‘He declined’ … Prime Mike Tyson offered $10K to smash a Silverback gorilla

If 100 men were to fight one Silverback gorilla, a prime Mike Tyson would’ve been first in line.

There’s been much talk on the Internet as of late on what’d it take to beat a Silverback gorilla.

Many users on ‘X’ suggested strength in numbers would be able to overtake a 300-500lb gorilla with 100 ‘dedicated’ bodies.

Others tend to agree it would be a suicide mission, considering the Silverback gorilla’s raw strength, its ability to lift ten times their body weight and a bite force of 1,300 PSI (pounds per square inch) among more incredible feats.

Long before this online debate and his boxing match with Jake Paul came to be, the legendary Mike Tyson wanted to put nature’s heavyweight champion to the test in a New York zoo.

Mike Tyson once tried to bribe a zookeeper into letting him fight a Silverback gorilla

In 1986, a 20-year-old Tyson was at the top of the boxing food chain, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history— a record that’s yet to be broken.

It was around the same time that ‘Iron’ Mike bribed a worker at the Bronx Zoo in New York City to reopen and let him and then wife Robin Givens enjoy a date night around the animals.

“When we got to the gorilla cage there was one big silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas,” Tyson told The Sun in a 2020 interview.

Tyson being the animal lover he is and having been bullied as a kid in Brownsville, the boxer in his prime wanted to take a swing at the alpha male.

“They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant,” Tyson said of the Silverback gorilla.

“I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let me smash that silverback’s snotbox!

“He declined…” Tyson said of the zookeeper.

“If I trust any human to stand a chance in this scrap… it’s prime Tyson,” one fan wrote on X.

Mike Tyson’s still making history at 58 years old

Next year will mark four decades since Tyson’s fight with the gorilla fell through.

Tyson’s never been one to shy away from a challenge and so far removed from his prime, the 58-year-old has fought twice since revealing this insane Silverback story.

Mike Tyson boxed former champ and fellow legend Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition bout in 2020 before making history with Jake Paul last November in the most streamed sporting event of all time.

Paul vs. Tyson, the boxer’s first pro bout since 2005, raked in an average of 108 million viewers globally on Netflix from a packed AT&T Stadium.

Against all odds, Tyson would go the full 8 rounds with the social media sensation, losing via unanimous decision – a moral victory for Tyson against a much younger and faster Paul.