Mike Tyson laid bare

HIS RISE WAS METEORIC

___________&___________

HIS FALL EaUALLY SO.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE TYSON YEARS,

PROVIDED BY THOSE WHO KNEW HIM WELL

MARCH 1980: Mike Tyson sits in the passenger seat. Mr. Stewart is driving. Bobby Stewart is a counselor from the Tryon School for Boys. Mike is 13. He knows he could easily pass for 20. Sometimes he likes that, but mainly he doesn't. He has his cheap athletic clothes on, but they're an improvement over the stuff he wore in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Sometimes he had to put cardboard in his shoes. The memories are too bad. His mother hasn't been in touch since he's been in Tryon. She could have sent him a present. The only good thing is his sister, Denise. She plays him up as a tough guy, and he likes that. She says, "My brother is never 'Mike' or 'Tyson.' He is always 'Mike Tyson.'"

Bobby keeps drilling him about how he should act when they get to the gym and meet this old Italian guy, Cus, and these other guys: Be polite. Always call them sir. But what's in it for Bobby? Maybe this is a con. Mike likes Bobby to an extent. He doesn't know if he can trust him, though. For a start, Bobby is white.

Mike looks out the car window at the Hudson. His thoughts go back to Brownsville and the view from the roof where lie kept his pigeons. They've probably all been taken by now. but he'll gel them back if he ever gets out. Most of all he thinks about the fear. Denise doesn't know about that. Being scared every minute he was out there. Sometimes he would hide inside the walls ol the derelict buildings. Inside them! That was pretty crazy too.

i

Miclmi'l (ierard Tyson grew up in poverty in Brooklyn. Incarcerated at the age of 12, he discovered he had extraordinary physical power. Plucked from the horstal b\ Stewart, a former boxer, Tyson was introduced to the maverick septuagenarian boxing trainer Cus D'Amato, who housed boxers in a remote Catskill Mountains home in the town of C.atskill, Mew York. The house, like every­thing else, was in the name of D'Amato's companion, C.amille Ewald. D'Amato had trained Floyd Patterson, the then youngest-eve r heavyn'eighi champion, nearly 30 years bejore. D'Amatos idiosyncratic meth­ods were based on an intricate series of numbers that denoted each punch and defensive movement. The idea was to leave the boxer free of independent thought. D'Amato preferred his boxers to be as emo­tionally empty and suggestible as possible, so they could be rebuilt from scratch. KEVIN ROONEY (Tyson's future pro trainer): Tyson was a street punk. Allegedly, he did all these crimes, but I don't believe that happened. I believe he ran around on the street and got arrested, and thev shipped him up to a boys home. His mother and lather weren't together, and he was stumbling through the streets of Brooklyn. So Bobby Stewart says. "I've got this guy you should check out." 1 was like 7-0 as a pro fighter at the time. I was the head honcho of the gym. So this kid Tyson is going to spar with Bobby Stewart, and 1 thought I'd better check it out. TEDDY ATLAS Hyson's amateur trainer): I understood where Tyson was coming from. He was in prison: he had nothing. JOHNNY BOS (future Ivson matchmaker): I thought he was a bad boy from the beginning, but they made him out to be a lot worse than he was. He was bad but no worse than a lot ol people. Where I come Irom. everyone got arrested. DON MAJESKI (New York fight figure): I wouldn't be surprised if Tyson was sexually abused as a kid by people in the reformatories. When he was 1 1 or 12. these 17- and 18-year-old kids may have raped him.

ATLAS: He was 1:S years old and 190 pounds, so there was a force ol nature there, as far as his physicality. He was

raw, didn't know much, but he was strong. After the second round he comes back with a bloody nose. I take a towel and wipe it and say. "That's it." I didn't want to see him get abused. I knew we wen- buving, so I said, "That's it." ROONEY: Alter I won the Golden Gloves and wanted to linn pro. a friend said, "Talk to Cus D'Amato." So I talked to him, and Cus said. "Come live here, with free room and board. We'll set you chores around the house." I painted, mowed the lawn. Kxactlv the same with Tyson. ATLAS: Cus had this thing about food. That happens when you have too much time on your hands and you don't have to work for a living. And because—and I'm half joking—all he did was sit around while 1 was in the gym training lighters, he wore his robe all day. He watched lianit'\ Miller—that was one of his favor­ite shows, and the other was MASH. On Tyson's first day at the house, we had all the lood there, and Camille said she wanted serving spoons. There was only one on the table. So she says, "Michael, get me a serving spoon." Well, he jumps so fast, to please and be a good boy. that his leg gets stuck under one of the underpinnings. He picks up the whole table, and everything starts sliding off it. Camille's yelling, "Oh my God." because everything's going to smash on the floor. And Tyson's going, "Oh!' So I'm looking at Tyson moving the table around as if he's moving a piece of melon. I look at Cus. and Cus goes. "What power! The next heavyweight champion of the world! My God. look at that. What an animal!" He called him an animal, just spontane­ously. The truth was now coming out. I'm watcliingTvson make out like he just killed a family, worried, and I'm think­ing. What a fucked-up place I'm in. STEVE LOTT (T\son's lormer friend): Cus sees lliis kid and he knows he's bad, but

