Kicking off the new year, Vlad TV released an interview with boxing veteran Mitch “Blood” Green, revisiting his infamous feud with Mike Tyson that escalated into a violent altercation outside the ring in the late ’80s and a subsequent $25 million lawsuit.
While Green is barely comprehensible in the Vlad interview, it is still evident he has no love for Tyson to this day.
The Green-Tyson Battle in Harlem
For context, the Green-Tyson rivalry took a dramatic turn in 1988 when Green confronted a 22-year-old Tyson outside Dapper Dan’s store in Harlem, New York. The clash reignited tensions stemming their 10-round 1986 fight, which had been promoted by Tyson’s manager, Don King, according to The Sun.
Green got paid $30,000 while Tyson, who earlier this year lost a high-dollar exhibition fight to YouTuber Jake Paul, got paid $250,000, but Green alleges in his interview with Vlad that Tyson’s payout was closer between $700,000 and $1 million. Green entered the fight as the WBC No. 7 contender, while Tyson was ranked eighth. The Georgia-born Green felt he deserved a bigger purse for the fight.
Green also alleges his match with Tyson was rigged, orchestrated by King, who Green mocks as Don Queen. In their May 1986 match, Green lost to Tyson by unanimous decision. Following the fight, Green ended his professional relationship with promoter King, alleging that the promoter/manager — King’s son managed Green — had mismanaged the boxer’s career. Green did not fight again until 1993 after losing a one-sided unanimous decision to Tyson,
The Harlem confrontation, which left Green with a huge shiner, led to Green filing a $25 million lawsuit against Tyson.
In August 1988, he recounted the incident to the Los Angeles Times.
“I was in Manhattan, 105th Street. They told me Tyson was in Dapper Dan’s. I went over to see for myself. When I got there, he was there with a lot of his friends. I approached him. I said, ‘Mike, what you doin’ here? What’s up?’
“I told him that when I fought him [in 1986], I did not [really] fight him that night because Don King [cheated] me out of my money. [Tyson] said he did beat me. … He said, ‘We can do this now.’ I said, ‘Do what?’” Green continued.
“We walked outside. He said, ‘We can do this now to make up for that fight we had back then.’ I said, ‘What?’ At that moment, he was fixing his rings on his hands, like brass knuckles. … He sucker punched me. I tried to get to him, and his friends held me. He never knocked me down. … He shook his hand like a little sissy and ran,” Green claimed.
Fast-forward to the Vlad interview, and Green said he decided to sue because “I got jerked.” Green claims he managed to secure a $45,000 award from the lawsuit without a lawyer. “I had no lawyer,” he stressed. But he called the award “ridiculous” because of “the humiliation, the embarrassment.”
He still feels he should have been awarded more. “They owe me; they owe me money,” said Green.