If you are fan of professional boxing as I am, and if you have followed Mike Tyson’s career as I have, there is a documentary available on the Peacock Network and Amazon Prime Video titled “Autobiography-Mike Tyson” that you should watch.
While on the surface many might think of Mike Tyson as a thug, a man of a violent past, a fighter who has always been in legal trouble and never lived a respectable life. I certainly do not condone any of the illicit behavior displayed by “Iron” Mike Tyson nor do I have any respect for some of the negative activity and actions he has been involved in.
As a boxer, however, I give Tyson respect for what he accomplished in the squared circle. When he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear in the ring, the first impression was that this man was out of his mind. He was totally nuts and out of control. With that said, if you have not seen this documentary whether you are a fan of Tyson or not, this film is worth watching to get a better understanding of Mike Tyson the boxer and Mike Tyson the man.
In watching this one hour 26-minute film, I learned much about Mike Tyson, parts of his life I was not aware of. The bottom line that I surmised from the documentary is that Mike Tyson has had a very difficult life with so much turmoil and pain and while I certainly don’t condone drug use or abuse of alcohol that played a major part of why Tyson acted out and never got his life together.
What you will learn from this film is that while Tyson grew up in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood in New York, he never knew his father and his mother did her best to try to raise him right. But Tyson was uncontrollable and so as he was in many fights and someone suggested boxing to him, the late boxing manager Cus D’Amoto was introduced to Tyson and invited him to come live in his home in the Catskills area of New York.
D’Amoto would end up adopting Tyson and became a father figure to him. In the documentary you will hear his new manager tell him that he would become the youngest heavyweight champion of the world, and in fact Tyson accomplished that feat. D’Amoto built a management team around the young Tyson that helped Iron Mike become the most dangerous boxer in the world. With Kevin Rooney as his trainer, D’Amato as the lead manager and Jimmy Jacobs to the side helping, Tyson was on track to become the greatest heavyweight boxer in history.
If you followed Tyson’s career, he was simply destroying fighter after fighter with knockouts so vicious they were scary. He would often put fear into an opponent before the fight even began. Just ask Michael Spinks about that. What you will learn from this film, however, is the tragedies and unfortunate circumstances he had to live through.
When Cus D’Amato passed away, Tyson was hurt emotionally in a major way. You will see him tearing up in the film just trying to talk about his former manager and father figure. Jimmy Jacobs would also pass away and he fired Kevin Rooney. Once Don King came into the picture, it was all downhill for Tyson.
I have always believed if not for Don King, Mike Tyson may never have lost a fight. He would never again be managed and tutored in the ring and in life the way Cus D’Amato did with Tyson. As of this year, Tyson fought 58 times and lost six of those bouts with the Holyfield disqualification for biting and two no contests. Two of his losses were his last two fights almost a year apart in July 2004 and June 2005 to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride.
Lennox Lewis gave him a terrible beating, knocking Tyson out in the eighth round in 2002. Back to back losses to Evander Holyfield came in 1996 and 1997 and then there was the upset of the century when he lost for the first time to Buster Douglas on that ill-fated night in Tokyo, February 11, 1990.
In this documentary you will learn about how Tyson not just lived through the deaths of D’Amato and Jacobs, but also of his mother who he loved dearly and a sister that always tried to help Mike get through anything. These deaths caused him great pain. Tyson was also terrible in relationships and had several marriages, including the much-publicized marriage to actress Robin Givens where in the film her true character is on display as described by Tyson and some of his close friends.
Tyson goes into detail of his arrest for the rape of Desiree Washington as he claims his innocence and explains why he was framed. I remember this arrest and his prison term well and not for a second did I believe he raped this woman. I feel more strongly about it now after listening to Tyson explain what happened. It comes down to a simple fact that the former heavyweight champion did in fact have sex with Washington but at the end of the night he refused to walk her down to the lobby of the hotel they were at simply because he said he was “tired. “
Obviously Washington took offense to that disrespect and cried rape a week later. Not the next day, not 48 hours later, a week later. The next day she was performing in a cheerleading competition full of smiles. When I saw that many years ago, I knew Tyson was innocent. My thought was if Mike Tyson sexually assaulted you the night before, there is no way you would put on a smile and a few hours later go to a cheerleading competition and prance around.
During his boxing career and for many years after Mike Tyson became a drug addict and an alcoholic. Many friends and family did their best to help but another death that affected Tyson’s life was that of his four-year-old daughter Exodus in a very tragic treadmill accident. There has been so much difficulty in Mike Tyson’s life and this film details all of it. I found myself at the end not feeling sorry for him but more so having a better understanding for why he did the things he did and what caused him to have so many setbacks.
One thing is for sure, had Mike Tyson stayed on the straight and true-life path, he absolutely would have never lost a fight and to this day, I would put him in the top five heavyweights of all time and along with George Foreman, the hardest punching heavyweight in history. I was witness to many of his early fights and what he did to Marvis Frazier, Michael Spinks, and Larry Holmes among others is just some of the scariest knockouts you will ever see.
With his wife Kiki at his side, it appears Mike Tyson has finally settled down and as he says in the documentary, he is all about his family now. His wife and his seven children from several women. This documentary was released in 2017, so it’s been seven years since its release.
Since his retirement and final bout in 2005 Tyson has held several exhibitions the first in 2006 against Corey Sanders then not until 2002 when he stepped inside the squared circle with the legendary Roy Jones. Now he is scheduled to fight YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul in November. If you are unaware of Paul’s boxing career it’s a sham. Fixed fights and most of them against aging fighters from the UFC who are washed up most with little to no boxing experience. Now the 27-year-old Paul is going to fight the 58-year-old Tyson.
This is a lose-lose bout for Jake Paul. If he wins (and I expect this to be fixed like his other fights so his personal circus can continue) critics will say he beat up on an old man. However, if you haven’t seen Mike Tyson training, even at 58 he still has quick hands and I’m sure he still hits hard. So, if the fight is on the up and up, the chance exists that Tyson could hurt Paul for real. But expect this to fall in line with all of Paul’s earlier fights except for his fight with Tommy Fury, a pro boxer who decided Paul.
The one thing I admire about Mike Tyson as he proclaims in the film is his willingness to stand up to the fact that he admits to being his own worst enemy and blames only himself for his misgivings and behavior. Tyson is able to man up and own his faults and take responsibility for them. Many men won’t or can’t do that. For that I have a high respect for him.
As for Tyson the man, again I don’t condone any negative things his name is attached to, but I respect Mike Tyson for owning up to it all. As a fighter, he is still one of my favourites. Up until the Buster Douglas fight when his career began to derail, there wasn’t a fighter anywhere that would stand up to Tyson and beat him. While George Foreman in his prime what knocking out everyone, Big George did it with great power but more with a thudding power. Tyson was knocking out opponents with power that had speed. His uppercuts were downright vicious. Muhammad Ali was fast with his hands and feet, but his hand speed was more of a tricky speed. Tyson did not have the footwork, but his hands were lightning quick for a heavyweight.
If you have Peacock, I highly recommend watching this documentary especially if you like the sport of boxing or if you’ve never seen much of Mike Tyson’s career. I believe if you watch it in the end, you will most definitely have a distinct perspective of Iron Mike Tyson’s career and life.