deep clown mat s not what lie wants to be. It's the junk that covers him from having lived in Brooklyn. Mike came to that house a lucking mess. MAJESKI: D'Amato was a genius. A brilliant guy but crazy. That's the prob­lem. Like this mad doctor who went in there and concocted stull and came out with Floyd Patterson. And then concocted Tyson. Tyson was a cunning guy. F.vervbodv D'Amato got came out of reformatories. I think Teddy Atlas was in a reformatory. Patterson. Tyson. So everybody there, there was some­thing bent about them. ROONEY: For our roadwork we went right out onto Highway 385. I was the best runner. 1 let Tvson beat me so he'd have confidence, but every once in a while I'd show him who the real boss was. I could whip his ass. but he was a good runner, a last runner. NADIAHUJTYN (female boxer and future trainer for D'Amato): I was there the day they brought Mike in. He was l'.\ years old. We all said to ('.us. "He can't be that age." and (ais said. "Well. I don't know. This man Stewart is my friend, so il he says he is, then he must be." Mike didn't know how to act with people. That was one of the things he never learned. He didn't have any social skills. But he was all right with us in the gvm. Mike wasn't brought up properlv. F.ven Camille would say he had nothing. He didn't know how to act. 1 le didn't know about deodorant. He didn't know how to take care of himself. ATLAS: I had come home from the gym and was putting my stulf away when Camille came down the steps. It looked like she was hiding. She said, "Don't say nothing to Cus." She was really cry­ing. I said. "What's the matter?" She said. "1 just told Mike he smelled and to wash, and icontiniu'd on /«/£<• 112)

MIKE TYSON

(continued from page 88)

He wanted to fight Spinks because he was so cuigry. Half the boxing writers thought Spinks -would win.

he said, "Fuck you, you piece of shit.'" ROONEY: That's bullshit. I never heard that Tyson called Camille that. And Atlas says Cus is in his robe and just watching TV? Get the fuck out of here. Atlas is trying to turn the whole thing around. Instead of paying tribute to Cus, he's stabbing him in the back. JOSE TORRES (former light-heavyweight champion trained by D'Amato): When Cus told me this kid would become champion and explained why, it wasn't so surprising. Because Cus was a com­plex guy, I expected a convoluted explanation. He said when he found out Tyson used to get on public buses and wait until the people were warned about pickpockets before he would pickpocket them, he knew Tyson could transfer that into the ring. He knew it would be easy for Tyson because he was an intelligent kid. I boxed with Ali in 1971, in a gym in Miami. Tyson would have been a dangerous Fight for Ali. Tyson was a smart, fast puncher. But if

I had to bet, I would have bet on Ali. HUJTYN: Mike is a child. He wanted a whole life he never had. He tried to find a way to re-create it, but you can't. He wanted a mother and father and the right home life. Mike often used to sleep on the couch in the living room, not in his room. I remember lots of times going over to the house to watch the fights, and he'd say, "Would you tuck me in before you go?" That's where he slept, the back of the couch. It was the closeness around him. Very childlike. I think it was because he never had it as a child and was desperate for it. 1982: D'Amato asks Atlas to leave the Catskill house after Atlas holds a gun to lyson's head. Atlas believes 'Iyson has behaved lewdly toward a relative. Tyson is returned briefly to the Tryon facility. According to Atlas. Tyson was run­ning scared and was returned there for his own safety. Rooney takes over Atlas's training responsibilities, as Tyson, having failed to make the Olympics, prepares to turn professional.

I1 is first pro fight is in March 1985. ATLAS: I left Mike because of certain things. Cus thought 1 left after I put the gun to 'Iyson, but 1 was still around. ROONEY: When Tyson allegedly made a pass at Teddy Atlas's relative, Teddy pulled a gun on him. Iyson came down, saw Teddy and thought everything was going to be okay, and then Teddy put a gun to his head. Tyson just looked at him. Teddy said, "You think I'm kid­ding?" That's when he shot the gun up in the air. Tyson goes back to Cus's

