Mike Tyson is fat, soon to turn 43 and a Family Guy. And no, I don't mean the Manson Family. That was the Tyson I saw up close and personal on a rain-drenched Monday night in Manhattan at the New York City premiere of the James Toback film about the former heavyweight champion’s tumultuous life. Tyson not only participated freely and fully in a Q&A session with the invited audience, Toback and writer Joyce Carol Oates, he mixed and mingled at a decidedly low-key after party at a nearby restaurant. Tyson’s wife, Dr. Monica Turner, was there, attentively hovering over him as did some of his six children. Mike and Monica are divorced but couldn’t be closer because “she stuck with me” when he did a three-year prison stint for **** in Indiana. (You political junkies should know that Michael Steele, controversial new Republic Party National Chairman, is her brother and thus Mike’s ex-brother-in-law.) Mike Tyson, Daddy Dearest. Talk about trying on a new persona. I got to briefly chat with Tyson three or four times, first in the movie theater and then at the reception. Looking at my Norman-Mailerish white mane, Tyson said, “We’re getting older, Mike, we’re getting older.” Sensing Tyson’s mellow mood and having known him since he was the precocious, 16-year-old, can’t-miss prospect under the wing of his “White Father” Cus D’Amato, I asked if he would entertain just one boxing question. Mike, I said, if you believed in reincarnation, isn’t it likely that you would come back as a ferocious, little, brown-skinned southpaw from the Philippines? Tyson laughed heartily. I didn’t have to mention the name Manny Pacquiao. "Who will win come May 2?," I inquired. “Pacquiao will win,” Tyson said. “I like Ricky Hatton but he is just not elusive enough to handle Manny’s pressure attack. With Manny, it’s something like I used to be. With Manny, the punches come in bunches.” So mark Iron Mike down as firmly in Pacman’s corner for this bout. But, when the inevitable showdown comes with the former Pound For Pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr., Tyson will cast his lot with his countryman. “Mayweather, now that’s something completely different even for Manny. That will be a helluva fight, brother, but I got to like Little Floyd’s speed and overall skills. It’s like Cus told me when I so young, what he drummed into me by constant daily repetition, it’s speed combined with punching accuracy which kills in boxing.” There are no ring goals left for Tyson. Instead in the frank and compelling film told strictly from his personal viewpoint, he talks about wondering “what it will be like to be a grandfather." That’s Mike Tyson, circa 2009, Family Guy.
I'm glad Tyson is happy. Anyone who hasn't seen his doc yet has to see it. Thuroughly insightful and amazingly in depth.
It's never a mystery why the fighters seem to be poor with the predictions. They've hardly watched the guys they're asked to comment on. Tyson wouldn't be saying this if he had. It's quite the opposite.
