Mike Tyson
June 12th, 2008
Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 in the first round. He unified the belts in the splintered heavyweight division in the late 1980s. Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight champion for over two years, before losing to 42-to-1 underdog Buster Douglas in 1990.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a woman, for which he served three years in prison. After being released from prison in 1995, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. He regained a portion of the heavyweight title, before losing it to Evander Holyfield in 1996 by an 11th round TKO. Their 1997 rematch ended in disqualification for Tyson after he bit off a portion of Holyfield's ear. He fought for a championship again at 35, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis in 2002. Tyson retired from competitive boxing in 2005 after two consecutive knockout losses to journeymen Danny Williams and Kevin McBride.
Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003, despite receiving over US$30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career.
Tyson was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. His mother, Lorna Smith, was forced to provide for her family following the departure of his father, Jimmy Kirkpatrick, when Tyson was two. Tyson's reputation as a child was that he would assault anyone who ridiculed his high-pitched lisp. This was fueled by constant abuse from older children on the streets of Brownsville.
Mike Tyson grew up in crime-infested neighborhoods of New York City. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to Brownsville where he lived with his siblings and mother.
Mike Tyson has two siblings: a brother name Rodney Tyson and a sister Denise Tyson (married name Denise Anderson). Sister Denise passed away in her middle twenties. Brother Rodney, older by five years, is a physician's assistant in the trauma center of the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center.
Rodney has always been very supportive of his brother's career and was often seen at Mike's boxing matches in Las Vegas. When asked about their relationship, Mike Tyson has been quoted saying, "My brother and I see each other occasionally and we love each other," and "My brother was always something and I was nothing."
The closest person to Mike as he grew into childhood was his sister Denise, who died of complications at the age of 24. Reports indicated that Anderson, who weighed between 300 and 400 pounds, may have died of cardiac arrest. Tyson financially supported Denise's kids upon her death.
Tyson's mother, Lorna, had two other children from a previous relationship when Mike was born. The Tysons survived on welfare after Lorna's lover Jimmy Kirkpatrick walked away. As times grew harder they were forced out of their tenement in tough Bedford-Stuyvesant and into Brownsville, Brooklyn. Tyson has been quoted saying, "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally." Tyson's mother died when he was 16, and two years later, boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato became his legal guardian.
Tyson made his way through the streets of Brooklyn by mugging and stealing; by the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times. He ended up at the Tryon School for Boys in Upstate New York. It was at the school that Tyson's raw boxing ability was discovered by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention center counselor and former boxer. As Tyson was an outstanding physical specimen, Stewart trained him for a few months and then introduced him to D'Amato.
Tyson was later removed from reform school by D'Amato. He saw Tyson's potential and took over his training; he later became his legal guardian, and Tyson has often referred to his love for D'Amato as a father figure. Kevin Rooney also trained Tyson under D'Amato, and they were occasionally assisted by Teddy Atlas, who was dismissed by D'Amato when Tyson was 15. Rooney eventually took over all training duties for the young boxer.
Expectations for Tyson were extremely high, and he embarked on an ambitious campaign to fight all the top heavyweights in the world. Tyson defended his title against James 'Bonecrusher' Smith on March 7, 1987, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won by unanimous decision and added Smith's World Boxing Association (WBA) title to his existing belt. 'Tyson mania' in the media was becoming rampant. He beat Pinklon Thomas in May with a knockout in the sixth round. On August 1 he took the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from Tony Tucker in a twelve round unanimous decision. He became the first heavyweight to own all three major belts — WBA, WBC, and IBF — at the same time. His only other fight in 1987 was in October against the 1984 Olympic Super Heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs, that ended with a victory for Tyson by knockout in the seventh round. Also in 1987, Nintendo released the video game, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, for its Nintendo Entertainment System. Punch-Out!! is an early example of a video game endorsed by a professional athlete.
