Tyson

When I read about the Tyson documentary a few months ago I knew I wanted to watch it! Simply because I was intrigued to find out more about his life story, what compelled him to tattoo his face (which is one of many), how good of a boxer was he really and his wedding to Robin Givens etc.

The piece touched on him being bullied as a child and his stint in juvenile by the age of 12. Hence the defensive, ghetto and aggressive attitude he had whilst in and out of the ring. His trainer Cus D’Amato seemed to be the only father figure in his life and when he passed away it impacted a young Tyson hard. I didn’t realise that he became the youngest heavyweight champion in 1982 at a mere 20 years of age. Watching him in action confirmed that he truly was an agile, powerful and ferocious boxer. He amassed a fortune of $300 million dollars but managed to squander it away. What do you expect with no role models around, a lack of concept with regards to money and world wide fame at your hands all before the age of 21! It’s a shame really as he had the potential to go really far but his spoilt childish behaviour which was never really addressed got in the way of things. Mike Tyson comes across as incoherent at times which often left me wandering what on earth he was talking about.

It touched on his brief wedding to Robin Givens whom he married after dating for two months. As well as his 1992 conviction of rape which resulted in him serving three years in prison, he still claims his innocence to this day. It seems we’ll never really know what happened. This it seems was the turning point for Tyson he began to feel bitter and resentful with a sense of injustice towards him. He started to loose focus, his fitness ability began to wane and the path of self-destruction was evident. We all remember the famous ear biting incident during his fight with Evander Hollyfied, need I say more…. It seems Mike eventually just lost the desire to fight.

It would have been nice to hear other people’s views/opinions about Tyson, as it is told solely from his point of view (which can get a bit boring). To see a bit more about his childhood, to hear what his family had to say. To find out what pushed him to drug and alcohol addiction? To get a glimpse of his life after retirement, how he found stability and went on to have six children. It was an interesting documentary overall which helped bring some clarity to my questions and demonstrated an open more vulnerable side of Mike Tyson.