Mike Tyson - The Complete Chronology E-Book

David Brown

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 171

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Mike Tyson is without a doubt one of the most iconic and controversial figures in the world of boxing. Known for his ferocious fighting style and tumultuous personal life, Tyson quickly rose to fame as the youngest heavyweight champion in history. From his early days growing up on the mean streets of Brownsville to his meteoric rise to stardom and subsequent fall from grace, this book will delve into the fascinating life and career of one of the most formidable and enigmatic athletes of all time. Join us as we explore the chronological highs and lows of Mike Tyson's career and discover the man behind the legend.

Leseprobe

Mike TysonThe Complete Chronology  

David Brown© Copyright 2024 David Brown

ContentsINTRODUCTIONCHAPTER ONE (1966-1986)CHAPTER TWO (1986- 1990)CHAPTER THREE (1990 - 1997)CHAPTER FOUR (1998 - 2002)CHAPTER FIVE (2003 - 2024)PHOTO CREDIT

INTRODUCTION

Mike Tyson is without a doubt one of the most iconic and controversial figures in the world of boxing. Known for his ferocious fighting style and tumultuous personal life, Tyson quickly rose to fame as the youngest heavyweight champion in history. From his early days growing up on the mean streets of Brownsville to his meteoric rise to stardom and subsequent fall from grace, this book will delve into the fascinating life and career of one of the most formidable and enigmatic athletes of all time. Join us as we explore the chronological highs and lows of Mike Tyson's career and discover the man behind the legend.

CHAPTER ONE (1966 - 1986)

