Tyson, Mike

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Mike Tyson

1966-

American boxer

He was one of the best, and he blew it. The youngest heavyweight champion in history, the most inspiring champ since Muhammad Ali , Mike Tyson became the most notorious modern boxer when he went to jail for rape, and then, in his comeback tour, for biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield 's ear. Even before that, Tyson was the man who bragged about wanting to kill his opponents, to punch a man so hard his nose would go through his skull. It is tempting to see Tyson's story as a classic Greek tragedy, the same primal brutality that carried him to the top destroying him in the end. But Tyson was not a plaything for the gods and the Furies. At each step he had opportunities, chances not often given to

ghetto kids. And despite appearances, he was not stupid. He had a choice. And he blew it.

Mike Finds a Mentor

Michael Gerard Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1966, to Lorna Tyson and Jimmy Kirkpatrick. His father ran off before he was two years old, and Mike grew up with all the temptations of ghetto life. By the age of twelve, he was in a street gang and had been in and out of juvenile court. Finally, after an armed robbery conviction, in 1978, he was sent to the Tryon School for Boys, a reformatory, where the physical education instructor, Bobby Stewart, spotted his potential as boxer. In 1981, Stewart introduced the 14-year-old Tyson to his friend, the legendary Cus D'Amato, and D'Amato introduced him to the "sweet science" of boxing.

Cus D'Amato took Tyson in, and when Tyson's mother died a couple of years later, D'Amato became Tyson's legal guardian. Slowly, he and Camille brought Tyson out of his shell, nurturing his aspirations and overcoming his self-doubts. As he explained it to reporter William Plummer, "people, especially if they come up in a rough area, have to go through a number of experiences in life that are intimidating and embarrassing. These experiences form layer upon layer over their capabilities and talents. So your job as teacher is to peel off those layers." As D'Amato peeled layers, he discovered a young man who'd grown up wild, and who was deeply ashamed that he couldn't even read. D'Amato soon corrected that, providing a tutor and introducing Tyson to books on Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey , and other "heavyweights" like Napoleon and Alexander the Great. These were life lessons that would reshape the young fighter, and for a time it seemed the "priestly" D'Amato had redeemed the soul of Mike Tyson.

Iron Mike

When Tyson first stepped into the ring for a professional boxing match, on March 4, 1985, there was no fanfare or boasts before the cameras. Tyson didn't even have a robe to cast off dramatically before the match. But he did have something. He had a menacing glare that would intimidate many fighters in the years ahead, sometimes defeating them before they even stepped in the ring. If that did not work, a single, stunning blow usually did the trick. And he had a thorough grounding in the methods of great fighters of the past, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of his own strength. Tyson would go 15-0 in his first year, but in November he lost his only real father figure, Cus D'Amato, who died at age 77.

Chronology

1966	Born June 30, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lorna Tyrone and Jimmy Kirkpatrick
1978	Is sentenced to Tryon School for Boys, a reformatory
1981	Is introduced to Cus D'Amato by Tryon physical education instructor Bobby Stewart
1983	Mother dies, becomes D'Amato's ward
1985	Death of Cus D'Amato, November
1986	Becomes youngest heavyweight champ in history, taking WBA title, November
1987	Becomes undisputed World Heavyweight Championship, August
1988	Marries Robin Givens, February 7
1988	Death of Jim Jacobs, March
1988	Givens files for divorce, October 7
1989	Signs up with Don King
1990	Loses heavyweight title to Buster Douglas, February 10
1992	Sentenced to six-year prison term for rape, March
1995	Released from prison, March 25
1996	Marries long-time girlfriend Monica Turner, mother of his two children
1997	Infamous biting incident in Holyfield-Tyson rematch; Tyson fined $3 million and suspended from boxing for one year
1998	Suspension lifted
1998	Sues Don King for $100 million
2002	Monica files for divorce, February, citing adultery

It was a bitter blow, but far from a knockout punch. Tyson still had his co-manager, Jimmy Jacobs, D'Amato's old friend and a legendary trainer in his own right. He had a good team around him, he had that glare, a strong neck that let him take a fair amount of punishment, and fists that seemed unstoppable. Before long they were calling him "Iron Mike," and not long after that, they were calling him champ.

