Willow excellent (able to get even one hit ko) in the first four years of his career (33 knockouts in 37 wins), with excellent technique. In his best time was almost perfect defense, the oscillators on the trunk and the ability to work with devastating effects once shortened the distance, I have a boxer of great quality. He was the youngest world champion of the highest (20 years, 4 months, 22 days). (D.tor.)
Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the fifth of a cold morning in March, 1995. Four degrees below zero, frost I enter in the bones. The taxi travels fifteen miles without ever turning follows Washington Street, just outside the city, it becomes Interstate 40. Factories, desolation, basketball courts, a Baptist church, the flat town America. We pass the International Airport, five miles and turn again to Morgan Street. Before me, the Plainfield Youth Center, a medium-security prison.
am 5 am an agent and is opening the cell the prisoner 922335: Michael Gerald Tyson, former world heavyweight champion, jailed for rape.
Brooklyn, New York. Lorna Smith, 36, spends one of those rare smiles of his life. Next to her, for the last time before disappearing, Jimmy Kirkpatrick. He is the father of that child of four pounds, just born at Cumberland Hospital in Fort Greene, screaming in bed. I will call Michael Gerald, the name will inherit from the Percel Tyson: The man from whom Lorna divorced some years earlier. Mike's childhood in Brownsville, a barracks in a six-storey red brick, with his mother, often a victim of alcohol, but almost always able to go home with something to eat with his sister Denise and Rodney , his brother. There, in the thirties, in command of the Assassins Anonymous. Time has changed very little. The first to arrive were the peasants, then Jews, then Italians and Eastern European exiles. Between the two world wars were also added to blacks and Hispanics. Today the owners are drug dealers. Of crack houses everywhere, drunks and drug addicts on the steps. Bloodstains on the walls. People lined up to buy drugs by children wielding automatic pistols. Police sirens, gunshots day and night.
At five years Mike has witnessed a murder. Run away fast, says nothing and save. Nine is the boss of the neighborhood. It has a weak voice, then and now whisper that seems to be completely out of place in a body of a warrior. The large face of evil has always had, as well as that huge neck, fifty centimeters, and so powerful as to cause a muscle stretch marks on the skin. Play with pigeons, which he called "babies." Steal in shopping centers, helps old ladies cross the street and then robs, demand bribes from the merchants. At age 12, has been arrested forty times. The latest theft, a prostitute on 42nd Street, leads him to reformatory Tyron. There he met boxing, but discovers that life can be even tougher than in Brownsville. It is the victim of sexual violence in the shower. He wrote a book in Patrick Benon, has confirmed the psychologist Mike Keith Smed who had treated for two years.
is the prison to convince him that the only language for someone like him is that of violence. Even with women. He's only four years old when he was admitted to hospital in Brooklyn, at 203 Franklyn Avenue, and his mother brought him a toy gun and a doll. The gun's out of hand and breaks down, overwhelmed by rage he savagely beats her doll on the floor until they fly off his head. The José Torres wrote in the book dedicated to him: "Fire & Fear" (fire and fear).
"I felt a great thrill when I ripped the head of the doll. It was like an orgasm. "
Catskill, New York. Cus D'Amato, Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres led to the title of the greatest and light heavyweight. It is a holy man of boxing. Almost bald, swaying gait, bowed legs. He lives in a house in Catskill. A father desperate children in search of a way out of poverty. Karim Ben Ismail wrote, the magazine of the ' is Team », which seemed a lot of love dictates that homosexuality can be a more of a passion for boxing.
D'Amato maintains and protects Tyson. The defends when Teddy Atlas, to which the master had entrusted the gun to his temple and threatened to shoot him, accusing him of trying to rape the daughter of 12 years. The next is when the mother dies. Submit it to Bill Cayton and Jim Jacobs: the first manager in the adventure of professionalism.
Mike begins March 6, 1985 for a purse of $ 500. Cut the hair cropped like Jack Dempsey, you get two gold teeth like Jack Johnson, the ring without socks like Joe Louis. 19 wins for the first knockout match, close to twelve times in the first round.
also Cus D'Amato died, there seems to be only tragedies in the life of Tyson. It's up to him by his father Jim Jacobs. He and Mike are always in touch, Jacobs follows the match with a headset. They kiss on the mouth after a victory. The other ear is the ear of Kevin Rooney, a former boxer, gambler loses, the new teacher.
Forward and destroys, Mike Tyson. He knows boxing, D'Amato taught him the art of defense. He did train with his arms tied, sending him to face sparring who fired shots while he tried to avoid them. He called the shots with numbers, each sequence is a series. He yells from the corner and Mike 4-7-10 door left jab-straight right-left hook.
He moves well on the trunk, the young man, he knows dodge, shortens the distance and then placing unprecedented power trips. It's a monster about to devour everything and everyone.
"Eddie Richardson? I want to hit it up to poke his nose into the brain. "
Las Vegas, Nevada. Bill Cayton is on top of the steps of the huge hall that hosts the press conference on the eve of the match between Tyson and Berbick. Our young man is about to become the youngest world heavyweight champion. With my colleague Claudio Colombo, sent by the Corriere della Sera, approached the old manager.
