Original subtitles

-[wings fluttering] -[birds cooing]

[Tyson] When the camera comes on, those demons will appear.

-[dramatic music] -[crowd cheers]

[commentator 1] Here comes Mike Tyson now. And as usual, he is all business.

[commentator 2] He's boxing's biggest star and biggest attraction since Muhammad Ali.

[commentator 3] The most talked about,

the most publicly demanded fighter in our time.

[commentator 4] Who in this world has any chance against this man?

[announcer] The wild…

Mike Tyson!

New heavyweight champion of the world.

This great gladiator, this great champion, this giant.

I'm confident I can beat any fighter in the world.

[music fades out]

[Floyd Russ] Why does boxing mean so much?

Well, boxing's a good metaphor for life.

The way you fight your fight is the way you live your life.

[reporter] He's boxing's most controversial figure,

both in and out of the ring.

That's how I live my life. Reckless, really reckless.

[man] He's the baddest man on planet Earth.

[reporter 2] His infamous exploits have earned Mike Tyson enough labels

to last several lifetimes.

-[referee] Three! -[laughing]

He cannot control his temper, and that's frightening.

[commentator] He really sunk his teeth in there.

It showed the real brute, the beast that he is.

[referee] Four!

Everybody's laughing at me.

Mike Tyson?

Oh! Jesus.

[referee] Five!

I never dreamed of living this long.

I never dreamed of having as much money as I did.

I can talk the way I wanna talk to you. You have a problem, turn off your station.

[echoing]

[somber music playing]

[Tyson] Kiki!

[Lakiha Spicer] The things that he's gone through,

most people would've just been dead.

[referee] Six!

[news anchor] Mike Tyson is being investigated on rape charges.

Tell us what happened.

[Spicer] And he just continues to come back.

-[referee] Seven! -[groans softly]

I was designed to fight in all aspects of life.

I refuse to lose. There's no way I was gonna leave this ring alive.

[exclaims] Stop!

I had to be dead.

[comical sound effect]

[bell rings]

[dramatic music playing]

[Tyson] How many times am I gonna get up after getting my ass kicked?

It's the same as life. How many times are you gonna get up?

[music fades out]

[somber music playing]

"Mike Tyson says he's the best."

I always showed off when I was a kid. When I was fighting, I always showed off.

[Cus D'Amato] We are today a sum total of what we've been.

Every act and every deed we've had makes us what we are today.

Good or bad.

Truth is always stranger than fiction.

Always.

Never fails.

[D'Amato] I consider my fighter the greatest fighter that ever lived.

Before he is through, he will prove that to the world at large.

Mmm! It's a beautiful bag.

So much hours in this bag.

Hitting here now.

This is the first ring I've ever been in in my life.

Big shot, whatever they call me, greatest, whatever they say,

this is where it started. Right here. First time, right here.

I don't ever question my blessings. I was taught that as well.

But why me? Right? I said, "Why me?"

My mentor said I'm the greatest fighter because of where I came from.

He said that was my biggest asset.

Being from Brownsville.

♪ Catchin' keys from across seas ♪

♪ Rollin' in MPV's Every week, we made 40 G's ♪

♪ Yo, brothers, respect mine Or anger the TEC-9 ♪

♪ Ch-pow! Move from the gate now ♪

♪ Played me short Now I face incarceration, pacin'… ♪

[man] Mike Tyson!

That's Mike Tyson! That's actually Mike Tyson!

Yes, it's Mike…

Mike Tyson!

♪ Cash Rules Everything Around Me C.R.E.A.M. ♪

[Floyd Russ] How do you feel driving deeper into Brooklyn right now?

I love it.

This is who I am.

If I get out right now, they'd know this is Mike Tyson from Brooklyn.

Just what it is.

I was bullied on these streets. I used to rob on these streets.

And now I'm famous, and I'm Mike Tyson. That always just tripped me.

I used to rob on these streets, snatch chains on these streets,

snatch people's wallets out of their…

When they're in the car,

I was snatching their wallet off their laps or something.

Just running up and down here,

and now I'm Mike Tyson, and everybody knows my name.

-[crowd screaming excitedly] -["C.R.E.A.M." continues]

[woman] The worst community, worst neighborhood,

right here in Brownsville.

The slogan said, "Never ran, never will. Brownsville."