house and tells Cus. "I'm going down to Brooklyn. I'm going to get my boys to come up here and kill him." Cus shipped Tyson back down to Bobby Stewart in Tryon to simmer down. Cus really helped Teddy, because Tyson was going to get his boys. HUJTYN: Teddy did hold the gun to Mike's head, but Mike didn't do any­thing that bad. Don't get me wrong. Mike is terrible in regard to women, but at the time, he wasn't that bad. And Teddy was weird. He was a head case even back then. He tried to kill himself several times. Nobody knows that. You have to put up with this great respect for this individual. I know him. I know what he did to me. I know what he did to Cus. I know what he did to Kevin Rooney. As much as I don't approve of Kevin's behavior now, the only reason Teddy was here, the only reason he has the job he has now, is because he was Kevin's best friend. Teddy was in Rik-ers Island for armed robbery. Kevin begged Cus to intervene and get Teddy up here so he could fight and train at the gym. You had to watch Teddy all the time because you never knew what kind of mood he was going to be in. JAY BRIGHT: (nonboxing resident of the Catskill house and future Tyson cornerman): Cus had a whole bunch of Jimmy Jacobs's fight films up there, and Mike's job later on, when I was at college, was the films. You had to gel the pieces and glue them together and splice them, basically. Certain nights everyone would sit around and watch the fights. We had a bedsheet on the wall, and then Cus eventually got a pro­jection screen.

ROONEY: Me and Mike were like broth­ers. Jimmy Jacobs was the guy he looked up to, and Bill Cayton, jacobs's partner, was the brains behind the whole opera­tion. Bill was brilliant. Mike was closer to Jimmy. )immy came from Cus. FRANK MALONEY (Lennox Lewis's for­mer manager): I was intrigued by it all. I thought it was clever matchmaking. I he way it was done—taking him up to the Catskills, taking him out of society, really. If you can develop a heavyweight who's the biggest draw in boxing, you have a license to print money. He was brilliantly marketed and brilliantly matched. He never fought another fighter who was in his prime, except for maybe Michael Spinks, who was terrified of Tyson anyway. NOVEMBER 4. 1985: Cus DAmato dies.

officially of pneumonia. His death, how-'ver, is shrouded in secrecy. Tyson is said 'o be distraught but goes back into action ilmost immediately, dedicating his victories 'o D'Amato's memory. After 27 consecutive Tins Tyson signs on to fight Trevor Berbick. 7 tough Jamaican. If Tyson wins, he will heroine the youngest heavyweight champion •n history, at the age of 20. On Xovembrr 22. 198(> Tyson beats Berbick in a second-round technical knockout for the World Box­ing Council heavyweight championship. ROONEY: Jimmy and Bill were at a meeting with the TV executives. They ollered S12 million to fight in this title-unification tournament, and |immv jumped at it. Bill said. "Hold on. We've got to think about that ' And that S12 million became S2(i million. LOTT: Months and years went bv. and Mike was a six-round lighter and then an eight-round fighter and then a 10-round fighter.

ATLAS: You know. I always thought you couldn't win the title without character, but 1 had to stand corrected after Tyson won it. 1 was wrong. You can win it. but you can't keep it for long. HUJTYN: He knew the right thing to do, because Cus had a plan for every situation. It's not like we didn't tell Mike. The Tony Tucker tight in 1987 was scary. Mike didn't look good in that fight. He was already losing desire. He never figured out what he-was supposed to do. He didn't really want to fight. He hasn't wanted to fight for almost 20 years. The only reason he wanted to fight Spinks was because he was so angry. At least half the boxing writers thought Spinks would win. Mike was furious because anybody with a brain and an eye could see that shouldn't be possible. Spinks is a small man. He can't hurt Mike. How was he going to win? ROONEY: Spinks was scared. Cus always used to talk about that. He said. "Fear is your friend if you can control it."

A jew months before the Spinks fight. Tyson marries Robin Givens. He is clearly besotted and believes her to be pregnant with his child. The witness to the wedding is Tyson's biogra­pher ami friend lose Tones. As Tyson prepares to defend his titles against limy Tubhs in Tokyo in March ll)8H in another multimillion-dollar bout, the marriage descends into recrimina­tions and turmoil, mainly centered on money. Even when living at their new mansion m Bemardsville, Sew Jersey, Givens is almost always accompanied by her mother. Ruth Roper. As the marriage begins to disintegrate, Gi;iens goes on national T\' with allegations that Tyson is a violent manic-depressive. Tyson, who is present, appears drugged. LOTT: Robin (livens was the moment. She sprang that wedge. Around Octo­ber 1987 Mike told me he was seeing her. In January 1988 she said, "I'm pregnant bv Mike." I didn't even know