Tyson is very popular in Italy. We'd love to tell the story, visit his home in Catskill. Would it be possible?
I do not think, I'm sorry. "
Why?
"After every match, Mike disappears for a couple of weeks. Those days dedicated to sex. It closes in a hotel and not come out until he is convinced they've had enough. "
Think of an excuse to get out of the way the two journalists who know too little to enable them to enter into private life of his sample. Instead, it's the truth.
That Tyson wins it with a disarming ease. The tragic ballet of Trevor Berbick in the ring at the Hilton, the 22 November 1986, I will never forget. It looks like a puppet that they cut the wires. Try to get up and then fell down every time, without balance. To break its link with reality is a young man of twenty years, which was to be a boxer in the history of sport. After that the guy puts together another nine victories, unifies the title of the greatest, he is convinced to be unbeatable. Discover too late that in a boxing match you can defend yourself because there is a referee enforce the rules. In life, not always the case.
And when it comes time to pay, no one warns you before. In Tokyo, 11 February '90, the ring in very poor physical condition. James Buster Douglas, perhaps the last in the list of his rivals for the title, as it imposes a lesson in boxing. Humiliates him. Puts knockout in ten rounds, he takes the title. True, if the referee had counted up to 14, Mike would have won that match. In spite of everything. But if you owe the world sooner or later you have to resign yourself to paying the bill.
Mike Tyson has not only ruined himself. In this story there also a long line of sexual complaints, there are four children "official." The first has been called by Natalie D'Amato Kirlane Fears broke it in honor of his old master and Jack Kirlane which, together with John L. Sullivan, gave birth last meeting with bare fists. Kimberly Scarbourough had Mickey Lorna, a girl named Tyson's mom and dad has the same voracity of: Kimberly had to close the refrigerator of the house with a padlock, the daughter got up at night to plunder. Then there are the two daughters (Lisa and Reyna) had by Monica Turner, a graduate in medicine at Georgetown University, known in prison Plaindfield. Already the mother of a child, Geena, born from his relationship with Eugene Byrd, a drug dealer.
Robin Givens has doe-eyed, angelic face, perfect little body. Good education, drama school, a small acting career in a couple of TV serials. She married Mike Tyson, he has gone through turbulent month, he divorced on Valentine's Day 89 and 46 billion requested for compensation. Receives six per year. It seemed like a fairy tale, melodrama is a fact of terrible strife, furniture flying through the window, attempted suicides, complaints and blackmail. Then, finally, she comes out of his life.
Desiree Washington is the great victim of this history. Her tragedy began the night 1 .40 between 18 and 19 July 1991, when he receives a phone call in his hotel room in Indianapolis. He is there to participate in the Miss Black America contest. Half an hour later alone with Mike Tyson will be in room 606 at Hotel Canterbury. I read the girl's testimony at the trial, read it too.
"We were talking about Rhode Island, children, dogs, pigeons, our families, of life. Tyson suddenly changed: "Shake". It was a voice that seemed to come from nowhere. I'm scared, I began to stutter. "I need to go to the bathroom when I go out we go to visit Indianapolis as you promised me. " "Okay," she said. When I left the bathroom and sat on the bed wearing only his underwear. I was terrified. "I want to leave," and he says: "Come here, do not fight" and he puts his tongue in his mouth. They pulled my clothes off. He began to touch me everywhere, it hurts. I scratch my legs, take me by the ankles and lifted me on the bed, begins to make oral sex. Then he enters. I will scream for mercy. I tell him I'm afraid of having a child, he is without a condom and you do not control. He tells me not to worry. "Do not fight me, relax." When his excitement is reaching the maximum, begins to whisper: "Mommy, do not fight back, relax. Mommy, relaxed. " I froze. "
The gynecologist visit, reassures her: "You can not have children if her menses started the morning of the day when she was raped."
Plainfield, Indiana. Missing five minutes to 6 when a Lincoln Continental with license plate "JBT373 'Ohio stops at the prison. It is driven by Rory Holloway, a childhood friend of Tyson. Beside him, John Horne, a former actor, who presented Robin Givens (and many other beautiful daughters) Mike. Don King on the back seat and Monica Teresa Turner. Waiting for him there are three hundred journalists, some fifty radio and television stations, thousands of onlookers. Tyson released from jail at 6.10. He was in for three years, for the next four will be on probation. In prison, he says, he read Mao, Aristotle, and Che Guevara, Malcolm X found out, he converted to Islam and took the name of Mikhail Abdul Aziz, where the first part is for Michael and the second for "servant of the Lord ".
In prison he found an old friend, fear. He was terrified of being raped, was living in anguish that someone would poison him. It did take all meals from outside, rarely coming out of the cell.
just released from prison, visiting the mosque, pray along with Muhammad Ali, then aboard a twin-engine Lear flies to his villa in Southington: 14 rooms and four bathrooms (each with gold taps and marble Carrara as a floor). A huge pool in the shape of boxing gloves. In the garage has two Porsches, two Ferraris and a Rolls Royce. Mike is back.
