Mike Tyson is No Vick--He truly loves animals.
Tyson finds peace from unusual source
By Kevin Iole, 4 hours, 48 minutes ago
HENDERSON, Nev. – The hands that once caused so much fear, that once scrambled the brains of highly trained men, which caused elite professionals to cower in fear, now gently, tenderly, caress a pigeon.
Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion of the world, the one-time baddest man on the planet, is now just a working stiff who hustles odd jobs to make a living.
Life is simpler now, more peaceful. He’s doing what he loves, surrounded by people and things he loves. The zany, out-of-control fighter, who once gnawed an opponent’s ear off, who bit another opponent on the leg during a news conference, who said he wanted to eat an opponent’s children, is long gone.
Pigeons aren't the world's most popular birds, but Mike Tyson hopes his new Animal Planet show will change perceptions.
(AP)
(AP)
That was Iron Mike, and this Mike Tyson wants no part of that guy.
He calls himself a “Nevada guy” now and says he wants nothing to do with living in Brooklyn, where he was born and raised. “Not even in a penthouse,” he says, laughing nervously.
He’s at home in the desert, with his new wife, two of his children and his prized pigeons. He’s a recovering addict now, fighting daily to avoid the temptations of the drugs that nearly derailed him only a few years ago.
The Las Vegas area isn’t generally the place for people with dependencies like Tyson. And from the backyard of his home, the lights of the famed Las Vegas Strip beckon like a Siren’s song.
Tyson, though, insists he’s found peace because he came to a realization that took him more than 40 years to accept.
“I used to think nobody liked me and nobody wanted to help me,” Tyson said. “No. People were waiting for me to do the right thing. Once you help yourself, people will help you. That’s just how it goes, and I found out late. People are just waiting for you to change so they can participate in cultivating your life. Or, they’re waiting for you to kill yourself and watch you self-destruct.
“And what I finally learned is that people say, ‘So, what are we going to do? I’m not going to help you self-destruct. If you’re self-destructive, I’m going to stay away. But once I see you are trying to cultivate your life and change and throw away those bad habits, I’ll get involved in your life and try to help. Other than that, I’m not involved.’ “
He pauses and sighs.
“They’re right, of course, but that’s what I didn’t realize,” he said. “It just took so long for me to realize that people didn’t just hate me. They hated the behavior they saw and they wanted to help me if they could, if I gave them a chance and try to start by helping myself.”
Tyson makes money off of his name, but he insists he’s far from the man he once was. He’s found projects that keep him busy and pay him money and he’s found that, surprise, surprise, people actually like him and enjoy hearing what he has to say.
He’s starring in a docudrama series for the cable channel Animal Planet called “Taking on Tyson,” that begins on March 6 at 10 p.m. ET and PT. The show is about racing pigeons and Tyson challenges some of the best pigeon racers in the world.
The former champion has long had a fascination with pigeons. He fought on the streets for the first time as a 12-year-old when a neighborhood bully in the tough, gritty Brownsville section of Brooklyn grabbed his favorite pigeon and snapped its neck, throwing the dead bird at him, its blood spattering him in his face.
He now has a coop in his home and has pigeons as his pets.
“I looooooove these things,” he coos, softly.
Pigeons aren’t high on most people’s list of cuddly, affectionate pets. In many areas, they’re considered a nuisance. Tyson, though, sees the birds differently.
They’re majestic animals with distinct personalities, he says, the finest animals he’s ever owned.
Tyson has had a rich history with animals, including exotics. Nothing, though, can match a pigeon in his eyes.
“Pigeons are the best,” he said. “Of all the animals I’ve had – tigers, lions, bears – Oh no, none of them are even close to the same league as the birds.”
Tyson says, “Oh no, no, no,” when asked if he has a special understanding of the birds that others don’t possess. It’s his willingness to accept them that gives him whatever insight he has into their nature, he says.
