Mike Tyson On Tupac Shakur: 'He Could Have Been Everything'

Boxing icon Mike Tyson believes that influential rapper and late friend Tupac Shakur could have become more than just an inspiration.

During his prime, Tyson made friends with a lot of people. As a famous boxer, Tyson used to be surrounded by celebrities and people who like to enjoy the limelight. When “Iron Mike” started to get in trouble with the law during the mid 90’s, he also lost most of his celebrity pals. However, hip-hop legend Shakur, simply known as “2pac,” was an exception.

In one of the recent episodes of “Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson,” the legendary boxer spoke with his co-host Eben Britton and revealed why he still admires his close friend’s overall personality, Daily Star reported.

According to Tyson, Shakur was an “amazing person” and contrary to what he perceived himself as rapper, Shakur had a brilliant mind with “different personalities.”

“His brain must have never stopped working - he was just so fast. He had different personalties,” Tyson said about 2pac.

“He [could be] sweet, intellectual, talking about Richard Wright books. “Then he’s vicious and violent, and then he’s an activist,” Tyson added.

Based on Tyson’s recollection, Shakur could have surpassed what he has already done for music and for the people he impacted.

“He was a lot of things. He had a lot of energy. He was everything, he could have been everything.He was ahead of his time, and a little bit in the past too.”

In Tyson’s quick victory over Bruce Seldon in Las Vegas in 1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by as he made his way to an after party at Club 662. In 2018, Tyson looked back at the devastating incident and admitted that he still finds it “difficult to talk about Shakur’s death.”

“It’s very difficult to talk about," Tyson said in an emotional interview.

“He was just a young kid, and he wanted to be great – and then that happened,” Tyson continued.

Tyson’s friendship with Shakur is something that the boxing Hall of Famer treasures even up to this day. In 2015, Tyson revealed that Shakur made an effort to visit him while he was in jail. Since then, the two became close friends and Tyson knew that Shakur wasn’t just after the spotlight, Rolling Stone reported.

“I didn’t know that was him! I didn’t know who he was. He wasn’t famous then,” Tyson recalled.

“Then he’s famous when I get locked up, so he wrote me. He appreciated me getting him in, and he wanted to come visit me. So he came and he visited me. And that’s how we met each other,” Tyson revealed.