Long Love of Pigeons

Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, occasional actor and stage entertainer, is also a known pigeon breeder. Since his childhood days in Brooklyn, New York, the 48-year-old ex-prizefighter has been raising and racing homing pigeons. In fact, as he revealed in an interview back in 2010 with Details, the reason why he got into his first fight, which he won, was because one of the bigger kids in his neighborhood wrung the neck of one of his pet birds.

Tyson also has a show which still airs as part of the Animal Planet series at the Discovery Channel called Taking on Tyson and which is comprised of six episodes. In it, the focus is on the ancient sport of pigeon racing. In the show, Tyson and his birds challenge established and champion racers to non-wagering matches. On why he got into the sport, he told the Pigeon Insider: "I've been raising pigeons all my life. In fact, this coop is the exact replica of the one I had in Catskill, New York where I trained." The new coop he's referring to is the white, two-story pigeon sanctuary, dubbed "Tyson's Corner," which has several spacious rooms where the birds can get free food, free water, and a free place to sleep and which is located on Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City right behind the Ringside Bar and Lounge which is owned by Tyson's friend and pigeon co-trainer Mario Costa.

Tyson loved his birds so much that he broke off with a former girlfriend after she cooks and ate one of his pigeons. About that incident, he told New York Daily News back in 2013: "I was dating this young lady and she said, 'I don't know why you're flying those damn birds, you should be eating them.' [Then] she happened to grab one and she cooked one and proceeded to eat it. And I just couldn't do it. It just wasn't the right thing to do. That's why she's not my woman anymore."

In related news, Tyson revealed to Rolling Stone that he's been asked to do a cameo for Madonna's upcoming album Rebel Heart. "Madonna calls you and tells you to come somewhere, you go," he said. Tyson reportedly ad-libbed his part of the song drawing his inspiration from, of all people, Benito Mussolini. Said he: "I know people may say 'this guy's a fascist' and all this stuff, but man, you can take positivity from watching him. No wonder why Hitler was attracted to him. This guy's a hypnotic figure. There's so much pride behind what he's saying. I'm not even Italian and I feel the pride he's projecting. He had that street swag; he was doing this stuff with his hands and moving his head before it was even hip-hop."