​Mike Tyson’s Abandoned Mansion & How it Came to Dereliction

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In the early 1980s, Mike Tyson owned a monstrous mansion in, Ohio. The world heavyweight champion boxer built this 13,500-square-foot mansion in order to be near the facility of his promoter, Don King.

By 1988, he was at the top of the boxing world and throughout those years he lived in this garish mansion. Purchasing cars, expensive clothing, and many other things, including a $2 million bathtub (featured below).

The Ohio estate included lavishly decorated rooms with imported crystal chandeliers; it had five-bedrooms, tigers in cages, a full kitchen, and a mini-kitchen. His pool was larger than most houses. On the floors stretched zebra print carpets. The structure was garish, the rooms were huge, and the light flooding through the windows was a relief from the fluorescent track lighting.

The later abandoned mansion was Tyson’s home until March 26, 1992, when he was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for the rap and sexual assault of a member of the “Miss Black America Pageant”. Tyson was 25 at the time of the crime. He was sent to the Plainfield Correctional Facility.

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A $2 Million Bathtub

​Tyson was released three years later, but he was convicted again, this time for a traffic accident in 1998. Directly after the accident, he assaulted two motorists. He was sentenced to another year in prison. When he got out, he continued to struggle financially and was forced to put the Ohio mansion on the market.

In 2003, Tyson filed for bankruptcy. On the TV talk show The View, Tyson said he was “destitute and broke”. Tyson’s mansion sat abandoned throughout this time.

In 2010 Tyson’s mansion had a chance to be occupied. When it was purchased by the entrepreneur and businessman Paul Monea. For a steal at $1.3 million, but Monea never lived in the house. Monea was under investigation for money laundering. The FBI set up a sting by acting as a connection to a drug lord. Monea was arrested and eventually convicted of conspiracy and money laundering. He remained in prison until this year (2018).

Mike Tyson’s mansion sat abandoned partially due to its location and partly due to its size. Not many people wanted to spend this much to live in the Ohio countryside. The mansion remained empty until 2015 when a local church acquired the property through donation. Thankfully it has found a new use and did not go to waste.

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