Michael Gerard Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York on the 30th of June 1966. Tyson had two older siblings - Rodney and Denise. Denise died of a heart attack in 1990 at the tender age of 24. Tyson's mother was named Lorna. She is believed to have been a prostitute at one point. She died of cancer in 1982 before Tyson became a professional boxer. Mike Tyson later said that he barely knew his mother. Tyson would also say that not having a doting mother was probably vital for his boxing career. It toughened him up and made him independent. Mike Tyson's biological father was a man named Purcell Tyson - about whom little is known. Purcell Tyson was said to be a cab driver of West Indian origin. The closest thing Tyson had to a father was Lorna's partner Jimmy Kirkpatrick. However, Jimmy was never around and left soon after Mike Tyson was born. Mike Tyson described Jimmy Kirkpatrick as a street person. Someone who was always in a bar or pool hall. Tyson's single parent mother had no husband and little money. Tyson remembers her as a person incapable of much affection. Tyson's upbringing came on the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville, the latter in particular a dangerous landscape littered with abandoned tenements. Tyson described the place he grew up as 'crime and drug infested'. Tyson said he was a fat kid and had a lisp. The other kids used to laugh at him. The young Tyson was called 'Fairy Boy' by the local kids and took to keeping pigeons. The lonely Tyson found solace in his pigeon coop and wished he could just fly away like his birds. One day some boys attempted to bully Tyson and one of his pigeons was hurt. Tyson went berserk and beat the boy up. He would admit, many years later, that he loved the feeling, that he still relished the memory of it.Tyson said that a big change in his life came when a friend showed him how easy it was to rob houses. Tyson tagged along and soon became an accomplished  thief. Tyson had rarely gone to school before but with the money he made from robbing houses he bought himself new clothes and turned at school more often. At 12-years-old Mike Tyson was carrying a gun, mixed up with drugs and violence and running with the wrong crowd although - as he remembers - there was no other life available to people like him. Or so it seemed. The future heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe also grew up in Brownsville. Bowe said the young Tyson always carried a big bag of cookies around and was called 'Bummy Ike' by the local kids. Bowe said that Tyson was the sort of kid that you crossed the road to avoid. Tyson's baby fat soon melted away in his early teens. By the age of thirteen he was capable of fighting most grown men - and winning too. He was incredibly strong for his age. Stopped by the police in a random case of mistaken identity, the young Tyson had hundreds of dollars stuffed in his pocket from robberies which he cannot possibly explain. He is arrested. During a spell at Spoford Detention Centre, a visit to the Centre by Muhammad Ali inspires Tyson. He sees how much Ali is loved and respected and dreams of that attention.Tyson ended up in a special upstate New York school, a detention facility called the Tryon School, where his colour and size, not to mention his stroppy moods, soon cause tensions.By the age of 13, Mike Tyson had been arrested nearly 40 times. Tyson took up boxing through up boxing through Bobby Stewart, a Tryon School staff member. Bobby Stewart was a former amateur and pro boxer. He was amazed by how strong Tyson was. Stewart said Tyson broke his nose with a jab. Nearby to Tyron school lived the famous boxing trainer Cus D'Amato, now virtually retired and in his seventies. Bobby Stewart decided to take Tyson over to see Cus because he felt that as far as boxing went he had taught Tyson everything he knew. Mike Tyson, though he became estranged from many, stayed in touch with Bobby Stewart. In 2013, Tyson had Stewart as an honoured guest at his one man show. Cus D'Amato was an eccentric and wise boxing trainer who guided Floyd Patterson to the heavyweight championship and allegedly took on the Mob in the fifties (the real truth though was probably more complex). His rural Victorian house in the Catskills, which he shared with longtime 'companion' Camille Ewald, was like a dormitory for troubled youngsters attempting to become boxers or trainers.  The Catskill Mountains, often referred to simply as the Catskills, where Tyson lived with Cus D'Amato, are a mountain range in southeastern New York state. They are a popular destination for outdoor recreational activities like hiking, skiing, and fishing. The Catskills are also known for their picturesque scenery and quaint towns. It was certainly a culture shock for Tyson to go from Brownsville to living with white folks in the Catskills. "That's the Heavyweight champion of the world," said Cus D'Amato after watching the teenage Tyson spar for the first time. Cus D'Amato became the father Tyson never had and legally adopted the youngster in 1981. Tyson was also close to Camille Ewald - who was Ukrainian. Camille Ewald looked after the young boxers who trained at D'Amato's gym. She taught them to read and write and how to use cutlery. They were assigned chores around the house. Tyson admitted that when he first arrived at D'Amato's house he considered robbing it. These basic criminal urges soon vanished.  