Tyson's Autobiography

Yes, in the second through fourth chapters he gives the story about Cus. I had been waiting for years to hear the story from his own mouth, so for me those chapters were worth the price of the whole book.

He goes into depth about fighting mostly talking about the psychological aspects, I'd say. But into less depth about the training or technical aspects. For example in the show he goes through "The Willy." There is no mention of it at all, and rarely of anything that technical, in the book. But there is definitely some talk about training and technique. And for his fights, he takes you through his whole career pretty carefully, but the focus is not on training or technique.

Boxing enthusiasts hoping for the secrets of the guild to be revealed will have to wait for a later book, if it is ever written.

At one point he says that Cus broke down for him how he would go about beating each of the other all time great heavyweights. So as I'm reading it I'm thinking, "OK, great. Let's hear it." But he only explains how he used Cus's advice when he fought Larry Holmes.

 

Got it for Christmas and working through it..lack of detail regarding specific fights is poor for an autobiog about a fighter...but plenty of other insights so far...
paints a clear picture of a man child who looked 25 when he was 13 and peaked way early...had limited social skills and for a man who is actually intelligent, still lacks in that area..
a fighter who's peak was brief..but a fighter who on his best day would have seen off them all bar Louis,Marciano and Ali..and thats not definite.At his best only a great fighter with a strong pshyche would beat him...those 3 had all those tools..nobody else would have a chance.He beat most guys on intimidation..like liston and foreman..but he was a better fighter..although his peak was very brief..1986-88

 

He does cover every fight, but the descriptions and details are fairly brief, even for his biggest fights. I did find that, and the lack of actual detail about his training, to be a bit disappointing.

 

I havent read it yet and I dont care to because its probably the same crap over and over. I always felt like no interviewer has asked him the questions that real boxing fans want to know about Tyson, ie, his split from Rooney, how it effected his ability, the focus on defense and elusive slipping. No longer sparring everyday in training and breaking away from Catskill training camps. Also the sparring and knockouts of future opponents in the gym. There is some really juicy stuff that is far more interesting than what celeb he was running with or what drugs he was doing. Funny thing is Tyson didnt really keep track of that stuff, thats why Rooney is a better interview than Tyson.

 

:deal

 

I initially thought the same but was convinced to give it a try and have to say I'm happy I am .. it is a highly detailed book ... it it is not honest he sure as hell spends a lot of time ripping himself to pieces ... the boxing is really a side bar .. som much more about what was going on in his own head .. I'm really digging it ..

 

It's a disappointing read. He doesn't admit to raping that girl. Same old crap, tbh.

 

Im almost finished with it and while Im enjoying it Ive got a couple of complaints. The book is obviously heavily ghost written and normally that wouldnt be bad but the ghost writer is apparently lazy as hell because HUGE chunks of the book are simply word for word transcripts of official documents, press releases, records, the same interviews, press conferences, weigh ins, etc. That we are familiar with. I mean the pattern really becomes obvious after a while: Mike will talk about his addictions, that leads into a fight, and then bam several pages of direct quotes from stuff you can find on youtube. Then it starts all over again. On the one hand as a fan of Tyson's its fun to relive this stuff but I could do that by watching the tapes, I dont need a writer to cut and paste into the book for me. Where the book really shines is when Mike gives his side to events like the Robin Givens marriage, Desiree Washington, Cus, Atlas, etc. Its those things that weve been waiting for years to hear. The book devolves, along with Tyson, into one debauched scene after another as Tyson's fame and easy way with money lead to constant drug and alcohol use, ***ual excess, and finally mental instability. These parts are hard for me to read for their simple distastefulness and the fact that you are forced to literally watch a promising athlete throw EVERYTHING away. Like I said, its good and entertaining but had you gotten rid of the hack ghost writer the book would have been less than half its size.

P.S. Why would he admit to raping the girl? I have never believed he did it. Ive studied the case very extensively and the book lays out the basic premise quite well that there was no evidence to convice. Mike has been consistent throughout his entire life that he never raped her even when admitting to other things that he could have glossed over or hid. Mike literally took the words out of my mouth when he wrote that anyone who is interested in the case should read the two books, one by the prosecutor and the other by a legal analyst. Ive read both and the one by the prosecutor is sickening frankly, and as far as Im concerned he proves in that book more than anything that he had no case, just an agenda. The other book spells out everything and makes it clear the job was a railroad.

 

Irregardless of whether there was enough evidence to convict, I tend to believe that he's a ******. ***ually violent, deviant, he revels in ***ual violence. Rumours and evidence of such tendencies pre-date the 1991 case by several years.

The fact is he has never admitted to raping any girl. In all his years of admitted ***ual excess and spoilt selfish behaviour, and amid his misogynist rantings about hurting and hating women, he's never committed a **** ? Tyson is clever enough to realize that even many of his most sychophantic followers would draw the line at ****. Just as he's savvy enough to know that people give celebrities a bit of a pass when they learn of substance addictions. Even the criminal-minded tend to view **** as trangressive, an 'unmanly' crime ... except fellow rapists.

Tyson's a great manipulator and liar. His 'no holds barred', 'confessional' style is bound to persuade the multitude that he's 100% open and honest, to an uncommon degree. But it also goes to show how much he's lied and changed his stories over the years. Every year we can witness the many faces of Mike Tyson, the self-contradictions, coming out thick and fast , sometimes from one interview to the next.

Sure, Desiree Washington might be the lying ***** everyone has cast her as. There's even some evidence of that, apparently.
But there's a truck load of concrete evidence that Tyson is a serial liar and a deviant too. So take your pick.

 

i don't think he raped desiree....but, how would i know for sure...but i dont think he did.

but....i do think he has raped other women...for instance, in the book he describes a woman and her husband walking past tyson and his group and his pals would surround the husband and the wife would be told to be "very nice" to tyson or the husband would be hurt very badly.....well, thats ****.

 

Nah, I believe you have misread that.

 

took me ages going back through it to find this ....anyway....

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Fair do's...it's not how I interpreted it when I read it at first, but I guess you could look at it that way, reading it again.

 

Great book but felt burnt out reading it by the end,Tyson is still a street kid at heart,most honest book I ever read,from 1989 onwards he hardly trained for most of his fights..

 

Tyson was a wanker, i dont believe he raped desiree however it was a case of the boy who cried wolf.

Tyson himself has admitted this in the Toback where he said he deserved to be in prison because hes done alot worse to other people than what he was accused of by desiree.

Just after his first pro fight Tyson beat up and mugged a man in an elevator so he could take the guys walkman. Also stories of him randomly fondling women, randomly attacking security guards and during one court case for fondling, he apparently walked up to one of the attractive sectaries in the court room and told her he wanted to **** her.

i think his ***ual exploits calmed down after prison and his bad boy attitude finally left him when Lennox knocked it out of him