Tyson's Autobiography

so its all good as long as he ain't a ******?

 

What I've gained from the book (about 300 pages in) is no matter what Mike Tyson was a time bomb. Teddy Atlas uses the shooting star analogy burns so intensely for a short period of time to describe Mike's career. I always believed if he never left rooney and kept his discipline he'd go down as possibly GOAT or definitely higher ranked than he is now. I think all the intense work and countless hours he put in perfecting his craft at such a young age took a lot out of him. Adding to the fact that he reached the top at such a young age and how horribly he handled all the pressure that came with it. He talks about how Cus hated bob arum so he probably would have ended up with Don king anyway. I always pictured him sober in the Rooney years but he partied hard in between fights. He showed up "out of shape" for the tillis and bonecrusher fights he admits. He actually said at one point he wasn't upset that bonecrusher wanted to clinch with him all night because he didn't have to work hard. So imho it wasn't so much that people corrupted Tyson, as it was that he was extremely vulnerable and it was inevitable at some point for him to fall from grace. The combination of the two factors, with the people he surrounded himself with and his vulnerability lead to his demise. I'm not trying to bash him but his words shed new perspectives on all the hypothetical tyson philosophies and thats coming from a HUGE tyson fan

 

Your right, Tyson was a car crash just waiting to happen.
In The James Toback film Tyson admitted he had already contracted STDs during the Berbick fight. (Not from Berbick obviously!)

So the seeds were already sown for his self destruction (no pun intended).

Tyson used to travel to Brooklyn, rob people, commit crime etc and then run off to hide in Catskills. Cus knew all this was going on but he totally ignored it and Atlas wanted Tyson punished.

Steve Bunce once said 'as soon as he got rid of Kevin Rooney and Bill Cayton, you could set your clock to Mike Tysons self destruction'

 

Bill Cayton? Tyson never had any time for Cayton. It was Jimmy Jacobs I liked, not Bill.

The thing that struck me most about reading the book was how he relied on Cus. Not in the role of father figure so much, but in the role of the tough disciplinarian who taught tough love.
I forget which fight it was now, but in the book he details a fight where he crushes the guy, and everyone is slapping him on the back and telling him how great he was. Then he starts thinking to himself that if Cus were still there, he would have pointed out all the flaws in the performance and given Tyson **** for it.

I think Tyson early on like with Bobby Stewart, needed that tough love, you know? He came back after every session with Stewart all beat up, but determined to do it again the next day.
That's how he won Stewart over in the end.

And with Cus, the same thing. No matter how good the performance, Cus found fault with it. He constantly picked on Tyson. It made Tyson work harder and harder to improve because he was desperate for the old man's approval.
With the old man gone, who was there to haul him over the coals, to make him want to try harder? Rooney to a point yeah, but Rooney still was not Cus.

It's pretty evident the reverence Tyson had for Cus, reading the book. I'm not saying particularly that things would have been radically different had Cus not died, but I don't think there would have been a horrible sub-par performance like Tokyo. My 2c...

 

Started reading this recently and the main thing I've taken away is that there was a time and place when Mike Tyson in his physical peak was on a crime spree on PCP

 

I just got a copy of the bio and agree that it is a very good read. Thanks for recommending it. As someone who grew up in the nearby East New York section of Brooklyn, I know fully well all those awful temptations that exist in the ghetto and it takes a lot to live through it all.

 

Good book but it's convenient that with every loss and every tough fight Tyson has an excuse for his poor performances. I wonder if it is actually the 'Undisputed Truth'.

 

He's actually made some excuses for dominating performances as well, such as suffering from the clap against Berbick. He also admits to living high on the hog after dropping Rooney when facing Bruno, Williams and Douglas, and stating if Bruno had a better game plan he would've taken the title from him.

So there is some truth in there but I agree that he's not 100% honest in the book. But name someone who is? These tell all books are never really honest to begin with. That's part of selling your story, and what a better time to do it with Mike making his career comeback.

 

Most fighters are the same

look at Holyfield, everytime he lost, there was a medical excuse

before the Tyson fight, Holyfield had health issues, after beating Tyson, Holyfield is suddenly miraculously cured again.

 

When you look at the talent and dedication the 19 year old Tyson displayed it really is a shame that he wasted so much talent ..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZSvbY_41ok

 

Whats amazing is that we talk about his wasted talent, which is true, and even having wasted his talent he managed to become the youngest HW champion in history, unified the division, reigned for a time an invincible, earned nearly 1 billion dollars and basically coasted the final decade of his career on fumes (and apparently in a drug haze).

 

He pretty much partied extremely hard from Berbick on ... astonishing if you really consider it ..

 

It's really a shame Sammy Schaff wasn't around today. He would rule the division like a fat, mutton-chopped Kaiser.

 

No but Sammy Scaffs legacy lives on, most fighters today emulate the great Smamy Scaff. They want to be just like him. Most of the top 10 resemble Sammy Scaff one way or another

Chris Arreola etc

:good