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Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson page 2

Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson
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Article page 2 of 13

D'Amato lived in a 14 room, antiques filled mansion in the Catskills Mountains, on 15 acres of land, where he would provide bed, board and training for a small number of promising fighters, with the help of a lady called Camille Ewald. D'Amato was 70 years old and had previously handled top fighters such as Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres. Stewart took Tyson up to the Catskills and the pair sparred for D'Amato to watch. After watching the pair spar, Cus D'Amato said to Stewart: "That's the heavyweight champion of the world."

Cus told Mike, "if you want to stay here, and if you want to listen, you could be the world heavyweight champion someday." Tyson stayed and the two became close, and Tyson also grew fond of Camille Ewald, sending her flowers on her birthday every year until her death in 2001. D'Amato and Ewald also had a group of boxers, all troubled boys, no more than six at a time, who stayed in the house with them. There they would learn more than boxing, with the pair also teaching them manners and life skills such as how to do laundry.

One of D'Amato's other fighters and someone who considered himself like a big brother to Mike Tyson at the time was Tom Patti, and he said: "Cus was an amazing influence. He engineered his fighters and their success." D'Amato first off wanted to work on Tyson's self-esteem, building it up and increasing his self-confidence, along with his boxing technique. Cus taught Tyson that his opponents were too big and that his small size gave him an advantage, teaching him to bully opponents and lack fear.

Tyson later said: "They were telling me how great I am, telling me how I can do this if I really try. They kept it in my head. It had me form a different psychological opinion of myself. No one could say anything negative about me. I always had to have supreme confidence that I'm a god and superior to everybody else, which is just sick and crazy. But it had its uses." It was needed badly as, in his early days, he was not the growling brute we all remember. There is footage of him as a junior in tears before an amateur match and needing trainer Teddy Atlas to comfort him and stiffen his resolve.

In September 1980 Tyson was paroled from Tryon into D'Amato's full-time custody, where he was set a rigorous training schedule and was to attend Catskill High School during the day. Trouble was still around the corner as Mike admitted later he would steal money from Teddy Atlas's wallet to buy drugs and he would hear Atlas and D'Amato argue as Cus refused to accept Tyson was at fault. Instead Cus was focused on creating a future world champion by entering Mike into amateur matches and non-sanctioned matches, known as smokers.

Golds at the 1981 and 82 Junior Olympic games were won, but it was still a difficult time as his mother died and his behaviour at Catskill High was erratic and often violent, leading to expulsion. Tyson also finally pushed Teddy Atlas too far and got 'hands on' with a girl related to Atlas's wife, to a degree that left Atlas furious with him. Atlas pulled a gun and fired it at Tyson, deliberately missing him, but Cus, taking his prize champion's side, dismissed Atlas after Mike denied any wrongdoing. It was over 20 years before the 20 buried the hatchet as Tyson admitted he was in the wrong in August 2013 and the pair finally shook hands.

At this point in his life the young Mike Tyson and young Lennox Lewis first crossed paths, Lewis later telling the tale to Boxing News after their fight as professionals: "Mike Tyson and I had history. We were supposed to fight in the World Junior championships in the Dominican Republic but they didn't take the flight. It was his trainer Cus D'Amato who didn't like to take planes. There was a buzz about him. There was talk that he was the best guy on the American team so me and my trainer, Arnie Boehmm took a car up to the Catskills to go and spar him. Sparring got better and better. On the 5th day he dropped his hands and invited me to hit, so I did. Then D'Amato yelled, 'Mike don't do that. You're going to be fighting him one day!' So I always wondered if it would happen."

According to one of his junior trainers, Steve Lott, dropping his hands and inviting sparring partners to hit him was something Tyson would do regularly. Tyson would use it to demoralise them by slipping the punch, then nailing them with a counter and repeating it until the sparring partner gave up. Tyson was being prepared for the 1984 Olympics, with private tutors brought in, after his expulsion from Catskill High, to allow his training to continue unhindered. Once again, things did not run smoothly for Tyson, despite D'Amato becoming his legal guardian.

Henry Tillman, who already had one win over Tyson on his amateur record, beat Tyson in the US Olympic trials, meaning Mike never made the team, while Tillman went on to lift the gold medal for USA. Tyson did become the National Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion that year, but the loss in the trials made Cus decide it was time to turn pro. Kid Dynamite, as he was then known, was about to explode on the scene, though his amateur record was not, on the face of it, outstanding, with just 48 wins and 6 losses on it. However all but the loss to Al Evans, who beat a 16 year old Mike Tyson while he was aged 27 at the time, were considered controversial.




Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson page 3 of 13


Written by Ed001 - June 04 2018 10:30:52