There is a long-standing rumor that Mike Tyson once nearly beat up fellow famous Mike, Michael Jordan. In any other case, a 5'10" dude threatening to knock out the 6'6" NBA superstar might be taken with a pinch of salt, but since Tyson once flattened the similarly-sized Eddie Richardson in just one minute and 17 seconds, the possibility of him wanting to do the same to his Airness doesn't seem all that far-fetched. But did it actually happen?
As the story goes, the altercation happened during a dinner meeting in 1988, where an inebriated Tyson started claiming Jordan was having an affair with Robin Givens, who was divorcing the boxer at the time. However, while the dinner did take place and was somewhat turbulent, there are multiple versions of what actually happened – none of which come from Tyson or Jordan themselves. According to a former member of Tyson's management, Rory Holloway, Tyson did face off with Jordan and managed to freak out the basketball star. Other people, however, have put this course of events in dispute.
Part of the untold truth of Michael Jordan is that while he's a great athlete and a nice enough guy to get endorsement after endorsement, he can trash-talk just fine when he wants to. Since it doesn't seem that he's either commented on the Tyson story or met the guy for another dinner, he may have found the incident unsavory enough to file the boxer in the "silent treatment" folder.
