Mike Tyson Reveals He Dug His Deceased Mother From Her Grave & Had Her Body Removed From Casket

Mike Tyson’s relationship with his late mother has come up a lot throughout his career. The former heavyweight champion has discussed how her death impacted his career trajectory and how he’s tried to honor her since becoming a megastar. Tyson recently revealed to Stephen A. Smith that he actually got his mother’s body exhumed from her coffin.

Mike Tyson says he owes a lot of his success as a fighter to his mother’s passing. Mike was already a tough kid, fighting around the local neighborhood. While his mother did what she could, she was not able to help her son control his temper before she died in 1982 from cancer.

Mike would go on to become a street fighter before being elevated to the highest title in boxing. Mike has said that his mother’s passing played a huge role in that and believed that had she lived, she would have softened him up, and he probably would have never become the fighter we all know.

While speaking with Shannon Sharpe, Mike made the revelation. “You know, one of the best things that ever happened to me is that my mother died…because my mother would have babied me, there’s no way I would ever [get] into a street fight, no way I would ever learn to stand up for myself.”

While he is grateful for the path he took following her loss, Mike has still made sure to honor Lorna Smith Tyson. One way he did this was by having her grave dug up and putting her body in a different coffin.

While chatting with Stephen A. Smith, Tyson opened up about wanting to give his mother a better final resting place. When Smith asked, “Really? You did that?” The former champion said yes, adding, “She died in a sh*tty coffin. “