“If you think you have some kind of different level of understanding of the animals, that’s when you think you’re special and that’s when you get hurt by them,” Tyson said. “That’s when you lose it. These animals don’t understand. Pigeons are man’s first feathered friend, but they need us in life. We have a relationship, us and pigeons, especially the thoroughbred pigeons. People take care of them very well, but you know what? They’d only live two years on the street, if they’re lucky. And that’s if they’re lucky.”
Tyson fooled a lot of people by surviving a wild life, much of it spent on the streets, and making it past his 40th birthday still alive. He’s 44 now and doing better than he ever has, he says.
He still loves the fight game – he enjoys both boxing and mixed martial arts – but isn’t nearly as close to the sport that made him one of the world’s most recognizable figures as he once was. Only a few days before a highly anticipated bantamweight bout between Nonito Donaire Jr. and Fernando Montiel at the Mandalay Bay Events Center that is just a short distance from his home, Tyson asks if any good matches are coming up.
But when the Donaire-Montiel bout is mentioned, Tyson is puzzled.
“Are they good?” he asks. “Excuse me for asking, but I’m not familiar with them. Is it going to be a good fight?”
Tyson is still a fixture at fights in Las Vegas, but says he believes the Ultimate Fighting Championship has surpassed boxing because of the way it promotes and stages its events.
“It’s just more entertaining than going to a boxing match now,” Tyson says of going to a UFC card. “When you go to a boxing match, once the fight is over, you’re waiting for another match and there is nothing going on. We’re just sitting there with an empty ring and nothing is happening. We might as well stand up, because the audience is the show there. If you go to UFC, ‘Boom, boom, da, da, da, da,’ it’s like we’re in a club, we’re partying. Everybody’s passing their drinks and it’s a party.
“When the fighters come out, there’s more music and they build a story up about the fighters and then there is the fight. The fights are awesome – they’re awesome, really – and then, ‘Boom,’ the fight is over and then there is more music. It’s a party and a fight at the same time. I know it sounds crazy, but that’s what it is.”
He chuckles and explains what he’d do if he were a promoter. He clearly has been paying attention, because everything he says makes sense.
He doesn’t have an MBA but he has a sense of what moves people.
“You know, people will spend their last dime to be entertained,” Tyson says. “They’ll steal a meal and pay for their entertainment. When I was fighting, people watched because they thought I was nuts. They didn’t know what might happen next. There was an entertainment aspect to that, that they wanted to see the unexpected, so to speak. They didn’t know what might happen, but they thought something would and they wanted to see it.
“With this show, yeah, people are going to watch it because of me and because they want to hear me talk and find out what I have to say. That’s part of it. But these other characters on this show are fascinating. I don’t want to say their personal business, but when you see these guys, they’re little, dumpy white men, fat and stuff. But if you ever get to know them, they’re fearless. They’re not afraid of nobody, with a gun or without. They don’t look like those kind of people, because it’s not stamped on their foreheads like it is with me. But you watch and you’ll see.”
He’s eager to see the reaction to the show and believes it will be a hit, though not because of his presence. The birds, he predicts, will be the stars.
How can you not love pigeons, he asks? They’re a huge part of his life these days and he often spends time caressing his birds, talking to them, quietly watching them soar above him.
“They all have their own personalities and there are some you like more than others,” Tyson said. “But you know what? There are some people you like more than others. Sometimes, because of what you do, or who you are, you’re forced to associate with people and you may not like them or you may not want to be around them, but you have to because of the situation you find yourself in.
“This is my opinion, but I love these birds. They’re fascinating creatures and it gives me a good feeling, a sense of peace, just to be around them every day. It’s not for everybody, but this is my life and this is what I love to do. I could be happy being around them and watching them for the rest of my life.”
Vegetarianism Sweeping Mixed Martial Arts
Vegetarianism all the rage in MMA
By Dave Meltzer, Feb 18, 9:59 am EST
SAN JOSE, Calif. – When Jon Fitch signed his first contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2005, the former Purdue University wrestling captain could suddenly afford to eat whatever he wanted.
That meant meat. Lots of it.