"As a child I always wanted to be a tough guy. Tough Guys are capable of any atrocity. But they also have the dignity to look into the eyes of their killers without trembling. In my life there are no rules. Are a lamb to feed the lions. All hate me. I believe it sincerely, because nobody can punish me more than I do. I'm not dead yet, but I feel like I live in hell. I could be one of the Mafia. When I'm on your side, I am ready to give you my life. But if someone does not respect me or my family, there are other solutions: either he dies or I die. "
Las Vegas, Nevada. The hardest defeat comes on the night of November 96. Evander Holyfield in that match is perfect. Tyson no. A global maximum is not only the physicality. The head works at least as the body, and Mike is not fit enough to withstand such extreme psychological pressure. The prison first, the ease of the first commitments in the ring then have gentrified in mind more than they have done in the physical. It is dominated by Holyfield that takes in its network and sends knockout in 11 shots.
a bite, then another. Evander's ear chewed and spit on the carpet of the ring. It is the evening of June 28, 1996 when Iron Mike opens his mouth like a hungry beast between his teeth and gets rid of the right ear of the sample. An animal-like gesture that reveals in depth the nature of Tyson. Unable to manage their own violence, their lives. It's the end of myth. That night, along with that piece of ear, Mike off the umbilical cord that ties him to the noble art and sport as a means to earn respect. He returned against world champion Frank Bruno and resumed the path of hopelessness against Evander Holyfield in two clashes that diminish the value of a boxer.
"He did not want to fight, just wanted to put down newspapers. And I could not afford it, I have children to raise. So I made him pay. "
Copenhagen, Denmark. Brian Nielsen is against Mike Tyson, the man who has bought jewelry for Manchester a couple of billion to pay for them and demanded that it was Frank Warren, the organizer of its stakes in Britain. And when that was refused, beat him in a hotel room, tried to rape her and then threatened to throw it out the window. Tyson still fights, earn billions more (200 are those accumulated in his career) and extends new rivals. Last Brian Nielsen is a very overweight, then will finally Lennox Lewis. It is the dream match that. Why? "I want his heart, I want to eat his children. I want to rip the heart and make him eat. "
The screams immediately after the match against Lou Savarese in Glasgow, does not appear news conference. Shelly Finkel, the former rock concert promoter, now his manager, try to justify it.
"Mike did not mean what he said, he likes the biambini"
"Yes, well done" from the audience says Michael Katz, a former journalist of The New York Times. "Yes, they like well-cooked." Memphis, Tennessee. Here comes the long awaited match, there is no uncertainty about the outcome. Lennox Lewis is still a boxer, the heavyweight champion. In the ring of Memphis is only a memory of what once was "Iron" Mike Tyson. It is sad to say, but for the first time in his life, the wild boy in Brownsville feel sorry for anyone who sees it, unable to set up a minimal reaction. Continue to fight just because they know another way to express themselves. It is also the fastest way to earn the money he needs to pay its old debts and to maintain this high standard of living. Mike has been ripped off even that small part of good hiding inside. To communicate, use only the violence.
Once, when his young talent he had conquered the world, someone has to Larry Holmes attributed the phrase, "Tyson? It will end her life killed in one of the ugliest streets in the neighborhood of any American city. "
It is hard to comment, but it paints very clearly what could be the future of the former king of the heavyweights. It was unfortunate, all the people he had placed his trust have died. One after another has lost her mother, Cus D'Amato, Jim Jacobs. So, once you become rich and famous, he found himself with old ghosts. The worst past is back to live in bad company, the evil counselors. He thought he could buy life with money. He thought everything was possible for him. He continued to sin.
This is the dramatic story of one who was always alone. "Bill Cayton and Jimmy Jacobs would go to jail for bringing me to the title. I thought I became a man, was just a child. "
regular visitor to the prison, only able to discuss with his fists. The people has never forgiven him for becoming rich and famous. Do not have forgiven him especially those who were and those like him remain. But I am against even the wealthy who pay more than a thousand dollars for a ringside ticket to see him slaughter the rival of the moment, but who do not accept that a black man can walk with them on the same street.
is the America of today which is concentrated in an explosive mixture. In the ring he never avoided anyone, has tackled head-anyone who has presented in its path. A knock was his life, those have been remedied in boxing only defeats of reflection.
This is the sad story of Michael Gerard Tyson, born without a father and grew up without a family. A friend found him by violence only.
"Those two bitches have ruined me. Desiree Washington and her mother have invented a rape that never happened. But believe me, if you are in front of me, this time so that both the rape. "
DARIO TORROMEO, Twelve giant
MICHAEL GERALD TYSON, said Mike Tyson was born in New York (New York, USA), June 30, 1966.
Height: 1.80
Weight: fought from 96,250 to 108,600 pounds
pro debut ': March 6, 1985
Last match: active
Matches: 56
Wins by KO: 42
wins on points: 7
Losses for ko: 2
Losses by Disqualification: 1
No contest: 2
World Champion from 22 November 1986 to February 11, 1990, from 16 March 1996-9 November 1996.
0 comments:
Post a Comment