Cus D'Amato's gym was above Catskill police station. Cus D'Amato had moved to the Catskills because he deemed New York too dangerous. D'Amato had not been liked by the New York mafia. Cus D'Amato read Nietzsche and was an endlessly quotable eccentric and man of independent integrity. Norman Mailer described D'Amato as someone with 'The enthusiastic manner of a saint who is all work and no contemplation...a certain sort of very tough street kid one used to find in Brooklyn. They were sweet kids and rarely mean and they were fearless.' Tyson, like all D'Amato's fighters, came to love his wise mentor and together they began a quest that would lead to the World Heavyweight Championship. In contrast to other trainers D'Amato encouraged doubt and fear in his boxers. "Fear is natural. Fear is your friend. When a deer walks through the forest it has fear. This is nature's way of keeping the deer alert. Without fear we would not survive." Cus D'Amato had been fairly forgotten and estranged from boxing for a long time when Mike Tyson turned up on his doorstep. Cus saw Tyson as his way to have the last word. In the twilight of his life he could confound everyone by suddenly producing another heavyweight champion. Cus D'Amato was friends with businessmen Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton, who owned the world's largest collection of boxing films. Jacobs and Cayton would become Tyson's managers when his professional boxing career began. Tyson was close to Jim Jacobs but not so close to Bill Cayton. Jacobs was funny and a good talker whereas Cayton was more reserved. Mike Tyson later said there was always a slight air of mystery about Jacobs and Cayton. Both of them were vague about their backgrounds. Jim Jacobs had once shared an apartment with Cus D'Amato for ten years in New York. It was Jacobs who set up the training camps in the Catskills for Cus. There remain whispers in boxing that D'Amato and Jacobs were both secretly gay but these rumours were certainly never verified and so must be taken with a pinch of salt. Bill Cayton began in advertising. He made his first million with hair cream (which might explain why his hair was always slicked back). After the advent of television, Cayton started collecting and restoring old fight films with a view to selling them to networks. Jim Jacobs was a boxing historian who was doing the same thing. The two men eventually found one another and joined forces. According to Mike Tyson, Bill Cayton was the one with the money whereas Jim Jacobs was shrewd enough to latch onto someone like Cayton - who had more money and connections than him. Jim Jacobs was a great athlete in his youth and considered to be the greatest Handball player of his generation. He also owned the world's largest collection of comic books. In 1978, Jacobs and Cayton bought the management contract of the great world light-welterweight champion Wilfred Benítez. Benítez would become a triple weight champion and fight Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran. Mike Tyson said that Wilfred Benítez visited the home where Cus lived and was basically like a child of limited intelligence trapped in the body of a boxer. Jacobs and Cayton would also later manage the lightweight champion Edwin Rosario. As Tyson attracted attention as an amateur boxer, he continued to cause trouble outside the ring with alleged assaults and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Cus D'Amato and Jim Jacobs, aware of the fistic (and financial) potential of Tyson, kept him out of court and always minimised the fallout for Tyson. As a consequence, the young Tyson never faced the consequences of his actions or learned the difference between right and wrong. The one person who did make a stand was Tyson's fearless amateur trainer Teddy Atlas - another D'Amato disciple. The furious Atlas pulled a gun on Tyson when he learned Tyson had made lewd sexual comments and advances to an eleven-year-old girl who happened to be Teddy's niece. Teddy Atlas was soon exiled from Cus D'Amato's home and gym - lest he should disrupt the carefully laid plans set down for Tyson. Atlas felt that Tyson was getting away with far too much and had to be confronted. Tyson missed a spot in the American Olympic team because his all action style was better suited to the professional ranks. Tyson compiled a 24-3 record as an amateur.  