“I would eat three meals a day with meat, and meat was the main part of every meal,” said Fitch, who is preparing for his biggest fight in years on Feb. 26 in Sydney, Australia against B.J. Penn in UFC 127. “I’d eat two steaks for dinner almost every night.”
Jon Fitch has dropped meat from his diet as he prepares for his UFC 127 main event against B.J. Penn.
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Fitch, considered by most either the No. 2 or No. 3 welterweight in the world, grew up in the meat-and-potatoes Midwest in Fort Wayne, Ind. When he went to college, meat became an even bigger dietary staple.
“My mother would make meat and sides, but in college, I was always in a hurry, so cooking meat was quick and easy, and there were a lot less sides,” he said. “I lived off the George Foreman Grill.”
But after college and before signing with the UFC, meat became a luxury. As a small-show fighter living in expensive San Jose, he had to survive on a budget of $800 a month, which didn’t get him very far.
Ramen noodles were in. High-priced animal flesh was out.
But in his training for the Penn fight, Fitch has come full circle. The top welterweight has joined a growing number of MMA stars who have committed to a vegetarian diet.
The list includes the next challenger for Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight title, Jake Shields, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz, and two former Ultimate Fighter winners, Nate Diaz and Mac Danzig.
Shields, whose parents are vegetarians, grew up on a meatless diet, never wavered, and is in large part the catalyst for the trend.
Related: Check out Jake Shields’ diet
He influenced training partner Nick Diaz. Nate Diaz, Nick’s younger brother, followed in Nick’s footsteps. Fitch, based in San Jose, and Shields, who lives nearby in San Francisco, have trained together in the past.
“I’ve been this way all my life,” said Shields, 32, who faces St. Pierre on April 30 in Toronto on a show that has already sold out the 55,000-seat Rogers Centre. “I’ve got nothing to compare it to. The only thing is, nobody can train as hard or as long as me and Nick Diaz, so that seems to indicate something.”
Diaz, 27, turned to a vegetarian diet as a teenager. Unlike Shields and Fitch, who live in the upscale Bay Area, Diaz lives in working-class Stockton, Calif. This means his diet require a substantial commitment, as he noted he has to load up on groceries when he goes to train with the likes of Shields in San Francisco, an hour away from his home.
Frequent shopping and constant eating are a necessity in balancing the vegetarian lifestyle and high-level professional fighting, because foods with no preservatives spoil quickly, and maintaining weight and strength are necessary.
“I try to keep my diet all organic,” said Diaz. “It’s healthier. You recover faster. Nobody trains as hard as we do.” With plenty of vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco, Shields eats out several times per week.
Shields noted the only time his diet became difficult was when he was in Strikeforce and bounced back and forth between welterweight and the 185-pound welterweight class. When he competed at the higher weight class, he sometimes had to force himself to eat seven or eight times a day to add the extra weight.
At the top level of MMA, particularly for main-event caliber UFC fighters, a good deal of travel is required, which can be a particular challenge to those with vegetarian needs.
Fitch went to Sydney several weeks ago for a media tour to promote UFC 127, and will leave more than a week in advance of his fight to get acclimated to the substantial time change.
Jake Shields is a lifelong vegetarian. His biggest dietary challenge is finding good eats on the road.
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
“Eating there won’t be a problem,” Fitch said. “I was there in December and scouted out places for the week of the fight.”
Shields spent last week in Toronto in promotion of his fight. He’s fought all over the world and noted having problems finding good places to eat on fight week in some cities.
Early in his career, Shields fought frequently in Japan, which was a struggle, because so much of the Japanese diet is fish-based, and he didn’t speak the language. Shields said at times he didn’t eat as well as he would have liked in the days leading to a fight, and didn’t feel his best. Even with the challenge, Shields only lost one fight while competing in Japan.
Husband-and-wife team
Fitch’s transformation to vegetarianism came about in large part to the influence of his wife Michele. He noted that Shields, who has won 15 consecutive fights, helped sway his decision.
