Would Tyson have betrayed and left Cus?

I agree with these sentiments. Many fail to remember that Mike only slowly became to believe he could be champ and there were huge problems when living with Cus. The narrative of the "kid and the old man" glosses over so much. Camille Ewald, Cus's partner says Mike would always go back to his old neighbour still unsure of what life he wanted slowly and shockingly he only figured this out after years of sees his young peers dying from small time drug deals, getting killed over a small chain or spending time in prison (most people wouldn't think twice). In fact at 13-14 yrs old, Jose Torres says Cus would let Mike go back to Brownsville for weekend visits where he would not return as agreed upon, he would be lost for days and weeks no-one knew where he was. Crazy to think all this kid has to do is train even a little bit and he makes more money than he could ever dream but he would rather hang out with the boys and climb through a window and do a small robbery. Jose Torres recounts stories of Mike being thrown out of the gym and the house for bad behaviour, Cus marching out saying "lets fight you what to be a tough guy". Tyson laughed it off but Cus always let him back, for all his strengths Cus craved that one last champ to stick it to the boxing world and leave them with one big- I told you so.

My point is even at that early age he was a rolling stone and unpredictable. Those life patterns continued throughout his life. Mike's autobiography tells a crazy story about Mike visiting his idol and mentor in Brownsville a small time hood called Barkim. Its late at night the boys hanging out smoking dope shooting the breeze. Over the conversation Mike casually pulls out a picture of Cus and the house all the amateur fighters there most of them white. Barkim although stoned is shocked he tells Mike "this is your white family?, what the hell are you doing here? ,go and never come back". Mike still doesnt listen and a few months later on one of his trips back home he hears that Barkim who would be considered an OG (btw he's only 17-18 which shows how rough those streets were) was shot dead. Then and only then he decides ok I'll stick with boxing. I find that whole realistion process very telling about Tyson.

The only thing consistent with Tyson is that he is inconsistent. There would have been issues no doubt. I think Tyson would have been controlled to a certain point but damage control would have to always be on. I recall interviews with Tyson where in all seriousness he says "I would have married who Cus wanted me to marry and I would have fought whoever he wanted me to fight but Cus would still have me fighting at 40". But the age difference is too great and Cus was never going to be around that long to guide Mike, coupled with his bipolar and extreme impulsiveness he was a bomb weighting to go off. Say if Cus lived another 10 years with the old man in the hospital,the wheels would have come off big time. Mike's constant need for positive emotions no matter how trivial or from whom (i.e from the enormous amount of hookers, random chicks and vipers like King and Holloway) were that serious that when they eventually left he became a full-blown coke junkie in some strange attempt to feel happy. A very sad state of affairs for anyone.

 

People need to acknowledge Mike's true personality. Bipolar which he has twice been diagnosed with by health care professionals (Im not making this up) although they saw only mild depressive symptoms in him is very real. Bipolar used to be called manic depression which means massive highs but always the lows, always in the dumps feeling dark thoughts until they burst out of it with usually impulsive misguided behaviour. I have heard it described like a gaping whole you can fill it up with as much fun and happiness as possible but its not enough and we see this Tyson. Geez $330 million in earnings, huge Ohio and Vegas mansions, the money, the women, even more beautiful women, the praise, you are the baddest man on the planet! But...Its never enough, at his core, sadly he felt unloved and worthless he was still stunted emotionally from his very hard upbringing with from his mother who parented with neglect and huge punishments. I'm trying to say that no matter who you surround Tyson with, be that Cus, King or Jacobs, Mike is still that same person and that same outcome is always envitable its only how long can you stem that tide. Cus could for a while and was the best at it but noone could stop it entirely.

I don't mean to be so judgmental of Mike who I greatly respect as an ATG. His brother who endured the same upbringing stayed entirely away from gang life and correct me if I'm wrong he became a doctor or obtained some repectable position in the health care field. We all experience the world in different ways and there isn't easy answers why.

 

Without reading the responses first, my take is as follows:

Yeah, I think so. Maybe not betrayed him as such, but moved on. Probably straight to King, just as it happened in reality.

Tyson I think always resented Cus and later Jacobs and Cayton because he was something of a slave to them. (In his eyes.)
Yeah I think he loved Cus but there was some resentment there too. I think Mike would eventually want to be his 'own man' and get away from the domineering D'Amato.

 

No but Don King would have talked him into believing that Cus was racist slave driver who bred young black men to fight for him, and ultimately Cus would have been fired.

 

A very interesting question. I am going to say not right away! Cus was Tyson's father figure, and Mike both respected and feared him.

Many of Tyson's friends were leaches types. Cus never was.

 

Well in Cus' defence, he knew he didn't have long left and he wanted that one more champion.

Secondly, you're right about the murder, according to The Peter Heller book on Tyson, Tyson had planned to kill Teddy Atlas and confided to Jay Bright that no one would ever k ow it was him.

Although it doesn't mention what that plan was, it was probably using one of his homies from the hood to commit the deed. I.e q fake robbery or something.

Im sure everyone's heard of the famous Tyson interview after the Savarese fight where he talks about eating Lewis kids, but earlier on in that interview he mentions "i had to bury my best friend Darryl Baum".

Baum was murdered because he was responsible for shooting rapper 50 cent 9 times. Tyson put down $50k for a hit on the guy who murdered Baum.

 

Absolutely … Cus passed just in time to be a martyr … it would simon be a matter of when …

 

Well f*ck me drunk!atsch

 

Tyson betrayed everyone else, why wouldn't he do the same to Cus once he had the crown? He wiped his ar*e on Rooney,and Lott, went behind Cayton's back to King.
I'd say it's odds on he would have sh*t on Cus eventually.

 

Tyson was not exactly a reliable person, but the circumstances between these splits are more complex than people allow for.

 

I don't claim to be an expert on Tyson, I've read 3 biographies on him and Newfield's book on King , none of them paint him as the innocent party.