On November 22, 1986, he took out Trevor Berbick in two rounds, winning the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title. Tyson destroyed Berbick. As one of the judges, District Attorney Lane, told Sports Illustrated, "If I had let the fight continue, if I let him get hit with more of those terrible punches, it would have been criminal." A year after D'Amato's death, Tyson had fulfilled his dream and become the youngest heavyweight champion in history. It was a sweet moment, but the confused state of modern boxing meant his title was incomplete. In addition to the WBC, there was also a WBA (World Boxing Association) and IBF (International Boxing Federation) champion.

The following year, Tyson did the necessary consolidation. On March 7, 1987, Tyson went up against WBA placeholder James "Bonecrusher" Smith in Las Vegas. Smith fought not so much to crush Tyson's bones as to preserve his own, and after 12 dull rounds Tyson was declared the winner. On August 1, 1987, Tyson went up against IBF champion Tony Tucker to reunite the triple crown of boxing. Tucker did manage to land a blow in the first round, and ultimately he did go the distance, but it was clearly Tyson's fight throughout. "Aw, he stopped fighting after the fifth round," Tyson told Sports Illustrated. "After that he was just in there to survive." Tucker survived, but his championship did not. When it was over, Mike Tyson was the undisputed World Heavyweight Championship (complete with crown and chinchilla robe, provided, inevitably, by the showman who always managed to climb into the ring with a champ, Don King ). An embarrassed Mike Tyson sat in brooding silence during this "coronation."

The Troubled Champ

By the end of 1987, Tyson was being hailed as the most exciting champ since Muhammad Ali, an example for ghetto kids, and indeed all kids, to aspire toward. Interestingly, he was surrounded by white men, including his co-managers Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton, and so he seemed to embody racial harmony and a "we can all get along" spirit that only added to the allure of the "reformed" delinquent. In 1988, it all began to go wrong.

As if sleep-walking in a film noir, Tyson soon found his femme fatale, Robin Givens. The beautiful star of ABC's "Head of the Class," Givens represented class and sophistication to the newly crowned champ. To Givens, or at least to her mother, Ruth Roper, Tyson represented money—a lot of money. Tyson had earned millions of dollars in fight purses and television contracts, including a $26 million deal with HBO for a series of seven fights, signed in 1987. More unusually for a prize-fighter, he had honest management that had allowed him to keep the lion's share of that money. After a whirlwind courtship, Tyson married Givens on February 7, 1988. Soon, she and her mother began to do a little house cleaning, banishing many of Tyson's friends and closely questioning others about the state of his finances.

A month later, Tyson's co-manager, Jim Jacobs, died. While Tyson was at the funeral, his wife Robin was at the bank, demanding to know the whereabouts of "her money." Shortly thereafter, they confronted Tyson's surviving manager, Bill Cayton, demanding a full accounting and ultimately reducing his share of the champ's earnings from one-third to 20 percent. Tyson's behavior became increasingly erratic, ramming cars into trees, getting into a street brawl with boxer Mitch Green and, on a disastrous trip to Russia, chasing Robin and her mother through the hotel corridors in a drunken rage. In a nationally televised interview with Barbara Walters, Givens told America of her "life of horror" with a manic-depressive Mike Tyson, while the heavyweight champ sat meekly at her side, looking to some observers like a tranquilized pit bull. Shortly after the interview Tyson smashed up furniture, glassware, and windows at their mansion in Bernardsville, N.J., and Givens fled to Los Angeles, where she filed for divorce. At the time, she was generally seen as the villain. Her image was splashed across the tabloids with the simple caption: Most Hated Woman in America.

Related Biography: Trainer Cus D'Amato

Cus D'Amato was more than a boxing trainer with a good eye for talent. D'Amato was a legend, hailed as the man who had successfully fought mobster Frank Carbo's boxing monopoly and made Floyd Patterson "king of the sport," in the words of People reporter William Plummer. Norman Mailer had called him a Zen master. He was more of a teacher than a trainer, a teacher in the old, all-encompassing sense. While he taught his fighters the moves, he also drew them out, discovering their hidden talents and fears. "Fear is like a fire," he'd tell them. "If you control it, as we do when we heat our houses, it is a friend. When you don't it consumes you and everything around you."

By the time Mike Tyson met him, D'Amato had largely retired from the sport, but he maintained a training camp at an old Victorian house in the Catskills, courtesy of his mistress, Camille Ewald. Usually there were five or six aspiring fighters in residence. Fight-film entrepreneur Jimmy Jacobs provided the equipment. (D'Amato had helped others to riches, but his own money always seemed to slip through his fingers, often lent to friends unable to pay him back.) When he saw Tyson, he saw the kind of champion he'd almost forgotten, one who could reach the top, and actually deserve the honor.