And he couldn’t be happier with the changes.
“In every kind of testing to see where I’m at, strength, speed, conditioning, I’m either right at or well ahead of the best marks I’ve ever had at this stage of training,” Fitch said. “A few weeks ago, we were concerned I was peaking too fast. I’d kick the [expletive] out of myself at the same stage of training for any of my previous fights.”
Fitch, who turns 33 on Feb. 24, is now about 183 pounds. As a welterweight fighter, his weigh-in weight is 170. Most modern welterweights range from 185 pounds as their regular weight before cutting down, to as much as 210 pounds for somebody like Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. Fitch was on the upper end of that scale for years. But two weeks before the Penn fight, he was about five pounds lighter at the same stage as he would have been for his last few fights.
“The biggest thing is better recuperation from training,” Fitch said. “I don’t have the days where I came in flat. It’s made for the best training camp of my career.”
If anything seems like a negative with Fitch in regard to his change, it’s that he has to constantly eat or he will lose too much weight.
Both Fitch and Shields augment their diets with frequent protein shakes. Fitch has limited his supplementation to plant-based protein of late, and is also using amino acids as a supplement. Shields uses supplements supplied by his sponsor, usually soy- or whey-based, but sometimes milk-based protein.
Neither fighter is vegan. Fitch said during his Penn camp he has been eating fish about once a week, although he went three straight weeks at one point with no animal products. Besides his milk-based protein powder, Shields regularly eats eggs.
“I used to get pressured to eat meat when I was younger by [amateur wrestling] coaches,” said Shields. “But I was successful in sports, so they started leaving me alone.”
Fitch’s transformation was gradual, stemming from when Michele read “Skinny Bitch,” a diet book by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin that advocated a vegan lifestyle and focused on unhealthy aspects of eating meat.
“Before UFC 100, she went on a vegan diet and started feeling better,” said Fitch. “Prior to my fight with Paulo Thiago [during the summer of 2009], I went to a more organic diet. I cut back to eating meat three times a week, limited to an eight-ounce steak or poultry, and started eating more fruits and vegetables. In two weeks, I noticed a big difference in training. I had a much easier weight cut and recovered from it better. So I kept it up.”
Fitch read “Skinny Bastard,” the male counterpart to” Skinny Bitch,” by the same authors, as well as “The China Study,” a research project collaboration among Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, which examined diseases and lifestyles in rural China. The study showed people who ate the most animal-based protein had more chronic illnesses, and people who ate mostly plant-based foods were the healthiest and lived the longest.
Fitch credits his wife for his ability to pull off his dietary experiment because she handles the shopping and food preparation.
“We’re a real team,” he said. “With all the food I have to eat to maintain weight on this diet, she is constantly cooking and preparing things.”
“He eats nonstop,” said Michele Fitch. “Particularly at night. I wake up in the morning and the snack tray is empty.”
Fitch gets home most nights from his evening workout at about 9:30 p.m. and eats dinner at 10. He will eat another light meal before going to bed around midnight.
“After his evening workout, he has a spinach noodle dish with spinach, zucchini, garlic, onions, olive oil and sometimes mushrooms – his Popeye meal,” she said. “All meals contain a variety of fruits.”
The Fitches don’t measure portions, but Michele Fitch said the goal for Jon is a three-to-one ratio between fruits and protein, with the goal of getting 90 grams of protein daily.
“The average person needs 60 grams, but with all the intense training, I have to keep my strength up,” he said.
For Danzig, a matter of principle
Danzig, 31, the Season 6 winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” as a welterweight, even though he normally fights at lightweight, turned vegetarian full-time in 2004.
With his stint on the reality show and public advocacy for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, he’s more vocal about the vegetarian lifestyle than other fighters.
Danzig ponders about peoople with pets who know of the often inhumane conditions animals raised for food are subjected to.
“I don’t understand how anyone can have an animal in their life and know what is going on and contribute to it,” Danzig said. “You don’t need any kind of animal products to be an athlete in this day and age.”
