Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 1 - Mike Tyson page 6

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Article page 6 of 13

The build up to Spinks was marred by off field stories, with Tyson's home life clearly taking its toll on him. In May his generosity backfired when he gave his Bentley convertible to two police officers after it was dented in a traffic accident in Manhattan. The officers were suspended over it. The police were called to his home to deal with an incident after he began to throw furniture out of the window after kicking his wife and mother-in-law out of the house. On the 17th June 1988 Givens and her family go public with claims of domestic abuse, at around the same time that Givens and her mother demanded access to Tyson's money to buy a house.

With just ten days to go before Tyson fought the biggest fight of his career against Spinks, you would have thought that he had all the distractions he could cope with, only for him to add another on the very day of the fight when he sued his manager Bill Cayton. Tyson was looking to break his contract with Cayton with the intention of making Rory Holloway and John Horne his managers instead. This when he is about to face the man considered the perfect opponent for him, with his skilled outfighting and excellent footwork, Spinks was the big hope to finally break Tyson's invincible aura.

Spinks was also considered the true (lineal) champion after beating Holmes to take the IBF belt, which he was stripped of because he decided to fight Gerry Cooney instead of No. 1 contender Tony Tucker. Cooney came with a much bigger fight purse than Tucker. Tyson came with an even bigger purse than either, in fact this fight was the richest fight ever, at the time. According to Spinks' manager, Butch Lewis, the camp were confident that the true champion would put the young upstart in his place, as was he, right up until the moment he walked into the Tyson changing room to check the gloves before the fight.

Lewis walked into a fearsome sight, one later used as inspiration for a scene in the film 'Kickboxer', Tyson was still barefisted and punching holes in the wall right in front of his eyes. Butch Lewis felt his confidence drain out of him and his well planned spiel to try and throw Tyson off his game never got used as he was in and out of there as quickly as possible so that he could try and persuade Spinks not to face Tyson. Lewis claims he told Spinks that Tyson would kill him but Spinks just laughed and said he was the true champion and Tyson was just a boy.

The 'boy' took just 91 seconds to destroy Michael Spinks and make himself the undisputed world heavyweight champion. It was a display that laid his claim to be the greatest boxer of all time on the table. At that point, at the age of 22, it seemed the world was at his feet, that he would spend the next ten years solidifying his claim to be the greatest ever. Instead this was his peak. An awesome, destructive peak that saw him at a level that he could arguably beat any boxer put in front of him, but it was all too short to ever truly justify a claim to be the greatest ever. Now it was just a spiral to depths most people never experience.

Tyson never even fought again in 1988, he did part company with manager Bill Cayton and trainer Kevin Rooney though. It was clear after Rooney went that Tyson was never the same fighter, as his constant head movement that had made him so difficult to hit vanished. Cayton was dumped after agreeing to cut his share of fight purses down from one third to 20%, rightly Tyson felt that Cayton took too much. Tyson's new manager Rory Holloway claims that it was around this time that Tyson accused the basketball legend Michael Jordan of sleeping with his wife.

Holloway's autobiography of his time with Tyson revealed: "Mike Tyson's sitting there with his drink of choice, a Long Island Tea, and when he drinks his real feelings come out. I'm telling the server to water his drinks down 'cause I see where this is going. Mike stares across the table at Michael Jordan. He says, 'hey man, you think I'm stupid? I know you fucked with my bitch.' Jordan looks like he has just seen a ghost. 'I know you messed with her,' Mike says. 'You can tell me.' It was a circus for real that night. Don King trying to change the subject. Me and John trying to hold Mike down. Mike telling everyone that he's going to bust Jordan's ass. Jordan's dressed sharp as always and he can't get out of there fast enough." Holloway's story has never been corraborated by any of the people he said were there, but it is indicative of the way Tyson was acting at the time.

Tyson was clearly struggling to cope with all the stresses and strains of marriage to the Givens' plus fame and fortune, to the point where he actually announced his retirement at the age of 22, though he later changed his mind. It was a bizarre time as, less than two weeks after Tyson slaughtered Spinks, Donald Trump (yes the future President of the USA Donald Trump) announced that he was becoming a business advisor to Tyson. He claimed that any money he made would go to charities fighting "AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis" and "helping the homeless". There is no record of any payments to those charities accruing as a result.

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Mike Tyson page 7 of 13

Written by Ed001 - June 04 2018 10:30:52