At what point was Tyson getting a lot of mainstream attention for knockouts? When did Tyson start getting televised matches? I'm watching one of Tyson's early fight vs a big taxicab driver named Alderson. The announcers were saying that Tyson and Cus were telling them that Tyson was going to be the youngest HW champ in history. This was 19 year old Tyson who knew he was destined for greatness.
Tryon school for troubled boys. He was the chosen one. Come on man, where do you think Lucas got his "Chosen One" character for Darth Vader from? No Mike Tyson = No Star Wars.
I thought Tyson's earlier fight with Mitch Green was high profile because he whooped his ass on the streets.
Tyson's managers put his name out there. He had a knockout streak and ABC took it and ran with it. Well before he was champion. Bout 1985.
The above was 1983. Tyson was 16 years old. The man he is sparring with was a professional boxer Jimmy Clark. I grew up in the same neighborhood as Clark. He was the local hero had a notable amateur career. He actually beat Teofilo Stevenson but didn't get the decision. Anyway Mike was a force even before he was getting exposure.
Yes, Jacobs and Cayton were smart. They got cameras at his fights very early on, so there was film from almost the start, which did not happen back then. Tyson was used as a prototype, that from 88 onwards was very affectively by others. Here in the UK the Frazier fight broke him into the mainstream. ITV were then confident enough to show Tyson/Berbick live and then repeat it the next morning.
I've heard that that formula came from Gerry Cooney a few years earlier. Don't know how accurate that is, though; it was in some documentary or other.
Maybe, but I do not know if Cooney's real early fights were filmed. Cooney certainly was well managed, in that management were good at picking names that people recognised, but were past their best, and Cooney could look good against. It soon became clear Tyson did not have that limitation, he was going to beat anyone outside the top 20 almost from day one, and within a year would be favoured to beat anyone but Holmes and Spinks.
Tyson was a well known commidity as an amatuer. There was a lot of money behind him from the start. A big big publicity campaign from the start.
Before he had beaten anybody of note. A few people would have looked silly if Berbick had flattened him.
