Bite-size memories of Mike Tyson by the writer whose words packed a punch

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/30/scream-mike-tyson-tapes-book-jonathan-rendall

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The acclaimed sportswriter Jonathan Rendall, author of This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own and Twelve Grand, died in January 2013 aged 48. He left behind the manuscript for Scream: The Tyson Tapes, an oral history of the career of Mike Tyson, which has now been edited by the former Guardian chief sports writer Richard Williams and is published this week. The edited extract below deals with the period spanning Tyson’s last major fights; the two defeats to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and 1997, and the heavy loss to Lennox Lewis in 2002.

9 November 1996

Lost TKO R11 v Evander Holyfield, Las Vegas, loses titles

28 June 1997

Lost DQ R3 v Evander Holyfield, Las Vegas

Holyfield, very much the underdog, shows no sign of being intimidated despite his smaller build and Tyson’s reputation, and hands Tyson a beating for much of the fight. However, such is the money generated that a quick rematch is arranged. This time, what occurs is sensational. Tyson, again behind, bites Holyfield on both ears, forcing the referee, Mills Lane, to call a halt. A riot ensues at the MGM Grand casino. JR

Kevin Rooney [Tyson’s professional trainer] If the referee hadn’t stopped it in the first Holyfield fight, Mike would’ve been knocked cold. Mike was all staggering and the referee jumped in. Then they had the rematch and he got in better shape.

Teddy Atlas [Tyson’s amateur trainer] With Holyfield, he [Tyson] became a game quitter. He stopped trying to win. And the second time against Holyfield he knew he would actually have to be a fighter. And I said beforehand, two nights before the fight – I said he was going to have to foul to get out of the fight. I was sitting here trying to figure it out and then, bingo! He’s setting his alibi up. He could head-butt, hit low or bite. I watched the fight at a party at the house of Jack Newfield [the late investigative journalist]. Tyson goes out and throws a bomb, a desperation punch. Holyfield is having none of the silent agreement. Then he bit him! I was so frustrated, because I only had my wife with me when I said it. So you see Tyson was a fractured, scared, incomplete person who could not face a man. He would not have entered that room against Holyfield again if he didn’t know where the door was. He was planning it two days before. That’s what made me realise.

But what people didn’t realise was how dirty Holyfield was with his head. Obviously, a fight is a fight, when it comes down to it, it’s not just ‘sport’, it’s different, but there are still limits, A head is harder even than a punch. And Holyfield used it all the time. Every time they went into a clinch. The referee did nothing. But, yeah, he lost his own head completely. What he did was … indescribable. But Holyfield making out he was this man of Christ and then coming in with these persistently illegal tactics – it was too much, man. You can only take so much. And Holyfield cut him as well, and maybe he was just off-form anyway. Maybe he shouldn’t be doing it any more. But he didn’t have the money he thought he had, and probably he’d spent far too much. Far too much. So maybe he should go abroad and get some easy paydays. Like Jack Johnson did. Yeah, like Johnson. And there was always [Lennox] Lewis. That would be a big pot of gold. Real big. And Jesus, he needed it.

Nadia Hujtyn [Tyson gym-mate and trainer for his mentor, Cus D’Amato] He wasn’t smart with any of it [the money]. And there were ex-wives, and children – the first one’s name was D’Amato. And he’s got to pay for all these children. I wouldn’t know if he stays in touch with them. He used to make comments that he ought to do better things because he’s got these children, but it doesn’t last longer than saying it, unfortunately.

Rooney He’s trying to make out he’s a family man and I’m sure he does love his kids but he ain’t no family man. He likes fooling around with girls.

Steve Lott [Tyson’s cornerman and press agent] And when the therapists examined him, he just said he was a bad kid and always had been. And when they said, ‘Well, we want to find out why that is,’ Mike didn’t have the balls to tell them the truth – that he’d been a hero, and been happy. None of them called me. None of them tried to find out what Mike was like with us. They called him in and said, ‘Tell us about yourself.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m a bad kid from Brooklyn. I’ve been in reform schools all my life.’ So the therapists say, ‘Mike, let’s address that.’ You see, Mike couldn’t tell the doctors the truth. He couldn’t say, ‘Listen, I’m a very sad kid. Why? Because I was a hero and I had all these wonderful people around me. And then along came Don King [Tyson’s promoter] and Robin Givens [Tyson’s former wife] and I fell for their acts. I loved Cus but then I fell for their scams.’

