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

I'm reading right now on the book Bad Intentions that Cus and Camille bought that house together.

Camille's sister was married with Cus' brother, then the two met when Cus came back from the Army in New Jersey and they lived together in a cabin for some time. She didn't have "a big house" when Cus met her. She is referred as Cus' mistress in other stuff.

 

I don’t think that Cus was in it for the money, but he saw that he might have another Jack Dempsey or Joe Louis on his hands, and that meant more to him than all the money in the world.

That was what truly obsessed him, and brought out his flaws!

 

I don't think Tyson brought out his flaws. I think 1980s old man Cus D'Amato was probably the best of Cus D'Amato. And he'd found some peace or pleasure by discovering Tyson.

D'Amato was, by most accounts, always a seriously 'flawed' individual. In fact, he probably considered his 'flaws' as 'virtues'. Let's not pretend this man wasn't a nut. A power-crazed nut at that.

 

That goes for every successful athlete on the planet.

No top end athlete who earns a killing doesn't have some mentor/agent/manager/coach behind him because of the success they can bring in for them.

Saying that, Cus did not claim any of Tyson's earnings, nor Patterson's. He just wanted to appease his own ego of creating champions.

 

On one side, D'Amato knew boxing, he was a sage of the sport, he knew fighters and commanded so much respect for that. Before the Ali vs Foreman fight, Ali being pretty smart in the sport himself still consulted Cus about how to take big George on, and he suggested landing big shots at him early in the round to make Foreman respect that Ali had punching power and probably averted the situation of Ali suffering an early stoppage/KO.

Then there is the power struggle he had with the IBC, he had the world champion Floyd Patterson, so he called the shots on whom may fight his champion, this frustrated Sonny Liston who was well due a title shot and fought within the structure of the IBC.

It wasn't unknown that Cus wanted a fighter like Liston, where Floyd was well spoken, approachable to the white-dominated press and even helped his opponents up from the canvas, Liston was a relative monster, the big black threat, and would knock fighters out of the ring without a sweat, I guess Cus saw he was too much for his Floyd and tried to protect him for as long as he could.

There was one time Sonny met Cus, in relation to a possible title fight and Liston concluded that D'amato wanted to control him.

Cus would have had to wait another 20 years before he had his own Sonny Liston. He modeled Mike Tyson to be badder, "not afraid of white-people", to hit and not be hit, to be exciting in and out the ring, which is a recipe for success.

So yes, Cus did see Tyson as just the next world champion, but he did have a genuine relationship with him, just like he did with Floyd.

 

No offense intended, but this thread looks dangerously like another: "it is not Tyson's fault"

Let's not hide Cus' flaws and shorcoming, which are all toó well known. But I feel that some posters are going too far and implying that Cus was bad for Tyson.

Nonsense.

Regardless his narrow or egotistical motivations, Cus was good for Tyson. He gave him stability and care in a critical time.

Take Cus out of the equation and Tyson would be dead or a lífer by age 20

 

What's the greater good though? Tyson becoming the champ? Good for whom?

I'm can't really see a greater good there. People seem so set on the narrative that Cus saved Tyson by teaching him to be a great boxer. Im not so sure. Was it really a good thing for a guy with Tyson's mental shortcomings to become exposed to all that fame and money? Was it a good thing for the world that he became champ? He wasnt the best role model. He got the world interested in boxing again, but much as I love this sport of ours Im not so sure that's a good thing. Maybe it would have been better for everybody, including himself, if Tyson was picked upby the system, forced to accept the consequences of his actions early on and then lived the life of a nobody for the rest of his days.

Other than that, I agree with much of what you say, Cus wasnt a saint, nor was he a bad guy. He was just a person, trying to do good but with selfish motives mixed in even when he had the best intentions.

 

Actually a lot of what you say is true. The siege mentality especially.

 

Well yes, the 'greater good' was him becoming a successful heavyweight and hopefully champion. He had those awesome natural gifts that would be criminal to let go to waste.

I honestly don't think anyone stopped to think that it would be a bad idea to become famous and rich. Who does? The mission was to make him a champion. Sure as hell better than the alternative, which was prison or the morgue.

 

But how did Cus know? How did he know that Mike was the one? A svengali, maybe, but an intelligent one who knew what he wanted.

 

Cus was brilliant.
But we don't know how many kids he told were "going to be world champion" and it wasn't to be. He probably said it to others, especially ones with talent, which is not a bad thing for trainers to say to inspire kids.
Clearly he saw a lot of talent in Tyson.

For the success, of course we have to give Tyson himself a great deal of credit too, because he adopted the discipline and work ethic that Cus demanded.

Cus was brilliant, and he had a lot of kids coming through his programme, he knew his stuff.
His accomplishments are impressive. Very impressive.

 

Exactly. :good

People are looking at it 'glass half empty' instead of 'glass half full'.
Cus saved Tyson's life.

 

I always thought Jimmy Jacobs was the 'dodgy' one out of the lot.

 

Was it the Jewish factor? And wasn't a certain percentage of Mike's winnings going to his wife as well?

 

Not just that.

We always hear about the Tyson Cus, father son story. Tyson always speaks fondly of Cus and always cries when he talks about him but Tyson NEVER mentions Jacobs.

Although in documentaries we hear Jacobs was like a father figure to Tyson, Tyson himself never talks about Jacobs.

On top of that, there's all those weird kisses between the two of them after the fights

And recently Tyson came out with a confession that he was ***ually abused as a child.

I don't think Cus did what hes sometimes accused of, i believe Jacobs did though.