this. He asked me what would I think if he married Robin. I said. "Great, terrific," because at that stage she seemed kind and caring. But she's been called a liar now for 20 years. Right after they got mar­ried Robin went to the offices of Merrill Lynch while Mike and I were in Tokyo. She was with her mother, demanding money. Jose Torres came over about two weeks after we were there, and the first thing he said was "Steve, we got trouble." I said, "What? Everything's great. Mike is training well." He said, "Robin is driv­ing me crazy- She's going to the bank." I knew something was amiss. One time in Tokyo, maybe a week before the Tubbs fight—Robin was there for a couple of weeks but then went back—Mike came into my room. He had just gotten off the phone with her or something, and he was sitting on the bed and said, "I don't feel so good." I said. "What's up?" He said. "It's Robin." He was defending the title in three days, and I had to decide what to do. He said, "I should never have got married." I said, "Mike, I guarantee you everything will be tine." He said, "You really mean that?"

TORRES: I was the best man at the wed­ding. I was one of the guys telling him to marry this girl. I thought she would straighten him out. but then I found out he was overwhelming her. He would push her around and slap her. I called him up and said, "If I'm sitting next to you and Robin, and I see you abusing her, I will hit you with a baseball bat. And if I kill you. I kill you, and I'm not kid­ding. You hitting that girl is so embar­rassing for me. You're the heavyweight

champion. Are you crazy?" But Tyson was very cooperative with the biography, and 1 liked everyone in his group. The only one 1 didn't like was his mother-in-law, Ruth Roper. She loved the atten­tion. I thought Tyson reallv loved Robin. It was one of his first experiences. But then he also started to lose control in the ring. Without that fault he would have been the perfect champion of the world. 1 didn't see Robin as a gold dig­ger. I thought she meant well for Mike. I hate to say this, but I thought it was her mother's influence on her, not Robin. 1 thought she would put some control on Tyson's lack of control. BOS: I thought Torres's book. Fire a? Fear. was basically Torres grandstanding a lot. MAJESKI: All of a sudden Robin Givens comes in and Tyson falls apart. It's the virgin-whore syndrome. She's a whore and a virgin at the same time. You look at her as some kind of angelic figure, and at the same time you want to have sex with her. So you're trapped. That's what happened with Tyson. And boxing-wise he climaxed with Spinks. It was like Joe Frazier. After Frazier beat Ali, that was it. Physically, emotionally, psychologically, he reached the point where he couldn't go any further. With Tyson, he beat Spinks and he could never be better. The fame gets overwhelming. It's insanity. You talk about Hemingway, Fitzgerald or Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley—they reached a point where that iconic fame got to them. It makes you crazy. 1988: Tyson is involved in a series of violent incidents. He crashes his Bentley in New York after Givens reaches into his pocket and finds

condoms. He lias a street fignt wun a /uinui opponent, Mitch "Blood" Green. He drive* (mother car into a tree outside the Catskill house and is knocked unconscious—an event por­trayed in the media as a suicide attempt. Police are called to Bemardsi'ille after Tyson smashes up the house, believing Civens to have had a sexual dalliance with Donald Trump. HUJTYN: Robin was such an obnoxious bitch. Flat-out. She didn't like Mike, not one iota. Obviously, it wasn't worth the money. If it was really worth the money, she would have had a child. That's the general route to get the money. So it wasn't worth that much to her. And yes. she would have liked to see him dead because of the thing with the car and the tree. But Mike was gaga over her. Before that he was "No girls will ever like me." So he was in awe of her. Givens and her mother were worse than Don King. They went to Camille and said to her. "You've left the house to Mike, haven't you? You really should, you know. He's like your son." And she said, "Oh no, this is my house. This house is going to my sister." But they had the gall to approach her. Thev were horrible people. ROONEY: On the plane on the way back from the Tubbs fight, I saw Robin had a tight belly, but she was supposed to be four or live months pregnant. When my ex-wife got pregnant, you could see it almost right away. So 1 said, "Robin, you look great! Your stomach looks great." And she said. "What do you mean?" She was a bitch. Ruth was a little warmer, but she was still playing the game. They were both chasing Mike's money, but Bill Cay-ton had hooked it up so Mike was the only person who could get the money.

