I just finished reading Mike Tyson’s autobiography, Undisputed Truth (awesome title), and was wondering if anyone else had read it or seen his one man show or HBO series. As an unabashed Tyson fan, I really enjoyed it. Throughout the book, I was struck time and again by both his self-deprecating humour and his humility, neither of which did he ever display during his active fighting career. I came away from the book with a sense that he never loved boxing; it seems that he serendipitously discovered that he was preternaturally gifted at it and, then, used it as a means to an end. In fact, it seems that he almost resented boxing and the life it brought him. You get the sense he almost would have preferred to live and die unknown in Brooklyn like most of his childhood friends did. My only criticism of the book is that, as a fight fan, I wish he would have spent more time discussing his training and his actual fights
. I was hoping for a more detailed account of his actual life inside the ring. Rarely does he spend more than one paragraph detailing his fights, even the major career defining ones. Maybe this is due to the fact that he wrote the book aiming to please a broader audience and not just hardcore boxing fans or, maybe, it’s further proof of his almost disdain for his boxing itself.
Anyways, I really enjoyed it and recommend it to any boxing or fight fan, regardless of what you think of Iron Mike himself. Any other thoughts?
I haven’t read the book but I saw his one-man show on HBO recently, which I thought was great, and was hilarious at times. You HAVE to see it, if nothing else than to hear his telling of the story of the Mitch Green incident(s). Highly, highly entertaining!
Interesting that you got the sense from the book that he didn’t really love boxing. I do know that, even as a teenager when he started working with Cus, he had an intense interest in all the great boxers, and became a real self-taught boxing historian. Even in those days I think Cus and Kevin Rooney and so on have said that, even when he wasn’t training, he’d be talking about all the former greats and their different styles and skills sets and what set them each apart incessantly, like it was a deep, deep passion of his. He’s still a real boxing historian who, when on the ESPN talk shows and such, can go on and on about analyzing fighters (past and present) like an expert. So I don’t know how much you can be that intensely interested in it and hate it. Maybe he hated the rigor of it when he was having to go through the training on a regular basis . . . ?
[quote]Damici wrote:
I haven’t read the book but I saw his one-man show on HBO recently, which I thought was great, and was hilarious at times. You HAVE to see it, if nothing else than to hear his telling of the story of the Mitch Green incident(s). Highly, highly entertaining!
Interesting that you got the sense from the book that he didn’t really love boxing. I do know that, even as a teenager when he started working with Cus, he had an intense interest in all the great boxers, and became a real self-taught boxing historian. Even in those days I think Cus and Kevin Rooney and so on have said that, even when he wasn’t training, he’d be talking about all the former greats and their different styles and skills sets and what set them each apart incessantly, like it was a deep, deep passion of his. He’s still a real boxing historian who, when on the ESPN talk shows and such, can go on and on about analyzing fighters (past and present) like an expert. So I don’t know how much you can be that intensely interested in it and hate it. Maybe he hated the rigor of it when he was having to go through the training on a regular basis . . . ?
[/quote]
In the book he talks extensively about the history of boxing as well, like you mention. I should clarify what I meant in the OP. I think that he loves the sport of boxing and the great boxers of the past. However, he seems to resent his own involvement in boxing and what it made of his life. He seems very conflicted as he keeps saying on one hand that he is a born entertainer and that he loves being in the spotlight. Then in the next sentence, he’ll say that he hates everyone knowing his name and that he wishes he could just live on the street with his gangbanger friends. So, maybe it’s not that he hated boxing but, rather, he hated being the heavyweight champion of the world. It’s just that, for having spent thousands upon thousands of hours training and fighting, he really seems to gloss over it in the book.
[quote]Damici wrote:
I haven’t read the book but I saw his one-man show on HBO recently, which I thought was great, and was hilarious at times. You HAVE to see it, if nothing else than to hear his telling of the story of the Mitch Green incident(s). Highly, highly entertaining!
