Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard Tyson is an American former professional boxer player and an undisputed the youngest "World Heavyweight" champion tag.

Michael Gerard Tyson is an American former professional boxer player and an undisputed the youngest “World Heavyweight” champion tag. Tyson is one of the most frightening human beings ever to step into the boxing ring,

The 52 aged Mike Tyson was the model of the supreme gladiator – “Unbeaten and Unbeatable”. Tyson became the one individual who was able to capture worldwide attention via sports; except Muhammad Ali. Tyson has also served jail time and appeared in several films.

How is Mike Tyson Known as?

Source: @miketyson

  • Mike Tyson is known to be the only youngest boxer to have a “World Heavyweight Championship” tag, at the age of   20.
  • Tyson was known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior inside and outside the ring.
  • Mike Tyson was titled “The Baddest Man on the Planet”, “The Hardest Hitters in Heavyweight History”, and “The Most Ferocious Fighter”.

Who are Mike Tyson’s Parents?

Michael Gerard Tyson was born on 30th June 1966 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. His nationality is American. Tyson was born to  Purcell Tyson(father) as per the birth certificate while he has been known to have a father Jimmy Kirkpatrick. Lorna Smith Tyson is his mother.

Mike Tyson was one of three children of the couple. Tyson had an elder brother Rodney Tyson and a sister Denise Tyson. Denise passed away in 1991 due to a heart attack. Additionally, he also had a half-brother Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick from Kirkpatrick’s earlier marriage.

Jimmy Kirkpatrick abandoned the family after the birth of young Mike Tyson. Succumbing to the financial burden, the family relocated from Bedford-Stuyvesant to Brownsville when Tyson was ten years of age. Tyson’s mother died when Tyson was just 16. The 16-year-old young Tyson was left in the care of boxing manager and trainer “Cus D’Amato”, who would become his legal guardian.

How was Tyson’s Early Life?

Ever since his early years, Tyson was involved in fights that were basically only for personal reasons with no professional ground. Struggling financially, and to combat the bullying, he began developing his own style of street fighting, and restore his fist.

By the time Tyson stepped into 13, he had already been arrested 38 times for knocking out grown men from the street.

Tyson’s bad behavior landed him in the “Tryon School for Boys”, a reform school in Johnstown, New York. At Tryon School, Tyson met counselor Bob Stewart, who had been an amateur boxing champion and a juvenile detention center counselor.

Tyson wanted Stewart to teach him how to use his fists. Stewart reluctantly agreed, on the condition that Mike would stay out of trouble and work harder in school. Previously classified as learning disabled, Mike managed to raise his reading abilities to the seventh-grade level in a matter of months. He also became determined to learn everything he could about boxing, often slipping out of bed after curfew to practice punches.

Steward was the one to notice Tyson’s boxing skills. He honed them a little before introducing the destined-to-be champion to Cus D’Amato. Under Amato’s guidance, Tyson trained for the sport. He was under the full-time custody of Amato who set a  rigorous training schedule for the aspiring boxer. Tyson attended “Catskill High School” by the day and practiced in the ring by the evening. However, he did not graduate from school and left his studies as a junior.

Tyson, however, was awarded an honorary “Doctorate in Humane Letters” from Central State University in 1989.

Kevin Rooney also trained Tyson, and he was occasionally assisted by Teddy Atlas, although Atlas was dismissed by D’Amato when Tyson was 15. Rooney eventually took over all training duties for the young fighter.

How Tyson makes his way up to Boxing?

Source: @miketyson

On March 6, 1985, Tyson made his professional debut in Albany, New York, against Hector Mercedes. The 18-year-old Tyson knocked Mercedes out in one round. Tyson’s strength, quick fists, and notable defensive abilities intimidated his opponents, who were often afraid to hit the fighter. This gave Tyson the uncanny ability to level his opponents in only one round, and earned him the nickname “Iron Mike.” The year was a successful one for Tyson, but it was not without its tragedies.

On November 4, 1985, Cus D’Amato died of pneumonia. Tyson was rocked by the death of the man he considered his “Surrogate father”. Boxing trainer Kevin Rooney took over D’Amato’s coaching duties and, less than two weeks later, Tyson continued on the path that D’Amato had laid out for him.