After the Tubbs fight—with his mother, Lorna, long gone and the death of D'Amato still recent—Tyson is bereaved again. This lime it is Jimmy Jacobs, the co-manager he apparently cherished. The official reason for Jacobs's death is given as lymphocytic leuke­mia, but rumors abound relating to D'Amato and Jacobs having lived together jor years in a New York apartment before D'Amato hitched up with Camille and Jacobs met his wife. Lor­raine. The only remaining members of the team D'Amaio put in place are Kei'in Rooney, Jacobs's partner Kill Cayton—who expects to take over the reins—and Iyson's aide-de­camp and friend Sieve Loll. Aware oj Tyson's lack of fondness for Cayton. however, Don King is now hovering. Although uninvited. King somehow inveigles his way into jacobs's funeral. In a shock move, Tyson then sacks Rooney. Cayton and Loll. Lawsuits ensue, but King now has control of Tyson's career. ATLAS: The truth is far from what you get with a lot of people who have agen­das, and you could sav I have mine. But Cus died under strange circumstances. He died of pneumonia. |immy died afterward. They said it was leukemia, but nobody ever documented that. They both died in the same hospital. Pneumo­nia nowadays usually accompanies the

last stages of AIDS. All I know is their records were kept confidential and hid­den. They took no visitors. The hospital staff was very closed and secretive. HUJTYN: I definitely thought Jimmy was homosexual. I thought the wife. Lor­raine, was just a front and that he actu­ally died of AIDS. I never thought that about Cus, though. But as for Jimmy kissing Mike on the lips after fights. I don't think that has anything to do with it. Mike wanted that. He's a baby. He never grew up. He wanted all the love and affection.

MAJESKI: Tyson conned everybody— Jacobs. Cayton, D'Amato and the people in prison. But when he got to King he met his match. Nobody plays Don

King except maybe the d e vi 1. King played Ty son. King knew how to handle him, and he trumped him at his own game. ROONEY: Cus and |immy were not lovers. That's total bullshit. Cus loved Camille. She was his woman. Jimmy married Lorraine. She was his woman. But yeah, when Tyson fired me, 1 was shocked. I had no inkling. People say Mike was stupid, but he wasn't. He was smart. What surprised me even more was that he got into bed with King.

HUJTYN: Everybody behaved in a certain way for Cus. I don't think Jimmy was the person every­body thinks he was. I don't think he was a good, ideal­istic guy. Cayton had the money, for sure. limmv acted

in a certain way because he thought he should, and I think he cared more than Cayton, who treated you like a posses­sion, not a person. But they didn't rip off Mike. They showed him the books, they tried to explain what they were doing, but Mike said, "That's your job, not my job. I'll do my job, and you do yours. I don't need to know about it." LOTT: Then Mike had an about-face. He broke up with Robin Clivens over the Barbara Walters show, and then he came back to the office and apologized to Bill Cayton about having said those things with King. Bill said. "Forget that. It's history. What's important now. Mike. is you." And Bill said he was going to

get him some fights while he got his life together after Robin. That was where I made my big mistake. I wasn't smart enough to stick with him and say, "Mike, life is gonna be great again." Instead he said, "See you guys later." and walked out the door. Don grabbed him the next day, and that was it.

HUJTYN: Brian Kenny, who now works for ESPN2 with Teddy Atlas, interviewed me after Mike left us. He asked. "What's going to happen?" I said. "Mike is going to lose." He had just fought Spinks. .And Kenny said, "Well, because I know you and respect you I won't laugh, but every­body else is going to laugh." This was before the Bruno tight. And Kenny said, "Why do you say that?" I said, "Because

Cus said it. And Mike knows Cus said it, and he knows what Cus said is true. Cus said, 'A person who compromises his principles, who compromises what he believes in, cannot succeed.' So therefore he has to lose." Mike knew it, just like he knew everything else Cus said was true. Following a shaky display against the lim­ited Frank Bruno. Tyson's lOth-round defeat to Buster Douglas on February II, 1990 is catastrophic. It is made worse by King's attempt to have the result reversed on the grounds that when Douglas was floored in the eighth round, the count was long. Dur­ing the fight Tyson's comer work is shambolic. King has brought in a new trainer, the inexpe­rienced Aaron Snowell. Presumably at lyson's

request the chief second isjay Bnght. a friend from the C.ntskill house not known for his box­ing expertise. When Tyson's eyes begin to suvll from Douglas's jabs, the appropriate equip­ment isn't in the comer, and Snowell attempts to reduce the swelling by applying a condom filled with cold water.

ATLAS: Along came a guv called Buster Douglas, who didn't sign on the dotted line. For once it was "He's going to have to vanquish me." You see. Tyson never really vanquished people. They van­quished themselves.

BRIGHT: I've taken the heat for the Douglas fight for years. Basically, the misconception most people have is that 1 was the cut man. I wasn't. L nfoitunatelv. the cut man didn't have the endswell (a

small ironiike con­traption to Heat abrasions] and what was needed to control the cut and the swelling. But I take the heat, and that's it.

