What would Cus D’Amato think?

Mike Tyson was always portrayed as the guy who had great respect for boxing and all its rich history. He was raised on it by the old guru and given the reputation of being some kind of guardian of the purity of boxing.

Yet he’s also the guy who bit someone’s ear off, bit someone’s leg at a press conference and gave a couple of disgraceful performances at the end of his first career.

Now he’s allowed some social media influencer to beat him up and told the world that Jake Paul is “a great fighter.” At the end of this ‘fight,’ he stood there without throwing a punch while Jake called a timeout and bowed to him without a care in the world that this timid kitten called Iron Mike in front of him would even try to do anything about it.

What would Cus have to say about this if he was still around? If you told him that his pride and joy would one day be part of such a circus act, what would his reaction be?

Part of me thinks Cus would be ashamed of Mike cheapening the name of boxing … but then I think about how he gave a title shot at Floyd Patterson to a guy with even less professional boxing credentials than Jake Paul — Pete Rademacher was an amateur who fought for the title in his first pro fight. Not to mention digging up Peter McNeeley’s dad for a shot at Floyd (at least when Mike fought Peter “Pizza Hut” McNeeley, it wasn’t for a belt).

So maybe Cus would have been proud of his boy carrying on the carny tradition.

What do you think?

 

I don’t understand the part about Paul’s authenticity. A Hall of Fame heavyweight who spent time in the ring with Jake just told us he’s a great fighter.

 

Probably why he didn’t hit Jake when he was taking a bow right in front of Mike in the final 10 seconds: wouldn’t be sporting to hit an opponent in a boxing ring who is standing right in front of you during an active round while he’s clowning you.

 

Tyson studied boxing history at the feet of the master (who trained the man who beat Rademacher) and never said Pete Rademacher was a great fighter. But after spending eight 2-minute rounds of combat with Jake, he declared Paul to be a great fighter.

I think that pretty much says it all.