If you’re a guy facing felony domestic violence charges for beating your girlfriend’s face in, the last person you want to be compared to is disgraced former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. Mike’s laundry list of crimes against women is epic. But when Tyson was recently asked his opinion about the Chris Brown case, his answer was surprising. The former champ identified with Brown, saying that he’s familiar with the psychology behind what Brown did, but he also said that the R&B singer needs to get control of his emotions- and that it is wrong to hit a woman.

Mike Tyson – who was accused of beating Robin Givens and was convicted of raping Desiree Washington – says he can relate to Chris Brown, the 19-year-old singer who allegedly beat Rihanna.

“It’s none of my business, but you know what I say about that? I understand the situation. I understand passion with young kids,” Tyson, 42, tells MTV News.

“My personal opinion about that is, he’s just a baby,” adds the former heavyweight champ, who is the subject of a new documentary, Tyson, out Friday. “He’s just a little baby that don’t know how to handle his emotions when it comes to a woman. And he probably hears this and thinks, ‘I know how to handle my emotions’; we all think we do.

“But the fact [is],” Tyson continues, “you look at this person and you might be crazy in love, but we don’t know how to handle those feelings.”

What could have led Brown to beat Rihanna, 21? Tyson blames a “pimp mentality” that is prevalent among young people. “Now you’re a fly guy and a cool guy [you think] … you have to be hard like that,” he says.

In the MTV interview, Tyson appears contrite about his history of violence towards women.

“You can’t abuse them,” he tells MTV. “It’s really sick what you [can] do. She has a space in your heart and you believe you care about her more than anybody in the world.

“Do I think it’s right to beat up a woman? No — hell no,” he adds. “Have I hit a woman before? Hell yeah. Was I wrong? Hell yeah. I’m a product of that environment. Do I regret ever doing that? Hell yeah. Would I do it again? Never.”

[From Us Weekly]

Well, there you have it: the one guy you probably thought would be rushing to defend Chris Brown is saying that it’s wrong to hit a woman. Who would have thought that the one-time poster boy for domestic violence would be one of the few male voices speaking out against what Brown did? Meanwhile, Diddy, Akon and Kanye West are still telling us that “we don’t know what happened” and that Brown deserves a break.

Here’s Mike Tyson at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Tyson’ at the Pacific Design Center last Thursday. Images thanks to WENN.com .