ROONEY: Jay Bright was a slob. He didn't come into the picture until alter Cus was dead and Tyson left me. Aaron Snowell came from Don King. He was another asshole. LOTT: I should have gone to Bill Cayton and said. "Write me a check for SI00.000 so I can take him down to Brazil for a couple of weeks." I should have said, "Bill, he's in bad shape. Let's take him down to Rio. let him get laid about 60 times a day. and after four weeks his mind will be off Robin." But instead of Rio it was Buster Douglas in Tokyo. Don got him when he was an emotional

wreck, took him up to Cleveland, and then it was "Mike, let's take a look at those contracts." It's very difficult for the pub­lic, even the boxing public, to understand that he was emotionally drained when he went in against Douglas. All that Muff was reverberating around in his brain. And Douglas was the most relaxed opponent he had laced. Bv round two Mike was toially drained. It was the Robin (iivens-Don King one-two, followed literally by the Buster Douglas one-two. ROONEY: II Mike had still been with me, he would have knocked Douglas oul in a round or two.

LOTT: If Kevin Rooney was still his trainer when Mike went to Don King, he

would still have lost to Buster Douglas. II Mike thinks he's hated or despised, he won't be able to fight. He's so sensitive to how people think about him, he will not produce in the ring.

Despite a couple of easy knockouts, 'lyson is frozen out of the hemyweight-title scene. Busier Douglas, in abject shape, loses his titles fry knock­out to livander Holyfiehl. Don King has no pro­motional options on Holyjield, either and, to his ilismay, finds himself in the heaiyiveight wilder­ness, lyson remains the biggest draw in boxing, but to get the big 71 'fights. King has to match him with the dangerous Donamn "Razor" Rud­dock. They square off twice in Las legos, with lyson winning each time but absorbing plenty of punishment. On the was back from the second Ruddock light, in mid-hily 1991, lyson stops

of] m Indianapolis for the \hss Mark America beauty contest. With his current girlfriend, the rap star 8 Angie H, temporarily unavail­able. Tyson, who has been drinking all da\, invites one o] the pageant contestants, Desiree Washington, to Iils room at the Canter­bury Hotel al two in the morning. The next day Washington charges that lyson has raped her. lyson is tried, con­victed and sentenced to 10 years in jail, four years suspended. HUJTYN: I have a theory about the women. With box­ing you get an adrenaline high, and there's only one other place to get it. You're look­ing to feel better, but that lasts only so long. You have to do it again so you leel better again. Mike is all about how he feels. You tan talk to him. you think he's verv sen-

siblf. and llien he goes out the door and something happens and he gets upset. He does whatever it takes to make him­self feel better and completely forgets what you were talking about. It was all about monev. If you watch the case, you'll see Mike's body language. He was Irving to get awav from Don King. King had lo control the heavyweight division. II Mike lefI him and continued lo light, there would1 he all that money not under King's control. Of course Mike went back to King when he came out of jail—he had no money, and King had power of attorney. King had two choices: Kill him or pul him in ].ul so he can t fight and can l make monev for anyone else.

As far as the rape is concerned, Mike is what you call a coercer. He isn't going to grab you and forcefully throw you down on a bed or whatever, and if he did. you would have bruises. You would have marks. He's like, "Oh, come on. You know you want to." He's not mean and vicious. Way back when, he didn't want you to get mad at him. He never wanted anybody to be mad. He wanted everybody to like him.

While in prison at the Indiana Youth Cen­ter, from September 1993 to March 1995. Tyson converts to Islam. A few days before his release, in a move that surprises many, he agrees to re-sign with King. King assigns two "friends"oj Iysons. Rory Holloway and fohn Home, to be his managers of record.

MALONEY: When Tyson was in jail, you had to feel sorry for him in a way. You had to wonder if some stuff was maneu­vered to get him into jail. 1 think certain people wanted him locked up. Maybe he was becoming uncontrollable.

As lyson begins his comeback, his appear­ances become characterized fry antiwhitr vitriol led fry Hollowa\. Home and a character named Crocodile, who dresses in combat fatigues and spouts insults at prospective Tyson opponents, Tyson admits to taking antidepressants to con­trol his anger, and rumors abound that lie also lake* recreational drugs. At prew conferences to promote jights l\son is surl\ and uncommu­nicative, allowing Hollmra\. Home and King to do the talking. He gelt married again, to

Dr. Monica Turner. Portrayed in the media as a respectable and benign influence on Tyson, Turner was previously involved with a notori­ous drug dealer and crime figure. Xeverthe-less, Tyson, under King's aegis, reunites with the heavyweight title in 1996, ei<en i) it carries only a glimmer oj his first meteoric rise. Heating a seties of fighters regarded as "cheese cham­pions." 'lyson is once again the man. He com­mands S30 million a fight. There are only two bouts left for lyson to prove his mettle: against the teak-tough Georgian Evander Holyfield, who had been due to square off against him before the rape trial, and Lennox Lewis, the towering, athletic former Olympic champion from Canada, now based in the U.K. MAJESKI: 1 lived through the 1960s and the Muhammad Ali era. and we now

have made Ali into America's secu­lar saint. Tyson is America's secular demon. Neither one deserves the title imposed on him. I think Ali is a far greater person than Tyson, but we've changed him into something he never wanted to be, never said he was. We just invented this image of Ali, like he's Mahatma Gandhi or something. How religious a Muslim is Mike Tyson? He's got Mao Tse-tung tattooed on him, a communist, as bad a killer as Hitler. He's also got Arthur Ashe tattooed on him. I don't think Tyson knows what he wants to do. He's in search of an identity; that's the problem.