16 January 1999

Won KO R5 v Francois Botha, Las Vegas

23 October 1999

NC R1 v Orlin Norris, Las Vegas

29 January 2000

Won TKO R2 v Julius Francis, Manchester

24 June 2000

Won TKO R1 v Lou Savarese, Glasgow

20 October 2000

NC R3 vs Andrew Golota, Michigan

13 October 2001

Won RTD R6 v Brian Nielsen, Copenhagen

So, yeah, he’d gone on the road, to Europe. And it was cool. It was respite. He fought this guy in England, Francis. He was totally out of his depth. They never really should have put him in there. And Francis knew it. But funnily enough he seemed like a nice guy, and he was game as well. Mike was amazed that he came out for the second. And then he went to Glasgow, Lou Savarese, the Great White Hope. Except he knew he couldn’t fight as well. Savarese’s whole career was a Primo Carnera act. But you get the winning record and then ultimately you get the money. You’ve got to lose to get it, and take a beating, depending on how game you are, but as long as you don’t get too badly hurt, or get a blood clot on the brain or something, you still get the money, and then you’re set. But he did slightly lose the plot against Savarese. He didn’t like him. And he was going in to finish it in the first and then the referee stepped in when he wasn’t expecting it, ’cause he really wanted to do damage to Savarese, and he got tangled up with the referee, maybe even glanced him with a blow by mistake, and possibly he was lucky not to get disqualified.

But he liked Britain. They really loved him there. It was so different from the States. He went to Brixton, the black area, and they literally had to stop the traffic. And the British cops – the cops! – took him in the police station, and there was this huge crowd down below, and he was on this balcony and he had to address them through this megaphone. It was just surreal. And then he went to Denmark to fight Nielsen, another white who couldn’t really fight, but who had this winning record. Something like 60 and 2.

And they really loved him there as well. Nielsen was game, even though he couldn’t fight and had this built-up record. You’ve got to give it to the promoters to make that effort to prepare these guys for the payday. Years, it must take. But it took him longer to finish Nielsen – the sixth – because maybe he wasn’t quite in shape, but how do you get motivated to get in shape for these guys? But for Lewis, he would get in shape. Definitely. JR

Frank (now Kellie) Maloney [Manager of Lennox Lewis and Julius Francis] They didn’t even have Francis on the posters. Tyson could’ve been fighting Mickey Mouse and it would still have sold out. He’d just fought Botha. We sold the fight on the pretence that Julius had a chance of beating Tyson. Even on Tyson’s worst night, he beats Julius. One night I’m sitting with Julius’s trainer, who was then Mark Roe, and I hear him say, ‘And when we beat Tyson …’ And I said, ‘Mark, you really think Julius has a chance of beating Tyson?’ And he goes, ‘Well, you do, Frank, the things you’ve been saying.’ So I said, ‘Mark, it’s my job to hype the fight.’ But Julius got a great payday. I saw it as a payday for a man who had served boxing well.

When we get to the weigh-in Tyson is sitting there twirling his hair between his finger and thumb like a lost little girl. He wasn’t paying any attention. He was very friendly in the build-up to the fight. And Julius was in awe of him. I could not believe it when Julius went up to him and said, ‘Excuse me, Mike, can I have your autograph, please?’ This was at the press conference. I mean, I didn’t say anything because this was a big day for Julius. But I could not believe it. He was totally in awe of Tyson, and I knew then that we had absolutely no chance of winning this fight, even though I knew that already.

8 June 2002

Lost KO R8 v Lennox Lewis, Memphis, competing for Lewis’s WBC and IBF titles

The Lewis fight is dogged by controversy. At a pre-fight press conference Lewis throws a punch and in the melee that follows Tyson bites Lewis’s leg. Tyson is called before the Nevada Athletic Commission to prove his mental fitness to continue boxing. In the fight itself Tyson receives a bad beating and is finally knocked out by a Lewis right hand.

Lewis was just too big. And he could fight. Man, he was a big motherfucker, The best big fucker he’d fought. Fast and accurate and just as awkward as he’d thought, except more so. And just too big. He’d told the corner that early on: ‘He’s just too big.’ Jesus, where was Cus? Lewis would always have been awkward and big but in the old days he would have knocked him out, surely. And Lewis’s fists were like rocks. He wasn’t remotely intimidated, although he could tell Lewis was nervous in the first, and he had a short chance then. But somehow he knew Lewis would regroup himself mentally as soon as the second. He was pretty tough mentally after that. Damn, he couldn’t intimidate him. But he’d known that at the press conference. And Lewis caught him with this humongous right hand at the end, and he hoped he hadn’t got brain damage. But he had been game. He knew from the second that Lewis was going to knock him out. The funny thing was, he felt like hugging Lewis in there, and saying, ‘Listen, man, let’s just chill out instead of fighting each other.’ But when all the shit was said and done, he took his beating like a man. JR

Rooney The Tyson I had would have beat Douglas, Holyfield, Lewis. He would’ve beat all of them. Tyson’s losses are when he’s in never-never land. I think he would have beaten Muhammad Ali in his prime. That would have been a hell of a fight. I believe he would have knocked out Jack Dempsey. I believe he would have knocked out Rocky Marciano. In my opinion he just laid down against Lewis.

Maloney Before the fight I wanted Lennox to get beat because of the bitchiness in me after the fallout with the new Lewis team. That fight would have been my pension. I didn’t make any money at all out of that fight. And I was sitting there looking at Tyson getting ready in his dressing room on the TV monitor and the crazy antics – smashing the wall, like a mad raging bull again, and then I looked at Lewis getting ready, and I went, ‘You know what? I would put my house on Lennox Lewis winning this fight.’

Scream: The Tyson Tapes is published by Short Books £14.99