He recorded his thirteenth knockout in Houston, Texas, and dedicated the fight to D’Amato. Although he seemed to recover well from D’Amato’s passing, those close to Tyson say that the boxer never fully recovered from the loss. Many attributed the boxer’s future behavior to the loss of the man that had previously grounded and supported him.

By 1986, at the age of 20, Tyson had garnered a 22-0 record—21 of the fights won by knockout. On November 22, 1986, Tyson finally reached his goal. Tyson was given his first title fight against Trevor Berbick for the “World Boxing Council heavyweight championship”. Tyson won the title by knockout in the second round. At the age of 20 years and four months, he beat Patterson’s record, becoming the youngest “Heavyweight Champion” in history.

Tyson’s success in the ring didn’t stop there. He defended his title against James Smith on March 7, 1987, adding the “World Boxing Association” championship to his list of victories. On August 1st he became the first heavyweight to own all three major boxing belts when he won the “International Boxing Federation” title from Tony Tucker.

Tyson stepped back into the ring with British boxer Frank Bruno and knocked him in the fifth round, and keep his status as world champ. On July 21, 1989, Tyson defended his title again, knocking out Carl “The Truth” Williams in one round. Tyson’s winning streak came to an end on February 11, 1990, however, when he lost his championship belt to boxer Buster Douglas in Tokyo, Japan. Tyson, the clear favorite, sent Douglas to the mat in the eighth round, but Douglas came back in the tenth, knocking Tyson out for the first time in his career, thus Tyson losing his “World Heavyweight Championship”.

Tyson discouraged but not ready to give up, Tyson recovered from the loss with four straight victories; by knocking out “Olympic gold medalist”—and former amateur boxing adversary—Henry Tillman later that year. In another bout, he defeated Alex Stewart by a knockout in the first round.

Imprisonment of Tyson

Tyson lost his fight in court on November 1, 1990, when a New York City civil jury sided with Sandra Miller for the barroom incident in 1988. Then in July of 1991, Tyson was accused of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black American contestant. On March 26, 1992, after nearly a year of trial proceedings, Tyson was found guilty on one count of rape and two counts of deviant sexual conduct. Because of Indiana state laws, Tyson was ordered to serve six years in prison, effective immediately. Tyson initially handled his stint in prison poorly and was found guilty of threatening a guard while in prison, adding 15 days to his sentence. That same year, Tyson’s father died. The boxer didn’t request leave to attend the funeral. While imprisoned, Tyson converted to Islam, and adopted the name “Malik Abdul Aziz”.

On March 25, 1995, after serving three years of his sentence, Tyson was released from the Indiana Youth Center near Plainfield, Indiana. Already planning his comeback, Tyson arranged his next fight with Peter McNeeley in Las Vegas, Nevada. On August 19, 1995, Tyson won the fight, knocking out McNeeley in just 89 seconds. Tyson also won his next match in December 1995, knocking out Buster Mathis Jr. in the third round.

Losses that Tyson Faced

After his personal and professional setbacks, Tyson seemed to be making a positive change in his life. After several successful flights, Tyson came head-to-head with his next big challenger: Evander Holyfield, who became the undefeated, undisputed new heavyweight champion of the world.

On November 9, 1996, Tyson faced Holyfield for the heavyweight title. The evening would not end successfully for Tyson, who lost to Holyfield by a knockout in the 11th round. Instead of Tyson’s anticipated victory, Holyfield made history by becoming the second person to win a heavyweight championship belt three times. Tyson claimed he was the victim of multiple illegal head butts by Holyfield, and vowed to avenge his loss.

Tyson trained heavily for a rematch with Holyfield, and on June 28, 1997, the two boxers faced off yet again. The fight was televised on pay-per-view and entered nearly 2 million households, setting a record at the time for the highest number of paid television viewers. Both boxers also received record purses for the match, making them the highest-paid professional boxers in history until 2007.

The first and second rounds provided the typical crowd-pleasing action expected from the two champions. But the fight took an unexpected turn in the third round of the match. Tyson shocked fans and boxing officials when he grabbed Holyfield and bit both of the boxer’s ears, completely severing a piece of Holyfield’s right ear. Tyson claimed that the action was retaliation for Holyfield’s illegal head butts from their previous match.