Out of the Frying Pan …

Almost as soon as Givens left Tyson's life, Don King entered. King had waited a long time. For years, Tyson had been making mincemeat of King's stable of heavyweight champions, and it frustrated the promoter deeply that he had no piece of the champ. King's first opening came at Jim Jacob's funeral, which he attended uninvited, loudly condemning Tyson's managers for such indignities as not having a limo ready for the champ. He had also worked strenuously to bring to light the suspicions of Givens and her mother toward Bill Cayton. And now, with Givens out of the picture, he pounced, offering Tyson the use of his farm in Ohio to recuperate from his disastrous marriage. King also proved useful, moving swiftly to close Tyson's joint accounts with Givens, just in time to prevent her from transferring over $600,000 into her own account.

At the same time, King began to plant doubts in Tyson's mind about all the "white men" around him, particularly his manager. Perhaps drained from his recent experiences, Tyson began to listen, and before long he was firmly in King's corner, even giving him a limited power of attorney. "I think Don has sold black to Tyson," former heavyweight champ and King client Larry Holmes told Sports Illustrated. Cayton could only add, "I feel very sad that Mike appears to have gone from a manipulative situation … to another, far more manipulative situation."

Tyson, however, wasn't worried. He still had his millions, he still had his undefeated pro career, and he still had his title. In April, 1989, he successfully defended the latter two against England's Frank Bruno, easily over-powering him in the fifth round. Then, on June 27 in Atlantic City, in what may have been his greatest night in the ring, he floored former champ Michael Spinks in all of 90 seconds. Then, on February 10, 1990, the unthinkable happened in Tokyo. James "Buster" Douglas, a 42-1 underdog who couldn't even get a photographer to come to his weigh-in, came back from an eighth round knockdown to fell the champ in the tenth. It was impossible, and at first, Don King wouldn't let it happen. He got representatives from the WBC, the WBA, and even the Japan Boxing Commission to declare that Douglas should have been counted out in the eighth round, awarding the fight to Tyson. But King too suffered a rare defeat, and in the face of enormous public outrage, the fight and the title were soon awarded to Buster Douglas.

And into Hot Water

For Tyson, it was the beginning of the end. Not that it was obvious in the ring. Shortly after the Douglas fiasco he began his comeback, knocking out former Olympian Henry Tillman in the first round on June 16, and defeating Donovan "Razor" Ruddick twice in 1991. He was all set to take on the new heavyweight champ, Evander Holyfield, in November, 1991. The fight never happened.

While attending the Miss Black America Pageant in July, Tyson had earned a bizarre new title when a pageant organizer called him a "serial buttocks fondler," accusing him of assaulting 11 of the 23 contestants. It was easy fodder for late-night comedians. But nobody was laughing when one of those contestants, Desiree Washington, brought a much more serious charge. According to her, Tyson had lured her to a hotel room during the contest and then raped her. He was tried and convicted, and in March 1992, he was sentenced to six years in prison.

It was a stunning turnaround for the champ who once seemed so unbeatable, so exciting, and of course it brought an immediate backlash. In the popular mind, Tyson was now a brutal thug who could not control his impulses, and had landed where he should have been all along. Before long Tyson was in trouble, accused of assaulting a guard, and placed in solitary confinement. Before long, odd stories began to leak out, that Tyson was reading up on communism. Perhaps this was a response to rumors that Don King was squandering his fortune, that Tyson might be a penniless proletarian by the end of his jail term. There were stories that he had converted to Islam. People wondered if Tyson was a changed man. At any rate, he emerged from prison on March 25, 1995, having served only three of his six years.

On the Comeback Trail—Again

Mike Tyson's first stop after being released was a mosque, where he prayed with Muhammad Ali. Some speculated that it was a sign that things were changing. But one aspect remained the same. On the day he was released Don King negotiated a deal with Showtime on behalf of "his" champ. Tyson's first post-prison bout was with Peter McNeely, who looked good on paper with a 36-1 record. But the 36 victories were against habitual losers, and the loss was to McNeely's only opponent with a winning record. McNeely's manager threw in the towel 85 seconds into his match with Tyson. A broken thumb postponed his next match, but on December 16, Tyson knocked out Buster Mathis in the third round. In March of 1996, he likewise dispatched Frank Bruno in the third. After three easy victories, and not incidentally, $65 million richer, Tyson was feeling on top again. On September 7, 1996, he met Bruce Seldon, who was on the mat in 109 seconds. Some fans said they did not actually see a punch, and wondered if the fight was fixed. Seldon's manager speculated that his client had actually suffered a nervous breakdown in the face of Tyson—and, in fact, Seldon has not fought another boxing match since then.

