Mike Tyson: 'My Whole Life is Just a Waste'

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - He was " the baddest man on the planet ," and once threatened to eat the children of an opponent. But an aging Mike Tyson wants you to know he wasn't nearly as bad as everyone thought he was.

"I realize that my whole life is just a [expletive] waste," the former heavyweight champion told Details . "'Greatest man on the planet?' I wasn't half the man I thought I was."

Tyson sat down with the magazine for an honest, self-flagellating interview littered with Iron Mike's trademark raw language.

The 44-year-old – who called himself a pig and worse – said he is a very different today than the man who swiftly annihilated ring foes in the time it takes to order a pizza.

"The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness," Tyson said, adding he never believed he'd live past the age of 25, but that he wants "to go to my grave with respect."

"I only know I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be in prison for murder. I'm supposed to be dead by now, have AIDS or something."

Tyson, a practicing vegan for the past eight months, is set to star in a new Animal Planet show on racing pigeons called "Taking on Tyson."

The wide-ranging interview touched on nearly every aspect of Tyson's life, including the recent accidental death of his 4-year-old daughter, his admiration for everyone from Muhammad Ali to Che Guevara, and his reliance on prescription medication.

Tyson said he "was on [expletive] drugs, thinking I was a god" when he infamously bit Evander Holyfield's ear in a 1996 fight.

"I just wanted to [expletive] maim him. I had no business being in that ring."

Tyson added that he's "never" felt free since his three-year prison term for a rape conviction.