Judges didn’t agree with Tyson’s reasoning, however, and disqualified the boxer from the match. On July 9, 1997, the Nevada State Athletic Commission revoked Tyson’s boxing license in a unanimous voice vote and fined the boxer $3 million for biting Holyfield. No longer able to fight, Tyson was aimless and unmoored. Several months later, Tyson was dealt another blow when he was ordered to pay boxer Mitch Green $45,000 for his 1988  street-fighting incident. Shortly after the court ruling, Tyson landed in the hospital after his motorcycle skidded out of control on a ride through Connecticut. The former boxer broke a rib and punctured a lung.

On March 5, 1998, the boxer filed a $100 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York against Don King. He also filed a lawsuit against his former managers Rory Holloway and John Horne, claiming they made King Tyson’s exclusive promoter without the boxer’s knowledge. King and Tyson settled out of court for $14 million. Tyson allegedly lost millions in the process.

In the wake of several more lawsuits, including another sexual harassment trial and a $22 million suit filed by Rooney for wrongful termination, Tyson struggled to reinstate his boxing license. In July 1998, the boxer reapplied for his boxing license

In October 1998, Tyson’s boxing license was reinstated. Tyson was back in the ring only a few months before he plead no contest for his attack on the motorists in Maryland. The judge sentenced Tyson to two concurrent two-year sentences for the assault but was given only one year of jail time, a $5,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service. He was released after serving nine months and went straight back into the ring. The next several years were marred with more accusations of physical assaults, sexual harassment, and public incidents.

Retirement of Tyson

In 2002, Tyson faced Lennox Lewis who was then the reigning champion with WBC, IBF, IBO, and Lineal titles under his belt. Despite being a favorite of the pundits, Tyson lost the bout in the eighth round facing a knockout of the right hook. Lewis who had dominated the fight since the beginning was declared the winner. Tyson took the failure graciously and lauded Lewis’s skill for the game.

Tyson played a couple of matches post the Lewis match. He underperformed in all of them. His last professional outing was at the match against Kevin McBride on June 11, 2005. He quit the match and announced his retirement after his consecutive losses from 2003-2005.

After retiring from the boxing career, Tyson started acting in movies and television. In 2009, he made his debut on the big screen with the movie ‘The Hangover’, where he made an uncharacteristic appearance.

He was also the subject of an eponymous documentary by filmmaker James Toback. In the theatre, along with director Spike Lee, Tyson brought out the stage show, ‘Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth’.

How is Tyson’s personal life?

Mike Tyson has been married thrice and has fathered eight children. Tyson’s first marriage was with actress Robin Givens, however, their marriage didn’t last more than a year and the couple got divorced without children.

The two separated following allegations of violence, spousal abuse, and mental instability by Givens on Tyson.

Tyson then went into wedlock with Monica Turner. The marriage lasted for five years after which Turner pursued divorce on grounds of adultery. The couple had two children, Rayna and Amir.

In 2009, in an unfortunate accident, Tyson lost his daughter Exodus after the latter was found unconscious and tangled in a cord, dangling from an exercise treadmill. She was on life support and declared dead the following day.

Tyson walked up to the altar for the third time on June 6, 2009, with Lakisha ‘Kiki’ Spicer. The couple has been blessed with a daughter Milan and a son Morocco. Tyson’s other children include Mikey, Miguel, and D’Amato (born 1990).  He has a total of eight children including the deceased Exodus.

Further Tyson was rumored to have a relationship with Naomi Campbell, Suzette Charles, Tabitha Stevens, Coco Johnsen, Luz Whitney, Lauren Woodland, Kola Boof, and Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.

Tyson has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He follows a vegan diet and a sober lifestyle.

How much is Tyson’s Net Worth?

Mike Tyson when at the peak of his career, had an estimated net worth of $300 million. But as of 2017, after bouts of lavish spending and filing for bankruptcy in 2003, Tyson is reportedly worth only $3 million.  However, his career boxing earnings of $700 million were enough to make him the 14th highest-paid athlete of all time, according to Forbes.

What is the body measurement of Mike Tyson?

Mike Tyson, a professional boxer has a perfect body build. He is a bodybuilder with a height of 5ft. 10inc.(178 cm). Tyson has a bodyweight of about 109 kg(240 pounds). He has a black complexion with dark brown eyes and bald hair. Tyson has an iconic tattoo on his face, lisp, and high pitched voice. Tyson has a body measurement of chest-52 inc, biceps-18.5 inc, waist-36 inc, and shoe size of 15 US.

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