Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson page 7

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Article page 7 of 13

In August 1988 Mike suffered a broken bone in his right hand during a drunken 4am street brawl with another professional boxer Mitch Green in Harlem (I could find no proof that it was the same Mitch Green that took him the distance a couple of years earlier, but it does seem likely that it is him). Worse was to come the following month when he drove his BMW into a tree outside Cus D'Amato's old house and was knocked unconscious (which led to a long-running gag on British satire show Spitting Image with the tree regularly popping up). Newspapers claimed it was a suicide attempt following heavy drug use, Tyson was fined $200 and sentenced to community service for speeding.

September got worse for Tyson as he was involved in one of the most bizarre (and looking back on it now, disturbing) television moments of all time. Robin Givens and Tyson gave an interview on ABC show 20/20 with a clearly heavily sedated Tyson just sat there calmly watching as Givens described life with him as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine". She also said he was manic depressive, he was later revealed to suffer from bi-polar disorder. It was a public humiliation which could not have helped his mental health at all and no doubt contributed greatly to the way his life spiralled out of control.

Just over a week later, on 7th October 1988, Robin Givens filed for divorce and a week later Tyson countersued for divorce and annulment. During the divorce period, the pair would still sleep together regularly, with Tyson, according to his autobiography, dropping round to visit her unannounced to find her sat in a car with her latest beau - Brad Pitt. Pitt was (unsurprisingly) terrified and begged Tyson not to get violent, all a far cry from his tough guy roles in Fight Club and Snatch! October also saw the moment D'Amato had feared from the start, Don King got his claws in Tyson as he took charge of Tyson's promotions.

December saw him sued on the 12th by Sandra Miller, who alleged he grabbed her, propositioned her and insulted her in a night club. Three days later another woman, Lori Davis, also sued him for an incident on the same night and in the same club as Miller, with Davis claiming he grabbed her buttocks. At least there was finally some good news for Tyson the following February, as he and Givens were divorced in the Dominican Republic on the 14th, ahead of his forthcoming first fight since he added the lineal title to his belts.

This time Tyson was to fight Frank Bruno, a hugely popular in the UK, but limited, heavyweight, who was a virtual unknown outside of Britain after having had a carefully managed career to avoid the best fighters of the time. According to Bill Cayton, this had meant Tyson missed out on millions of dollars as Bruno's British promoter and manager, Jarvis Astaire and Mickey Duff, refused to do business with Don King, as the fight could not be held in London as initially planned. Instead the fight was held in Vegas, where Bruno was not a draw at all.

Tyson admits himself he was in poor shape for the Bruno fight, his manager at the time, Rory Holloway, claims that he had started to station security guards outside of Tyson's hotel room door to keep Tyson from going out and to stop prostitutes from getting in, so that Mike could get some rest. Despite everything, Tyson was a heavy favourite going into the fight, with everyone expecting a routine win for the champion. Then Bruno hit him at the end of the 1st round with a left hook which staggered him, causing such a sensation that British commentator Harry Carpenter completely forgot his impartiality and said, on-air, "get in there Frank!"

Bruno had done little other than wake Tyson up, with Tyson always maintaining the punch never hurt him, and Bruno suffered a TKO in the 5th. However the one thing he had done was made the aura of invincibility around Tyson slip a little. Though that reputation may have shown signs of changing, his reputation for getting into trouble was only growing as April 1989 saw him again in trouble with the law. This time he was accused of striking a parking attendant 3 times outside an LA night club after being asked to move his Mercedes out of a spot reserved for the owner. Luckily for the attendant, the blows were with an open hand. Charges were dropped due to a lack of witness cooperation.

There was one more fight for Tyson in 1989, this time against Carl 'The Truth' Williams, who was claiming in the build up that he, Williams, had 'busted him up' in sparring a few years earlier in the Catskills. Despite all the talk of busting Tyson up in the past, the fight was over quickly as a left hook put Williams down and, even though he managed to beat the count to regain his feet the fight was stopped in the first round. Williams flew into a rage, claiming he was ok to continue but replays showed him failing to raise his hands or reply with anything other than a shrug when the referee asked if he was ok. The fight lasted just 93 seconds.

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Mike Tyson page 8 of 13

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