Mike Tyson turned up in Syracuse as President Donald Trump’s heavyweight backup Friday, riding Air Force One to New York before taking the stage at a rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
The former heavyweight champion spent part of Friday at the White House, then joined Trump on the flight to his home state for Blakeman’s campaign event.
“I see somebody in the audience that I will never fight, I promise. But I remember when Mike [Tyson] was in his prime, when he was the heavyweight champion of the world. He’d stand in the corner and his people would all be holding him back. He wanted to kill whoever it was,” Trump stated.
“He was a very dangerous person actually, and he was one of the greatest fighters in history.”
Trump used Tyson’s place beside Blakeman to turn the boxer’s presence into a campaign punchline.
“I see him standing right next to Bruce Blakeman. Bruce wants a little protection, he’s got the right guy. Bruce knows who to stand near,” Trump said.
Tyson’s turn onstage was brief and all-in for Trump. “Thank you very much. I’m just happy to be here with my president, President Trump, and there’s no way in the world I would ever be here if it wasn’t for a president like Donald Trump. Thank you,” Tyson said.
As Tyson left, Trump leaned back into the old fight-night image.
“I watched him get in the ring many times. He was a scary guy. I think he looks better now than he did 30 years ago,” Trump said. “What the hell are you doing, Mike?”
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At the West Wing briefing room before the trip, Tyson was asked about Republican chances in the midterms and gave an answer that centered on Trump.
“I believe Donald Trump is gonna win it,” Tyson curiously stated.
Trump also laughed off any chance of testing the former champion himself before they left Washington.
“I won’t be fighting him today,” Trump told reporters, adding, “We’ve been friends for a long time.”
Blakeman is trying to defeat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has held the office since August 2021.
New York Yankees president Randy Levine shared the rally spotlight two days after the Yankees were swept in the American League Division Series. Trump mentioned the loss, then treated Levine’s history of winning as enough to make it irrelevant.
“He’s won so much, it’s not going to matter,” Trump said.
The Syracuse appearance followed Tyson’s lengthy pro-Trump turn on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” where the 60-year-old former champion talked about campaigning for Trump and taking pride in the relationship.
“I voted for him,” Tyson told Morgan. “I ran the streets for him. You know, me getting votes… I’m very proud of him. He’s somebody that everybody should be proud of.”
Tyson and Trump go back to the 1980s, when Tyson was coming up as a young heavyweight and Trump was becoming a major name in New York and Atlantic City real estate.
“Listen, if you didn’t know who Donald Trump was and you didn’t know his name, you would think he’s Black,” Tyson remarked.
Tyson credited Trump’s appeal to his ability to absorb financial trouble, lawsuits and public scandal without collapsing.
“When he went for President, he was bankrupt… He owed taxes, he owed so much money,” Tyson claimed falsely.
Trump’s businesses filed for bankruptcy six times, with the last filing in 2009, before his 2016 White House run.
Tyson also argued that Trump’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations and court fights demanded respect.
“All this sex abuse and all that stuff that he went through,” Tyson continued. “People don’t normally go that well. They normally have a nervous breakdown. He handled it. And that’s why everyone has to respect him. Just from the way he handled his court procedures… I don’t care if you hate his guts… you have to respect that. Just off the bat.”
No criminal conviction for sexual misconduct appears in Trump’s record. In May 2023, a federal jury found him liable in a civil trial involving writer E. Jean Carroll, and a later jury ordered him to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million on top of an initial $5 million penalty.
Decades before Tyson stood with Trump in Syracuse, Trump had defended the boxer after his 1992 rape conviction in Indiana.
Trump told NBC at the time that Tyson had been “railroaded in the case” and challenged the victim’s story.
He also argued publicly that Tyson should be able to stay out of prison by paying the victim “millions and millions” of dollars.
“What has happened to him, the conviction, is already punitive,” Trump told the New York Post in 1992. “The victim has had the satisfaction of humbling him and being vindicated.”
During the Morgan interview, Tyson did not revisit Trump’s 1992 defense of him. He did, however, point to Trump surviving the 2024 Pennsylvania assassination attempt as proof that he is “not a p**** President.”
Tyson has also pushed the White House on marijuana, joining Kevin Durant and other athletes in June 2025 to urge federal cannabis reform.
In December 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to expedite marijuana’s proposed move from Schedule I to Schedule III. The order instructed officials to complete the rulemaking process, but it did not finalize the change.