Tyson had three fights in 1988. He faced Larry Holmes on January 22, 1988, and defeated the legendary former champion by fourth round knockout. This was the only knockout loss Holmes suffered in 75 professional bouts. In March, Tyson then fought contender Tony Tubbs in Tokyo, Japan, fitting in an easy two-round victory amid promotional and marketing work.
On June 27, 1988, Tyson faced Michael Spinks. Spinks, who had taken the heavyweight championship from Larry Holmes via a 15-round decision in 1985, had not lost his title in the ring but was not recognized as champion by the major boxing organizations. Holmes had previously given up all but the IBF title, and that was eventually stripped from Spinks. However, Spinks did become the lineal champion by beating Holmes and many (including Ring magazine) considered him to have a legitimate claim to being the true heavyweight champion. Tyson knocked out Spinks in 91 seconds of the first round.
During this period, Tyson's problems outside boxing were also starting to emerge. His marriage to Robin Givens was heading for divorce, and his future contract was being fought over by Don King and Bill Cayton. In late 1988, Tyson fired longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, the man many credit for honing Tyson's craft after the death of D'Amato. Without Rooney, Tyson's skills quickly deteriorated and he became more prone to looking for the one-punch knockout, rather than using the combinations that brought him to stardom. He also began to head-hunt, neglecting to attack the opponent's body first. In addition, he lost his defensive skills and began to barrel straight in toward the opponent, neglecting to jab and slip his way in. In 1989, Tyson had only two fights amid personal turmoil. He faced the popular British boxer Frank Bruno in February in a fight where Bruno managed to stun Tyson at the end of the 1st round, although Tyson went on to knock out Bruno in the fifth round. Tyson then knocked out Carl "The Truth" Williams in one round in July.
In 1989, Tyson was granted an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University in Ohio.
By 1990, Tyson seemed to have lost direction, and his personal life and training habits were in disarray. In a fight on February 11, 1990, he lost the undisputed championship to James "Buster" Douglas in Tokyo. Tyson was a 1/42 favorite, but Douglas was at an emotional peak after losing his mother to a stroke 23 days prior to the fight, and fought the fight of his life. Tyson failed to find a way past Douglas's quick jab that had a 12-inch (30 cm) reach advantage over his own. Tyson did send Douglas to the floor in the eighth round, catching him with an uppercut, but Douglas recovered sufficiently to hand Tyson a heavy beating in the subsequent two rounds (after the fight, the Tyson camp would complain that the count was slow and that Douglas had taken longer than ten seconds to get to his feet). Just 35 seconds into the 10th round, Douglas unleashed a combination of blows that sent Tyson to the canvas for the first time in his career. He was counted out by referee Octavio Meyran. The knockout victory by Douglas over Tyson, the previously undefeated "baddest man on the planet" and arguably the most feared boxer in professional boxing at that time, has been described as one of the most shocking upsets in modern sports history.
Tyson has been legally married twice and has had children with several different women. His first marriage was to actress Robin Givens, then known for her work on the sitcom Head of the Class, from February 7, 1988 to February 14, 1989. Tyson's marriage to Givens was especially tumultuous with allegations of violence, spousal abuse and mental instability. Matters came to a head when Tyson and Givens gave a joint interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC TV newsmagazine show 20/20 in September 1988, in which Givens described life with Tyson as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine." Givens also described Tyson as "manic depressive" on national television while Tyson looked on with an intent and calm expression. A month later, Givens announced that she was seeking a divorce from Tyson. They had no children.
His second marriage was to Monica Turner from April 19, 1997 – January 14, 2003. At the time of the divorce filing, Turner worked as a pediatric resident at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC. She is also the sister of Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Turner filed for divorce from Tyson in January 2002, claiming that he committed adultery during their five-year marriage, an act that "has neither been forgiven nor condoned."
Tyson has six children: Gena, Mikey, Rayna, Amir, Miguel, and Exodus. Rayna (born February 14, 1996) and Amir (August 5, 1997) are from his second wife.
