Tyson revealed that he watched Wilder’s video on the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ and made it his mission to return to the sport and teach his rival a lesson.
“I started the regain mission to become heavyweight champion of the world again,” the ‘Gypsy King’ told WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman in an interview.
“I phoned up my trainer and said I was ready to train now, I phoned up Frank Warren and said I was ready to make a comeback and he said, ‘Yeah, we’ll power the comeback.’
“That day I got my sweatsuit on and I intended to jog one mile, just one, and I didn’t get half a mile without stopping.
“I stopped and I walked, and as I was walking I was looking on Instagram of some videos and I saw a video that Deontay Wilder had done and he said that he could knock out Mike Tyson in one round in his heyday.
“And I thought this is disrespectful because Mike Tyson is 50-odd years old, Deontay Wilder is a young champion in his era.
“And I thought you know what, for that one comment, I’m going to come back and knock you out.
“And he also said some stuff about me as well, he’s fat, he’ll never make a comeback, he’s too far gone.
“So I actually owe Deontay Wilder for bringing me back and giving me more inspiration to return, as well as God, and I never stopped.
“From this day to that day, I’ve never stopped training. I’ve trained every single day since November 1st, 2017.”