Rose alleged that he got into a street fight with Tyson outside a Brooklyn club, back in 2001. The boxer, who ended his career with a 2-11-1 record, soon filed a lawsuit against Tyson seeking $66million (£51million) after claiming that Tyson had damaged his back and ripped his mink coat.
A police report noted that Rose had initiated the altercation after calling Tyson’s female friends “chicken heads”, while witnesses denied that the former heavyweight champion had thrown punches. That did not stop Rose from telling his side of the story in his autobiography titled, Mike Tyson Tried to Kill My Daddy!
“I wasn’t in a boxing state of mind. He was very, very strong,” Rose said. “I slipped backwards on the concrete. But I wasn’t scared. I should have been, but I wasn’t. I think Mike expected me to fold and surrender. Either way, I can say I got to fight Mike Tyson. It wasn’t in the ring where I would have liked to get the payday. It was the Brooklyn way, in the street.”
Mike Tyson was preparing to face Lennox Lewis when Mitchell Rose filed a lawsuit against him..
Mitchell Rose claimed to have handed Jay-Z a demo tape in 2001.
Rose did not earn riches from his boxing career, confessing that he only made $1,500 for his headline-grabbing win over Butterbean. However, the heavyweight fighter believed he had also been denied multimillions as a rapper.
In 2008, Rose shocked the world with another lawsuit, demanding $88million (£69million) from Jay-Z for copyright infringement. Rose, nicknamed The Cigarette Man, had approached Jay-Z during the Felix Trinidad vs William Joppy fight in 2001, handing him a demo, which he claimed influenced his later albums.
“He took the demo with him and shortly after that he began using the whispering (which he now frequents) in his songs,” he argued. “He’s using it on the regular, now Lil’ Kim is using it. All I want is justice. Jay-Z knows what I am talking about.”
It seems that Rose never received the payday he felt he deserved. However, he revealed an optimistic outlook on life in his autobiography: “I never made a lot of money in the ring. My biggest paydays were $2,500 for the [Gerald] Nobles fight and $1,500 for Butterbean, but I got a lot of experiences that I measured as wealth.
“I’ve been up, I’ve been down, but I’m still here kicking and hopefully punching again. Life works in funny ways. You never know what’s around the corner. Some people don’t want to know. Me, I can’t wait to find out.”