Danzig came upon the vegetarian diet differently from Fitch and the Diaz brothers, who did it for their sport. He cites being on a farm at 13 and seeing a truck taking pigs to slaughter, making eye contact with a pig on the way to its death, and the moment having a profound effect on him.
Danzig worked at an animal sanctuary in Pennsylvania at the age of 20 and met people who felt strongly about not eating meat. He was a vegan for a year, but gave it up when he started training as a full-time fighter, believing he would need animal protein to have enough strength to compete at the top level. But after reading up on the subject, he felt he could go without any animal products and be successful, so he reverted back to veganism.
Fitch raves about the health and performance benefits of his new lifestyle. But he doesn’t consider it a moral matter. He noted after his fight with Penn, he’s planning on eating a steak.
“The thing is, steak tastes great.”
TEMPORARY VICTORY!!! JAPAN SUSPENDS WHALING DUE TO SEA SHEPHERD ACTIONS!!
Sea Shepherd Activists Prompt Japan To Suspend Whaling
AP/The Huffington Post MARI YAMAGUCHI First Posted: 02/16/11 08:39 AM Updated: 02/17/11 04:25 AM
Read More: Activism, Animals, Japan Stops Whaling, Japan Suspends Whaling, Japan Whale Hunting,Japan Whaling, Japanese Whaling, Our Oceans, Sea Shepherd, Sea Shepherd Activists, Sea Shepherd Japan, Sea Shepherd Victory, Sea Shepherd Whaling, Whale Wars, Green News
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan has temporarily suspended its annual Antarctic whaling after repeated harassment by a conservationist group, a government official said Wednesday.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships have been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet for weeks in the icy seas off Antarctica, trying to block Japan's annual whale hunt, planned for up to 945 whales.
Japan has halted the hunt since Feb. 10 after persistent "violent" disruptions by the anti-whaling protesters, said fisheries agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku.
So far, the attacks have not caused any injuries or major damage to the vessels, he said, but the protesters are throwing rancid butter in bottles and once the protesters got a rope entangled in the propeller on a harpoon vessel, causing it to slow down.
"We have temporarily suspended our research whaling to ensure safety," he said. The fleet plans to resume hunting when conditions are deemed safe, he added, but declined to say how long the suspension is planned for.
The whale hunts, which Japan says are for scientific purposes, are allowed by the International Whaling Commission as an exception to the 1986 ban, but opponents say they are a cover for commercial whaling because whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan.
The Sea Shepherd group has been shadowing Japan's whaling fleet for several years, and its campaign has drawn high-profile donor support in the United States and elsewhere and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars."
Japan's fisheries agency has called Sea Shepherd a terrorist group for its militant actions.
Grant Pereira, an advisory board member for the group, welcomed the halt, saying Japan "should have suspended (the hunts) 10, 15 years ago," he said. "It's morally and legally wrong to kill whales."
While whale meat isn't widely eaten in Japan, many people here believe it is hypocritical for Westerners to condemn whaling while they kill cows, pigs, fish and lambs for food. It's a cultural difference, they argue.
Last year, one of the Sea Shepherd's boats sank after colliding with a Japanese vessel. The boat's captain, New Zealander Peter Bethune, was later arrested when he boarded a whaling ship from a Jet Ski, and brought back to Japan for trial. He was convicted of assault, vandalism and three other charges and given a suspended prison term. Bethune has since returned to New Zealand.
Nakaoku said the anti-whaling ships have been chasing the Japanese fleet right behind the lead whaling ship, Nisshin Maru.
"It's extremely regrettable that our research activity has been obstructed by the acts of sabotage, which could lead to serious injuries or damage," he said. "We hope to return to normal operation as soon as possible."
The Japanese fleet left Japan late last year, and its ongoing expedition is planned for several more weeks.
Japan has failed to fulfill its catch quota in recent years due to escalating protests by the anti-whaling campaigners. Last year, Japanese whalers ended up catching only about half of their target.
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