Mike Tyson to Race Pigeons in Animal Planet Reality Show

Mike Tyson has a fasination with birds. The former world champion boxer has long kept a large collection of them as pets at lofts in Brooklyn and New Jersey and has said that the first time he ever threw a punch was after a bully killed one of his birds when he was a child. And now Kid Dynamite is going to bring his avian passion to the airways in a new reality show, reports the New York Daily News.

In the new Animal Planet series, "Taking on Tyson," the pugalist will take viewers into the world of competetive pigeon racing, an outlet that he turned to in some of his darker moments.

In an interview with the News, his manager Mario Costa said that when Tyson was broke, he would spend a lot of time just sitting with the birds on the roof.

"All he had was the birds," he said. "And he'd tell me, 'I'm rich.'"

But Tyson wants people to know that these aren't your ordinary, garden variety pigeons. At a recent appearance before critics in Los Angeles, he made sure to point out that the birds he plans to race are "the creme de la creme" and that his fine-feathered friends have "only the best bloodlines."

Suggested Reading: New York Daily News, Animal Planet, Fanhouse

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