A tall, clever and agile fighter could evade or even outpoint Tyson over three rounds in an amateur fight (though not many did) but avoiding him for ten or twelve rounds in a professional was a different kettle of fish altogether. When Tyson was an amateur and fighting other teenagers, the trainers of his opponents sometimes wanted proof of Tyson's date of birth to confirm his age. He seemed so much stronger and bigger than kids his own age.In 1983, a young amateur heavyweight named Lennox Lewis was preparing for the world junior championship and came to the Catskills in search of sparring partners. D'Amato put Tyson in the ring with Lewis and they sparred over four days. Lewis ended up with a fat lip and Tyson a cut mouth in these 'explosive' sparring sessions. Cus D'Amato predicted they would one day fight each other for the world heavyweight championship. It is generally regarded that an Olympic Gold is crucial in establishing a superstar in American boxing (Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya etc) but Tyson quickly became much more famous and marketable than Tyrell Biggs (the American boxer who had actually won heavyweight gold). In a sense Tyson bucked a trend. Fighters with an all action style like Tyson are generally not suited to amateur boxing. It is in the longer format of professional boxing where this style becomes much more effective. The gloves are smaller, there are no headguards, and a fighter like Tyson has plenty of time to catch up with his opponent. Tyson spends most of his spare time at this time either training or watching old fight films at D'Amato's house. It was not what you would describe as a normal life. D'Amato did not want to work Tyson's corner for poignant reasons. He didn't want Tyson to look over from the ring one day and see that he isn't there anymore. Tyson was initially trained by Kevin Rooney. Rooney was a former welterweight boxer and disciple of the D'Amato stable. Kevin Rooney was a straight talking Irish-American with a self-deprecating sense of humour. He got on well with Tyson and they even shared a house for a time.  Rooney had replaced Teddy Atlas as Tyson's trainer in what could be described as difficult circumstances. It is perhaps not a great surprise then that Rooney and Atlas never had anything nice to say about one another in the years that followed. Mike Tyson said that becoming a boxing prodigy and being constantly praised by D'Amato was intoxicating. The bullied little fat kid from Brownsville was now the bully. Tyson would occasionally sneak back to Brownsville - which was the last thing that Jacobs and Cayton wanted. They knew that they were sitting on a gold mine with Tyson. If they could keep him training and out of trouble he was going to make them millions. Mike Tyson turned professional with a first round knockout of Hector Mercedes at the Plaza Convention Center, Albany, New York, on the 6th of March 1985. One month after Tyson's pro debut, Cus D'Amato died aged 77. Tyson was devastated by the death of D'Amato and a part of him dies too. Tyson claims later that boxing was no fun anymore. He had no one to please or make proud of him. As far as Team Tyson goes, the most important person now is Jim Jacobs. Jacobs is much closer to Mike than Bill Cayton - though Cayton is the brains when it comes to business. Tyson is unlikely to fly the nest with Jim Jacobs around. If you watch the Tyson/Berbick fight notice the man in a suit who enters the ring straight afterwards and kisses Tyson on the lips. That's Jim Jacobs. Tyson came to regard Camille Ewald to be his mother and looked after her long after Cus died. Camille was in her 90s when she passed away in 2001. Tyson was small for a heavyweight (about 5'10) but what he lacked in height he made up for in width. He radiated strength and power and had the largest and most solid looking "shock absorber" neck (19 ½ inches). One is reminded of AJ Leibling describing another short heavyweight - the great Rocky Marciano. "He has big calves, forearms, wrists, and a neck so thick that it minimizes the span of his shoulders. He is neither tall nor heavy for a heavyweight, but gives the impression of bigness when you are close to him."One of the main reasons why the young Tyson was so effective was speed. He had very fast hands and could put together devastating combinations. The young Tyson was also hard to hit. Tyson had been taught the "peek-a-boo" high glove defence by his mentor Cus D'Amato and also used to move his head a lot more when he was younger and so rarely presented a stationary target.Most big punchers rely on one hand for their knockout punch. Tyson was rare in that he could punch equally hard with both hands. The young Mike Tyson was also one of the most intimidating fighters to ever step in a ring. Through his career one can plainly see instances where his opponents are terrified of him. Despite the death of Cus D'Amato, Mike Tyson is soon pressed back into service. Trent Singleton, Don Halpin, Ricardo Spain, John Alderson, Larry Sims, Lorenzo Canady, Michael Johnson, Donnie Long, Robert Colay and Sterling Benjamin all became 1985 Tyson knockout victims with only Sims and Halpin lasting beyond two rounds.Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton sent tapes of Tyson's early fights to news stations and stills to newspapers and magazines. They marketed him brilliantly.Mike Tyson wore black trunks and black boots with no socks in the ring as a tribute to old time fighters like Jack Dempsey. Tyson eschewed the traditional boxer's robe too and would simply come in with a towel over his torso. Tyson looks invincible as a teenage boxing tearaway. His fights are over quickly in spectacular fashion and few boxers have ever had such presence in the ring. Tyson looks like some unstoppable primal force - almost as if he's Mr T in a Rocky montage rather than a real boxer. Tyson rounded the year off with early kayo wins over Eddie Richardson, Conroy Nelson, Sammy Scaff and Mark Young. ABC pay $850,000 to put four of Tyson’s upcoming