Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson page 5

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Article page 5 of 13

All of this work to unite the belts had come at a huge cost, Don King was allowed to enter the picture, despite Cus D'Amato's wish to keep him as far away as possible from his fighters. Initially Tyson worked with a pair called Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs, who promoted and managed him. It was Jacobs that a young Tyson would watch old boxing films with, something he admits he still does regularly to this day. However the pair could not get a fight with Larry Holmes set up without working with King, and Tyson desperately wanted to beat Holmes. It meant everything to Mike. So Tyson entered the HBO unification series promoted by King which allowed him to unite the belts and then, after beating 1984 Olympic Super Heavyweight gold medallist Tyrell Biggs with a 7th round TKO, Tyson got his wish.

Tyson said of Holmes: "I had to win that fight because I made a promise, you see. Muhammad, man. I made him the promise, I owed it to him. Because of what happened between Holmes and Ali." D'Amato had never managed or trained Muhammad Ali, but the two had become close in the latter part of Ali's career, as Tyson explains it, "Cus loved Ali. We all did." So, when an ageing Ali was given the worst beating of his career against a young Holmes in 1980, Cus was still angry the next day as Tyson sat in car with him: "Cus was furious, man. Furious about the night before. He told me, 'no talking today!' And I wouldn't dare speak. I just sat there. Head down, trying to stay out of trouble."

Cus and Ali spoke on the phone, Tyson remembers "'How could you let a guy like that beat you? He was your sparring partner years ago! He's not half the fighter you are,' Cus screamed over the phone to Ali." Ali told D'Amato that Holmes was strong as a bull and explained that he was sick that night anyway, that his loss was down to some thyroid medication he had taken which had drained his strength. Ali told Cus that he would beat Holmes next time, then asked to speak to the 'kid', so Cus handed the phone to Tyson. Ali would occasionally talk to Tyson, telling him to stick with Cus, stay out of trouble and other words of advice and encouragement.

Usually Tyson did not say much, usually he just listened but that day he made Muhammad Ali a promise: "I'm going to beat him for you one day, champ. I'm going to knock out Larry Holmes for what he did to you. I'm going to beat him for you. And for Cus." That was why his soul was sold to the devil and Don King was able to begin to get his hooks into another fighter that he could fleece. HBO had put up $20m for a series of fights to produce one heavyweight champion, Tyson's deal was for three title fights and then two optional fights after.

HBO wanted to extend the deal midway through and spoke to Bill Cayton, offering $2m per fight with Don King as promoter. Cayton rejected the deal, himself and Jacobs wanted to decide promoters on a fight-by-fight basis and try and avoid working with King if possible. Cayton and Jacobs were wary of King, they knew he had ripped off Tim Witherspoon and many others, they did not want themselves and their fighter to become more victims. The first fight was only given to King to promote because he could deliver Holmes, despite King's desperation to become Tyson's exclusive promoter.

According to Cayton: "before King was able to get his hooks into Tyson and poison his mind, something even worse happened: Mike became obsessed with a woman named Robin Givens, whom he married. I should say that he married her and her mother, because they actually came as a team, and these people were not good people. Mike was thoroughly obsessed by her. I've known other men, brilliant executives in their 40s, who have fallen in love with beautiful young women - sometimes not even beautiful - and become so obsessed by them that they leave their wives, their families. I've seen it happen to mature men, so I can understand it happening to a boy like Mike. To him, Robin was a fairy princess; educated, classy, an actress.

"Jim (Jacobs) and I had heard rumours about Robin and her mother, but Mike was rushed into marrying her by a phony pregnancy so we tried to make the best of it. Yet Robin was claiming that we were trying to break up her marriage, when all the time we were trying to ensure he stayed married. I knew she was a phony from the very beginning, but Mike was so brainwashed by her that he didn't even realise she'd made a monkey of him." Cayton also claims that Given made Mike fire his trainer Steve Lott, who had been like a close brother to him until she arrived on the scene.

Despite all this going on in the background, Tyson kept his promise to Ali and knocked out Larry Holmes in the 4th round. The TKO was Holmes only knockout defeat in his entire 75 fight career. Tyson calls it his favourite fight now, though it was not to be his peak, it was certainly close to it. The following month, February 1988, Tyson married Givens, he was endorsing Pepsi, Nintendo and Kodak, as well as being hired by the New York Police Department to boost recruitment and the FBI to do public service announcements to keep kids off drugs. On the face of it Tyson was the unstoppable force and everything was pointing towards him creating more history as a champion.

It was not as idyllic as it seemed, Tyson also believes Givens tricked him into getting married by pretending to be pregnant, though Givens herself claimed she had a miscarriage. The marriage was a problem from the start. In March 1988 Tony Tubbs was the next man to face Tyson, even joking in the pre-fight press conference that "I'm just a stepping stone. I'm the tune up." Tubbs was not far wrong, despite Tyson spending most of his time in Tokyo, where the fight was held, doing promotional and marketing work.

A left hook in the second round opened up a cut on Tubbs' right eyebrow, leaving him wobbling drunkenly and Tubbs reached out to grab the top rope. He missed and collapsed in a neutral corner but, before the referee could begin the count, Tubbs' trainer had rushed into the ring to see to his fighter. The MC announced a Tyson win by knockout in 2 minutes and 54 seconds of the second round, but there was never a count. Next up would be 'lineal champion' Michael Spinks.

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Mike Tyson page 6 of 13

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