Awards and Accomplishments

1986	Takes WBC heavyweight championship, November 22 (youngest heavyweight champ in history)
1987	Takes WBA heavyweight title, March 7
1987	Takes IBF heavyweight championship, August 1 (becomes undisputed World Heavyweight Champion)
1989	Defeats former champ Michael Spinks, by a knockout in 90 seconds

Finally, boxing fans could look forward to a long-delayed match-up, when Evander Holyfield agreed to fight Tyson in November of 1996 for the heavyweight championship. Against all odds the 34-year-old Holyfield ended what Sports Illustrated's Richard Hoffer called Tyson's "machinery of menace," when he won a technical knockout in the eleventh round. It was a huge upset, defying all expectations. In fact, pay-per-view channels had offered a per-round price, so customers would not blame them when Tyson felled Holyfield in the first round. Boxing officials had forced Holyfield to undergo a battery of tests, fearing he might actually lose his life. It was a stunning result, but nothing could prepare the boxing world for the shock they were about to get.

The Holyfield-Tyson rematch, held was one of the most anticipated in history. The MGM Grand sold out on the first day, all 16,000 tickets. Millions tuned in on pay-per-view, anticipating a spectacle. They got one. The fight was brutal from the start, with Holyfield at one point head butting Tyson in the second round. Then in the third, Tyson chomped down on Holyfield's left ear. The referee deducted two points from Tyson, but then let the fight go on. Again the fighters met in the center, and again Tyson spat out his mouthpiece and chomped down, on Holyfield's right ear. And this time he bit a piece off, spitting it out. This time the referee called the fight, disqualifying Tyson.

It was bizarre. It was savage. And for many it was the last straw. Tyson had nearly proved himself too brutal for boxing—not an easy feat. The Nevada State Commission withheld his paycheck and suspended his license. Outrage poured in from all sides, with even the White House weighing in. Tyson became constant fodder for late night comedy, and the Hollywood Wax Museum moved his image from sports to the Chamber of Horrors. But in the end, Tyson escaped. He was banned for a year, and fined $3 million, but ultimately, boxing decided to let Tyson keep doing the only thing he was really good at: hitting people until they fell down.

The Unrepentant

And Tyson wasn't finished, with boxing or with outrages. On October 19, 1998, the Nevada State Boxing Commission restored Tyson's boxing license. In December of 1998, he pled no contest to a road rage incident and spent a short time in jail the following March. That year he also initiated a $100 million lawsuit against Don King after discovering that his $200 million career winnings had dwindled away, and that in fact he owed $13 million in back taxes. In the summer of 2000, after knocking down an opponent, Lou Savarese, he continued to pound the fighter and even lashed out at the referee. Incredibly, in the post-fight press conference, Tyson revived his cannibal image in remarks addressed to heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis , whom Tyson hoped to meet in the ring some day. "I want your heart. I want to eat your children," Tyson declared, adding, "I will rip out his heart and feed it to him."

Then, in the runup to the actual Tyson-Lewis match, Mike Tyson seemed to blow his chances. While the Nevada State Athletic Commission was considering whether to give Tyson a license to box there, Tyson charged at Lewis during a pre-fight press conference. Lewis' bodyguard intervened, and a brawl ensued. Nevada turned him down for a license, but Washington, D.C.,

allowed the fight to take place there. When the fight finally took place in June of 2002, Lennox knocked Tyson out in the eighth round. It was almost anti-climactic that the unbeatable Iron Mike had been felled again.

Tyson had come a long way from the days when Cus D'Amato had dreamed of making him a legend. He had almost fulfilled those dreams, winning a world championship at the age of 19 and consolidating all of boxing's dubious crowns into one that nobody could dispute. For awhile he seemed like the champ everyone had been waiting for. But in the end, he seemed to willfully throw it all away. Tyson continues to fight, in the face of public outrage, and maybe he will win back fans and reclaim his titles—but with every year and every comment and every altercation, it seems like that goal, if it is his goal, slips further away.