Don't know if you've seen it but HMV are doing a good box set simply called "Boxing". 6 dvds for £10. Nice! 3 greatest heavyweights dvds (Burt Sugar) + The Thriller in Manilla + Rumble in the Jungle + 2 Tyson "Raw & Uncut" dvds. If you haven't got a Tyson career box set, these two dvds are excellent and include pretty much everything. Good early career stuff. Having watched them through again I found myself asking if Tyson's early career was a Frank ****** style "bum of the month club". The results were spectacular but he really didn't fight anyone who looked half decent. Was he just too good or just fed some rubbish competition?
Bit of both. There was concern in the sport when he stepped up and both James Tillis and Mitch Green took him to points in consecutive fights. Tyson soon got back on track though!
Why did you say This content is protected arren? That's a naughty Word! FRANK This content is protected ARREN
Neverchair has bee banned from talking about Frank Wa This content is protected en. Must have upset him.
Just out of interest, in those early post fight interviews, Tyson talks very intelligently about his skills and career. Even after Cus D'Amato's death he doesn't show any of the delusion/bravado/nastiness he would do later in his career. It seems Don King may have made him the crazie he became?
Mike Tyson wouldn't probably pass many academic exams but, as far as boxing is concerned, he is an exceptionally intelligent man who speaks elegantly on the subject. The problem is/was that Cus D'Amato was more than a trainer but a suragate father and he, Tyson, went of the rails when he died and never really found his way back...
While he was definitely a big figure in Tyson's life, I think people overestimate the effect of Cus' death in terms of Mike going off the rails. He died in '85 remember.
This was my point. A lot of people talk about Tyson going off the rails after/because of, D'Amato's death. But seems very "with it" even after that event. Perhaps Jim Jacob's death was the breaking point?
Tyson wasn't told about Jabobs illness and (IIRC!!) signed a deal when Jabobs was still alive but terminally ill where he ended up with Clayton and Jabobs widow as managers.
