I cant help asking myself who ever allowed un married man like cus to adopt or groom so many abused kids?
:roll: D'Amato gave direction to the likes of Tyson and Patterson who probably would have been no good petty criminals otherwise. He saw the potential in both immediately and knew he had a potential future heavyweight champion in his hands.
A hundred/hundred fifty years ago I'm sure there were plenty of 16 year olds whom looked like that. Whether it was from hard physical labor, being out at sea for long periods of time, so on and so forth.
Yeah, the Islanders grow quite quickly, there were some huge young guys at rugby and boxing that were that age.
Patterson began boxing before meeting Cus at the Wiltwyk School for Boys. So surprisingly Cus didn't do as much "saving" as he did for Tyson.
Tyson too had boxed briefly before meeting Cus. It's not like D'Amato was looking to save troubled kids from the streets, he was a boxing trainer and recognized the potential in Patterson and Tyson and took them under his wing.
Yeah, didnt mean to attach that to your quote. Patterson's got quite a fascinating pre-boxing history. Reminds me of the book/play "Raisin in the Sun". However he moves to the neighborhood and has issues much later. Very similar though.
I half wonder if Cus and his team knowing it was his last chance to manage a champion roided Tyson up from a young age. It would explain some of his behaviour too.