ATLAS: 1 ran into Tyson a couple of times later on. We had a couple of situations. He was

ihooting a Japanese beer commercial U Gleason's Gym. in Brooklyn, while 1 A-as training a lighter there. I'm not a genius, but I do know the time of day, ind I kept a steel bar in my locker. I ust had a feeling—the hair on the back >f my neck, whatever you want to say. I vas at my locker, about to turn around, ind at the last second 1 took tin- bar ind put il right against the door of the ocker, where il was easy to grab. Just is I turned. Tyson was there, and he'd gotten as close to me as he could with->ut my turning. I turned around, there vas nobody else in the plate, and he vas the heavyweight champion of the vorld. 1 stared at him. He stopped.

and he stared at me. I had to assume he saw me walk in. But maybe he was going to the bathroom. I don't know. We didn't have much chatter. LOTT: There's been nothing, no con­tact. It was brilliant of King to put those people around Mike when he came out of jail. The more Mike was around them, the more he acted like them: "White people are no good." Don is brilliant at it. ROONEY: Tyson in some respects became an asshole; that's what happened. So for me it was like, "Fuck you. If you want to be an asshole, be an asshole." King had Hollowav and Home for his Tyson plan, and then it was totally downhill. MAJESKI: Really, decadence set in. Home and Hollowav were cruds. Money didn't mean anything to Tyson. If he wanted to give these guys half a million a year, so what? It was insanity. King cut Tyson 50 percent. King put his daughter, the wife, the whole family on the payroll. Tyson was just a cash cow to exploit. And because Tyson was the most famous and the most affluent. King was able to do it more so than with anyone else.

Tyson fights Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas on November 9, 1996. Despite being

a huge underdog. Holyfield hands Tyson a sustained boxing lesson. However, such is the money generated that a rematch is imme­diately ordained. This time what ensues is sensational. Tyson, again being outboxed. bites both of Holy field's ears in third-round clinches, on one occasion spitting a piece of ear to the canvas, and is disqualified. ROONEY: If the referee hadn't stopped the first Holyfield fight, Mike would have been knocked cold. He was stag­gering, and the referee jumped in. Then they had the rematch, and he got in better shape.

ATLAS: With Holyfield he became a game-quitter. He stopped trying to win. The second time against Holyfield he knew he would actually have to be a fighter. Two nights before the fight, I said he would have to foul to get out of it. Tyson was a fractured, scared, incom­plete person who could not face a man. He would not have entered that room against Holyfield again if he didn't know-where the exit was.

With his career apparently in a downward spiral and his aura evaporating. Tyson faces other problems. His second wife has left him. sayi)ig he is impossible to live with. Tyson leaves King. Home and Holloway and sues

them for millions of what he believes, to be embezzled earnings. The case is settled out of court. 'Iyson hooks up with Shells Fin-kel. a veteran boxing manager. He has more run-ins with the law, precipitated by a 1998 road-rage incident that lands him back in jail. He serves additional time for violating his parole. One big fight is left for him: a showdown with Lennox Lewis. In the mean­time Tyson goes on the road, boxing a series of mediocrities in Europe. LOTT: When he got out. in about 1999 when he was still in Vegas. 1 went to visit Mike, to pitch him about coming back. Me had called me out of the blue, so I called him and said I was going out there to see my uncle and could I stop by to see him? He said, "Sure, stop by." I picked up every picture I had of him and us from the good davs— every fight, every press conference, a stack like that—to get his mind back. I showed up at the house and showed him these wonderful photographs. I was there for an hour, and he had strange people in the house. The guy who fixed the gloves, Panama Lewis, was there. [Lewis was banned for life from boxing for removing the stuffing from the gloves of one of his fighters,

Luis Resto. Resto's opponent, Billy Col­lins Jr., was maimed and had to retire. Many believe his drunk-driving death to be suicide.]