Interesting that you got the sense from the book that he didn’t really love boxing. I do know that, even as a teenager when he started working with Cus, he had an intense interest in all the great boxers, and became a real self-taught boxing historian. Even in those days I think Cus and Kevin Rooney and so on have said that, even when he wasn’t training, he’d be talking about all the former greats and their different styles and skills sets and what set them each apart incessantly, like it was a deep, deep passion of his. He’s still a real boxing historian who, when on the ESPN talk shows and such, can go on and on about analyzing fighters (past and present) like an expert. So I don’t know how much you can be that intensely interested in it and hate it. Maybe he hated the rigor of it when he was having to go through the training on a regular basis . . . ?
[/quote]
In the book he talks extensively about the history of boxing as well, like you mention. I should clarify what I meant in the OP. I think that he loves the sport of boxing and the great boxers of the past. However, he seems to resent his own involvement in boxing and what it made of his life. He seems very conflicted as he keeps saying on one hand that he is a born entertainer and that he loves being in the spotlight. Then in the next sentence, he’ll say that he hates everyone knowing his name and that he wishes he could just live on the street with his gangbanger friends. So, maybe it’s not that he hated boxing but, rather, he hated being the heavyweight champion of the world. It’s just that, for having spent thousands upon thousands of hours training and fighting, he really seems to gloss over it in the book.[/quote]
Tyson is a tragic figure and probably my favorite boxer. Haven’t read it yet.
Maybe at this point in his life he hates it because he has very little to show for his boxing success. He isn’t the smartest guy in the world, and seemed easily exploitable. Just my opinion.
In retrospect, put yourself in his shoes, all getting famous did was expose you to some of the most vile people out there.
Don King systemically robbed him of positive influences in his life and sucked him dry of cash, his wife manufactured stories of abuse and then took him to the cleaners while she goes jumping every pretty boy dick in hollywood (including a very young brad pitt), and whether you believe him or not (personally, after having looked at all the details regarding that trial, its very shady at best), he honestly believes he was put in prison for a crime he did not commit. Theres going to be a lot of resentment towards the machine there.
then you have the media who did the same thing to him that they did to tupac: turned him into a monster and a spectacle no matter how he acted. Paraphrasing tupac “you guys wont let me be anything but a thug, so fuck it, im gonna be a thug”. Everyone remembers tyson as a barbarian, I look back at these interviews and its amazing to me how that perception stuck because its so clear he was a vulnerable but highly intelligent kid, he quoted Aristotle, Sun Tzu and Nietzsche. Thats pretty heavy reading for a kid from the ghetto.
[quote]Aussie Davo wrote:
Im not surprised he hates it now.
In retrospect, put yourself in his shoes, all getting famous did was expose you to some of the most vile people out there.
Don King systemically robbed him of positive influences in his life and sucked him dry of cash, his wife manufactured stories of abuse and then took him to the cleaners while she goes jumping every pretty boy dick in hollywood (including a very young brad pitt), and whether you believe him or not (personally, after having looked at all the details regarding that trial, its very shady at best), he honestly believes he was put in prison for a crime he did not commit. Theres going to be a lot of resentment towards the machine there.
then you have the media who did the same thing to him that they did to tupac: turned him into a monster and a spectacle no matter how he acted. Paraphrasing tupac “you guys wont let me be anything but a thug, so fuck it, im gonna be a thug”. Everyone remembers tyson as a barbarian, I look back at these interviews and its amazing to me how that perception stuck because its so clear he was a vulnerable but highly intelligent kid, he quoted Aristotle, Sun Tzu and Nietzsche. Thats pretty heavy reading for a kid from the ghetto.[/quote]
I agree with everything you said, especially about his portrayal in the media. I remember watching so many of his fights and post-fight interviews and he always seemed like an animal. However, in his book, he actually seems like a very gentle person. He states many times in there that his public persona was manufactured first by Cus to intimidate opponents and then it simply became a self-perpetuating image that he had to fulfill. I can’t imagine living such a double life for so long. No wonder he’s got some emotional and mental issues.