The bizarre moment that Mike Tyson popped to leafy Bloxwich to meet a man's pigeons

A back garden in Bloxwich surrounded by pigeons isn't the most obvious place you would expect to see the 'baddest man on the planet' - but that's exactly what happened when Mike Tyson was a flying visitor to the West Midlands back in 2005.

Tyson was passing through the Midlands due to a speaking date at the NEC Hilton Hotel and nobody had quite expected his love of pigeons to take him to a humble Midlands abode in leafy Bloxwich.

He was at the house of Horace Potts, chairman of the Warley Rollers Pigeon Society.

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Tyson was like a kid in a sweet shop when Potts released his pigeons into the cold West Midlands air and as the pigeons circled and tumbled overhead Tyson, who was also made an honorary life member of the WRPS, couldn't contain his excitement.

"Some people's passions are playing polo or golf but mine is flying pigeons and that has been my pastime since I was nine years old," said Tyson. "I fell madly in love with the championship rollers then and have loved them ever since.

"They are beautiful and there is no other bird like them with their elegance or temperament. I have 400 pigeons in one set and around 600 in another but competition is fierce in New York and everyone has them."

"They are also equipped to fight as every bug, tic, dog, cat and weasel is there mortal enemy."

It is hard to imagine anyone more courteous and polite, as Tyson signed countless autographs, posed for photographs and waxed lyrical over tea and sandwiches in Potts' kitchen with fellow members of the WRPS.

He smiled as he was left gobsmacked observing markings on a pigeon's wing.

"Hey, I have never seen the markings on the wings before and this is a special stamp he shouted enthusiastically. "It is different in America because if you lose a bird they don't want to see it anymore.

"In America, if one bird flies off to be with another bird then his owner will take it so personally that he will buy it back just to kill it.

"It is so competitive in America that if you lived in a street like Mr Potts, then there would be someone else three houses away with pigeons too. I am having a wonderful time here."

And he genuinely enjoyed himself. There were no cameras other than a host of mobile phone versions belonging to Potts' relations and with no pre-conceived notions of how Tyson should behave, he responded accordingly.

His behaviour was in stark contrast to the raging bull that we used to see in the ring and it is his complex character, allied to his boxing talent that has turned him into such a star.

Tyson is one of those rare characters that transcend their sport and almost everyone has an opinion about his past, present or future.

Yet Tyson lives very much for the present and was visibly moved when Potts presented him with a trophy.

"I can't wait to show this off to my friends - it is all about bragging rights in this game and they will be amazed at this trophy.

"I will keep it in my house in California where I keep all my belts and trophies."

The trip to Bloxwich was refreshing, as he was handed an opportunity to meet salt of the earth West Midlanders.

There was no catering company providing the food, just some good old-fashioned cooking from Mrs Potts and former builder Horace resplendent in his Wolves sweatshirt.

These were people who were obviously aware of Tyson's reputation but welcomed him into their home as a fellow pigeon lover and he responded in kind.

It was glaringly apparent that for all the fame, money and glory that boxing brought Tyson, he found that he still craved a large dose of normality.

"I don't like the person boxing made me," he admitted.

"When you're fighting someone, you're in the fight game, in that fight race and it puts you in a different mindset. I don't want that feeling any more.

"I don't like the words, I don't like that attitude and I don't like what I became as a person because of my fighting career, because I'm really into the character. I just don't like that person anymore.

"I wanted to be the a guy that got looked up to."

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The version of Mike Tyson that was sitting in Horace Potts' living room watching videos of pigeons is a far more affable one than the whirling dervish that entered a boxing ring.

It may not be half as exciting but it is far less controversial and it is time for him to stop perpetuating the 'baddest man on the planet' myth.

The prison sentence, rape charge and biting of Evander Holyfield's ear are all part of Tyson's past too and cannot be ignored nor should they.

He is a complex character who appeared to be winning the battle with his own personal demons and he may just have seen the future in a living room in Bloxwich, he looked like he had been a member of Warley Rollers Pigeon Society all his life.