Did Cus D'Amato ever see Tyson as anything other than a fighter?

no he wouldn't have.

i think that's taking it too far, cus seems to have had a big impact on tyson and what happened after cus's death is not his fault, and not even an indication cus didn't warn him about every single mistake he ended up making. you can't teach someone not to have mental problems either.

 

By all accounts Cus DID spend a lot of time with teenage Mike Tyson. Mike arrived at Catskills a toughened street hood who could not even read. Cus gave him boxing books and encouraged him to read and also sent him to school. However, Mike had many engrained bad behaviours and still with ALL that help managed to get himself expelled at 16 yrs old.

Mike was also allowed to visit his old neighbourhood on the weekends. Even when Mike went missing (hanging out with his old gang buddies) Cus sent people to collect him. There is a degree of love and affection here that goes beyond just a fighter and a trainer. At that time noone knew whether young Mike would even make it big, he was only training half heartly. Mike's success was never a guarantee. Cus did care about Mike Tyson the person, but Cus could not live Mike's life for him.

However, the book "Bad Intentions" did make mention of Cus's deeper intentions, I would not call them sinister but he did have other reasons to keep Mike in his custody. When Mike went to Catskills he was a ward of the state and had case workers. Cus really charmed them and they stopped visiting. The case workers were never told Mike got kicked out of school nor of his behaviour of touching girls, threatening students etc. His education should have come first and if the case workers knew the real story they would have been forced to take action (possibly removing him from Cus).

 

He taught Mike a lot about integrity and the battle of the mind, Cus cared much about Mike and even put some money on the side for Mike, He didn't teach him to stay away from Don King and all his negatives

Mike lost most of it but remembered later, he had to be the gangster for a while but it was his lower self

 

I thought that this had long since been exposed as a fairy tale? Wasn't Cus an enabler who turned a blind eye when Mike was robbing people and ***ually assaulting girls?

 

Mike's recent Tyson biography and broadway show have really pushed the narrative of Cus the enabler whilst leaving out large indiscretions on his own part.

 

Cus wasn't Tyson career counselor, he trained fighters, and Tyson did alright considering he was the face of boxing for 20+ yrs..

 

The reason Tyson gets so choked up nowadays is because he is astonished at how many predictions Cus made about him, not only in boxing but in life. Spotting a young Tyson and plucking him out of hell; becoming the youngest champion; watch out for mother/daughter combo golddiggers; beware of a great veteran fighter with one more fight left in them (Holyfield); obvious money problems including wicked promoters, managers and accountants; mob ties; fame outside the boxing ring...

 

Yes. There was a warm feeling there. Cus´s wife too, she was genuinely mad at Robin Givens, when Cus was already dead, she saw him as a family member. You gotta remember Cus and his wife never had kids themselves.

 

Cus never got to see the mature Tyson,why would he adopt Tyson a kid if he has nothing in common to get to know him when cus was very old?cus taught him to be mentally strong when he was alive,certain things left Tyson that cus taught him ,Rooney had to pull teeth with Tyson to get the best out of him ,if Cus didn't pass away..Tyson would have been the greatest champ in history.The only rthing Cus didn't teach him is being penalized or punished for breaking rules,which could ultiamtaley have been Tysons down fall,but the flip side without Cus Tyson would have become a far bigger threat to anyone even not becoming a boxer.

 

Cus D'Amato was no saint and of course he viewed Tyson as his project, a 'champion monster' to create and develop.

BUT he probably saved Tyson's life.

 

The Cus D'Amato myth is interesting.

If you read up on him, and see how he was often viewed BEFORE the 1980s, and check out some of the things he did when he had Patterson as champion in the '50s, and just generally investigate his life, there was none of that "cosy saint" or "noble pricincples" stuff until the media became interested in Tyson.
Most often he was viewed as an eccentric, paranoid megalomaniac, who became an exiled 'recluse' - probably because he failed to take over boxing in NYC.
There weren't many hints of him being an actual "good guy" in a bad world of boxing. He was known to be a nut.

 

Yeah, and seeing as Tyson fell into every trap there mentioned, maybe we could say D'Amato planted that idea of "destiny" in his mind and created them as self-fulfilling prophecies.
If we credit him with the positive things come true, we might have to blame him for the negative things too !
Maybe.

Yes, I think Tyson gets so emotional because he remembers what an hopeless mess he was as a boy. The old man literally saved his life by installing in him a super-confidence.
And Tyson wasn't properly cured of his emotional demons, his control over things did not extend far from the boxing ring, as we know, except in very recent years he's been able to view things with perspective. So I guess it all comes home to him when he thinks about it.

 

There are some unsubstantiated stories about Cus that cannot be mentioned.

 

Cus was married?