It was all love between legends Mike Tyson and Cannon Briggs, who took to the streets of Brownsville, New York, on Friday, April 19, with a light-hearted shirtless brawl.
Videos online showed an energetic crowd of locals surrounding the oldheads, who couldn’t resist entertaining the crowd with a playful match as fans egged them on and filmed the recherché moment.
The two briefly hugged before Tyson removed his shirt. Briggs followed suit, pulling off his shirt and hat. The two then assumed their fighting stances and tussled around, with Briggs attempting to lift Tyson’s leg. There weren’t any significant blows during the playful scuffle before they laughed and embraced each other.
The 57-year-old world heavyweight champion posted about the wholesome moment and his return to his childhood neighborhood on his Instagram, showing love to Briggs.
“Brownville’s finest always ready for a brawl. Love this guy, @cannon_briggs,” the caption read.
Briggs also posted the interaction on his Instagram, writing in the caption, “[Tyson] and [Briggs] in Brownsville are having a straightener in front of #AtlanticTowers…It’s on!!!”
What made the moment special was that both boxers resided in Brownsville before their fame. Tyson, (full name Michael Gerard Tyson), was born in Brooklyn and moved to the Brownsville neighborhood because of his family’s financial struggles. He became interested in fighting to combat the bullying he endured. His introduction to boxing became a way to divert him from the illegal activities he engaged in at 11.
Briggs came from a difficult childhood in Brownsville, having a heroin-addict mother, struggling with asthma and being homeless. But instead of embracing a life of drugs and alcohol, Briggs took up boxing after entering Jimmy O’s Starrett City Gym.
In a 2015 interview with the Hudson Union Society, Tyson discussed what life was like in Brownsville, still one of the toughest and most dangerous neighborhoods in New York. In the interview, he talked about how he and his friends engaged in reckless behavior that led to their arrests. He shared he had friends who were still incarcerated with multiple life sentences.
“Nobody was above killing anyone there,” Tyson said. “It was really poverty-struck, drug-infested, gang-infested…I went through a small journey in my life. I’ve been arrested over 40 times by the time I was 12 years old.”
In 2022, he told the Million Dollarz Worth of Game podcast how he had to stand up for himself while living in Brownsville.