HUJTYN: Don King took all the money-while Mike was in jail. Plus. Mike wasn't smart with any of it. There were ex-wives and children, and he had to pay for all these children. I wouldn't know if he stays in touch with them. I know he liked the last two, and he brought them to Camille's house on occasion. He used to make comments that he ought to do better things because he has these children, but it didn't last longer than saying it. unfortunately. ROONEY: He's trying to make out as if he's a family man. I'm sure he loves his kids, but he ain't no family man. He likes fooling around with girls. Home and Holloway fucked the money out of Tyson. All he had to do was resist them. And Monica Turner was no Goody Two-shoes. She got a couple of million. She's set. LOTT: When 1 was in Vegas visiting Mike. I get this call, and as soon as I pick it up 1 know who it is: "Hi, Shelly. " So I know what happened. Someone in Mike's house called Shelly Finkel to tell him Steve Lou was out there in Mike's room, talking to him. Shelly says, "Steve, what are you doing in Vegas?" I said. "I'm talking to Mike." He says, "What about?" So I said. "I'm talking about him coming back to Bill. Kevin and me." And he goes, "No, I have a contract." I said, "Shelly, it has nothing to do with you. Let's do what's best for Mike." "No, no, no! I have a contract!" I said. "Shelly,

contracts are easy. We can work that out." It was somebody in the house, the same way Don always had someone around, reporting back to him.

Tyson fights Lennox Lewis in Memphis on June 8, 2002. During a prefight press conference, a brawl breaks out between the two camps. Lewis throws a punch at Tyson, and in the ensuing melee Tyson bites Lew­is's leg. In the fight itself Tyson receives a sustained beating and is knocked out in the eighth round.

MALONEY: When we got to the Len­nox Lewis weigh-in, Tyson was sitting there twirling his hair between his finger and thumb like a lost little girl. He wasn't paying any attention. Croc­odile was shouting and screaming, and Tyson didn't pay any attention to him, either. It was as if he was on a differ­ent planet. It seemed to me either he was still on the pills—although I don't know if he was—or he was hypno­tized. He was sort of in a semi-trance, and everyone around him was trying to keep him calm and make sure he didn't blow his fuse. ROONEY: In my opinion he just laid down against Lewis.

MALONEY: Before the fight, I wanted Lennox to get beaten because of the bitchiness in me after the fallout I had with the new Lewis team. That fight would have been my pension. I didn't make any money at all out of that fight. I was watching Tyson on the TV monitor, getting ready in his dressing room, and his crazy antics, smashing the wall like a mad raging bull again. Then I looked at Lewis getting ready, and I went. "You

know what? I would put mv house on Lennox Lewis winning this light." JUNE 2005: After two fights against the journeymen Dannx Williams and Kevin Mcliride result in abject defeats, Tyson announces his retirement from boxing. Arrested for possession of cocaine, which he freeh admits. Tyson faces more /ail time. He is also said to be some S>0 million in debt, mainh to the IKS but also to various Las Vegas jewelry stores. He embarks on a speaking tour of the U.K., but it is not a success. Meanwhile, on Broadway. Robin Givens is cast in the musical Chicago as Koxie Hart, a glamorous murderess who evades the death penalty by falsely claim­ing she is pregnant.

ROONEY: He just laid down again in the McBride light when he was ahead on the scorecards. He quit like a pig. He took the money and ran.

ATLAS: The last two fights were just more of him being exposed. They were just ordinary kids. The Irish kid was more ordinary. Tyson doesn't have char­acter. He would be a comet that maybe flashes for a moment but whose future was always going to be short and incon­sequential. Budd Schulberg said any­one who stayed with Cus had to be an incomplete individual and would never develop a complete personality or an identity for himself.

MALONEY: I don't think Tyson's a sym­pathetic character. I don't know what to make of him. A man who earns all that money and loses it all—you can't feel sorry for him. He's either mentally disturbed or just doesn't put any value on anything.

MAJESKI: All D'Amato's boys wound up broke or in debt, so maybe money did mean nothing to them. That unconscious thing he put in their heads: Money is something you use when you have it. HUJTYN: Cus used to say, "I will have suc­ceeded when he becomes independent of me." But Mike needed guidance much longer. I would actually say forever. To me, Mike will always be a hurt child. He never wanted the responsibility of being champion of the world. TORRES: Now, 1 feel sorry for Tyson. 1 don't want to get involved with him, because he can bring trouble. But if 1 can help him, I will.

ATLAS: Cus had a story from when he was a boy: A monster lived near his school. People believed this. They would walk home a different way to avoid it, even though going past the monster was the quickest way. 1 hen one clay Cus is late and he knows he's going to get a beat­ing from his father, so he goes the quick way. He's scared. He turns the corner. As he does so. he sees the first claw. Then he sees the second claw. And there it is: nothing but an old tree swinging in Un­wind. Iyson was just the tree in the end Cuss guy ended up being the tree.