fights on Wide World of Sports. The bandwagon is starting to roll. The competition is modest but Tyson was already landing on boxing magazine covers before he'd even attained a world ranking or fought a fringe contender. Tyson's early opponents were secretly chosen by the British manager and promoter Mickey Duff. Duff was a friend of Jim Jacobs. Duff had produced champions like John Conteh, Boza Edwards, Alan Minter, and Maurice Hope. Tyson is kept busy with a constant schedule of fights. Jim Jacobs told the media that Tyson's busy schedule is a strategy based on the principle that practice makes perfect. Of course, keeping Tyson busy also lessens the chances of him getting into trouble - a fact Jacobs is well aware of. 1986 would be a fateful year for Mike Tyson as his level competition was stepped up as a title shot begins to become a distant thought for the first time. Dave Jaco is dispatched in the first and then a big white journeyman named Mike Jameson lasts into the fifth. Fringe contender Jesse Ferguson (who later upset the Olympian Ray Mercer) takes Tyson into the sixth round in a bruising encounter. It is the first experience many boxing writers have of "Tyson Mania" at first hand and they come away impressed by the raw power of the young prodigy. Jim Jacobs was not amused though when Tyson made a silly comment about wanting to drive Jesse Ferguson's "nose bone into his brain" to the press. It's flippant (if somewhat dark) humour from Tyson but it doesn't help to project the marketable sort of image businessmen Jacobs and Cayton want their young charge to project.The street kid in Tyson is always lurking barely concealed beneath the surface however much money and fame he is managing to garner. This inner turmoil is controllable for now but it sometimes makes for a heady cocktail (even in the early days) when sluiced with the fistic arrogance that D'Amato drilled into him and encouraged. Tyson's boxing hero was Roberto Duran - who was also prone to making outrageous statements about his opponents. Tyson was perhaps trying to emulate Duran with his bad taste comment after the Ferguson fight. Roberto Duran was one of the most revered and popular fighters in boxing history. The Panamanian icon established himself as one of the greatest Lightweight champions of all time in the seventies and then jumped two weight divisions to become the first man to beat Sugar Ray Leonard. He won world championships in four different weights and tangled with the likes of Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Palomino, Cuevas, Buchanan and Barkley. When he fought the whole of Panama held its breath. After a blowout of Steve Zouski, Mike Tyson's first major test came when he fought James "Quick" Tillis in May, 1986. Tillis was good enough to have fought Mike Weaver for the WBA world title in 1981 and was a stepping stone for many young prospects.Tillis was crafty and durable and becomes the first person to extend Tyson the full ten rounds, ending Tyson's knockout streak. Quick Tillis is the first boxer to show that it is possible to frustrate and negate Tyson's blistering offensive and that - like all big punchers - Tyson was prone to frustration if his opponent was still there after a couple of rounds.A dubious knockdown for Tyson costs Quick Tillis a draw on two cards. Tillis showed that Tyson was human - and even one-dimensional sometimes - if you were dogged and clever enough. Of course, Tillis did have the advantage of fighting a raw and inexperienced Tyson. Tyson's next fight against Mitch "Blood" Green also lasted the full ten rounds and Tyson's marketability takes a slight stumble as a consequence. Mitch Green was from Tyson's neck of the woods and an unstable and eccentric character who used to be a street gang leader in his younger days. The pair will be forever entwined when they have a street brawl in Harlem in the early hours a few years later. That later encounter outside the ring joins the mounting evidence that Tyson is unravelling fast and not mentally equipped for fame.Mitch Green was a huge heavyweight at 6'5 and used an octopus like grip to hold and frustrate the shorter Tyson in the ring. Green was never in any danger of winning the fight against Tyson but - like Tillis - he does present a blueprint of sorts for anyone looking to survive against the young dynamo. Green had threatened to pull out of the Tyson fight when he learned he was only getting $30,000 compared to Tyson's $200,000. He only agreed to go through with the fight in return for being allowed to get out of his contract with Don King's son Carl King. Carl was basically a proxy for his father. Tyson was oblivious to this Don King related drama - though in hindsight he should have taken a few warnings. Mitch Green demanded a rematch with Tyson - which would have been sellable after their street fight - but it never transpired. Green, a volatile and strange man, didn't fight for seven years after the Tyson bout and never became a contender again. Eager to restore Tyson's image as a destroyer after two points decisions in a row, his handlers then threw him a couple of journeymen in the form of Reggie Gross and William Hosea. Both were dispatched by Tyson in the first round and, in June, 1986, Lorenzo Boyd is stopped in the second.