The Ultimate Mike Tyson Fan Website

31.08.04 - By Jose Sanchez: Mike Tyson…you either love him or hate him, yet there little doubt that you will always remember his name. At one point it seemed that his name was destined to shine along with the greats of the sport, perhaps even among the greatest of all sports…alas it was not to be for Mr. Tyson. His boxing career all but done, let us re-examine his life. How will history remember the youngest man ever to win the heavyweight title?

In the beginning…

Some will no doubt remember the early days of the Mike Tyson story. Legend has it that when Cus D’Amato first saw Mike Tyson he immediately said “There is the next Heavyweight Champion of the World”. There were others present that said although raw and lacking technique (not to mention discipline), that the 180lb 12year old Mike Tyson already possessed punching power greater then that of the average heavyweight boxer. He would later be likened to Jack Dempsey, Joe Frazier and Rocky Marciano for his vicious seek and destroy mentality.

Mike Tyson never wanted to outpoint you, he wanted to hurt you and knock you unconscious. Cus D’Amato, convinced he saw the future of boxing in Mike, decided he would take the young man under his wing and guide him toward his eventual destiny. Together they stayed up countless nights pondering what the future would hold. Cus telling the young Mike motivating, inspirational stories in which the young man could draw upon during his future moments of adversity. He was told little known but fantastic and interesting things concerning the lives of some of the greatest warriors in and out of the ring. It would eventually be said of Mike Tyson, that he possesses an equal degree of boxing knowledge to that of a learned historian of the sport. Not simply discussing boxing, Cus taught Mike about such things as fear, courage, cowardice, and what it meant to be a professional. Cus was grooming the boy into not only a man, but also a warrior. Not into an athlete like a football, basketball, or hockey player…. that is not the proper comparison. The proper comparison is to a gladiator in the vain of ancient Rome and the Coliseum. That was the attitude of Mike Tyson when he was going into the ring.

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