That's right. That's a product of Brownsville. Right here.

A role model to a lot of our young Black men.

♪ Cash Rules Everything Around Me C. R. E. A. M, get the money ♪

Hey, stop. Stop!

-Stop. -[man] Wait. Wait.

-Just chill out. -[man] Chill, chill, chill.

[Tyson] Amboy Street. This is where I grew up.

All this stuff is new.

I'll show you Amboy Street in 1977 or '78. Looks like a parking lot.

[somber music playing]

I lived with my brother Rodney and my sister Denise, with my mother.

We fell on hard times, and we moved to Brownsville.

[reporter] 130,000 people here, mostly Blacks and Puerto Ricans,

have the worst poverty rate, the worst disease rate,

the highest infant mortality rate, the worst narcotics problem,

the worst housing conditions, the worst school record

of any urban area in America.

It was really destitute, but I had fun. I was a young kid.

I didn't understand the stress of paying bills and all that stuff.

And then the environment got a hold of me.

[William Fagan] Me and Mike, we grew up together.

Back in the '70s, we were street kids.

The block where Mike lived was probably the worst block in Brownsville.

You seen a lot of dope fiends walking around, you see prostitution.

Abandoned buildings.

That was our playgrounds, these abandoned buildings.

A lot of stuff was burnt down.

We hung out in there.

[Tyson] I was getting bullied a lot.

Everybody picked on me for some reason.

Always picked on me. My voice, I didn't talk tough.

People grabbed me, jumped on me in the street.

I always fell in the mud.

People were kicking my ass. I didn't want to go to school.

I wasn't a fighter, believe it or not.

[Fagan] The first time I met Mike, he just had dirty sneakers, dirty clothes.

Mike always kept a little dirty hat on.

A bunch of guys, we all hung out. We'd meet up.

They didn't want him around. Like, "Get out, Dirty Mike."

This is ridiculous. Listen, um…

One day, I was walking around my school 'cause people were kicking my ass,

so I didn't wanna go to school.

I had to wait around till school was over, then I'd go home.

So I'm walking around school, these guys come up to me,

and they say, "You wanna fly with us?"

I didn't know what "fly with us" mean, and I said, "Yeah."

They said, "Climb the fence." And there was an abandoned building.

I said, "What? I gotta go inside here with these guys?"

And I started getting a little bit nervous.

And as I come up, I see this box with tin on it and some birds.

I got excited, but what really got me excited

that they let them out.

And they fly around, then they come back down. Like, whoa!

I'm like, "Wow! These tough guys do this shit?"

That's what attracted me to the birds, all these tough guys were flying birds.

[cooing]

[Tyson] I fell in love with the birds.

The whole activity, the whole day was beautiful for me.

[gentle music playing]

[wings fluttering]

[Tyson] My first love was pigeons.

They'd be right here in the cage,

and I'd sit here all day, the whole fucking day.

Just like them, I get angry, I get hungry, I get happy. It's just the same stuff.

It just becomes a part of your life.

He wants me to let him go. He doesn't like me holding him.

If you hear him grunting, "Get the fuck off me."

I didn't want any problems back then.

I was just a guy who was wanting to have fun and fly birds.

But the older guys were taking my birds from me.

One day, this guy, he came around, he grabbed a bird,

put it under his coat, and ran outside.

And that's when I said, "Please give me my bird back. Please."

He said, "Fuck you, fat motherfucker. Take it."

"What are you going to do about it?" Then he took the bird and broke his neck.

[wings beating]

He hit me with the fucking bird.

[dramatic music playing]

-[Tyson] Just snapped. -[wings beating]

-I was tired of people fucking with me. -[wings beating]

-I just started throwing punches. -[blows landing]

Hit him with one more shot. Boom.

Then he was out cold.

That's when we knew, like, you're gonna use him to fight.

He was good with a punch.

[Tyson] Started fighting every day. Knocking people out for their money.

Before they even saw me, run and punch them in the face.

Take their money.

Mike would knock out grown men. They'd be going, "Mike, hit him."

And Mike would come, hit 'em, and then we all would go for the pockets.

As we got older, we started being more daring.

They had a lot of jewelry stores up on Utica.

We used to throw a brick through a window, try and snatch stuff.

Mike tried to grab everything.

[Tyson] I always thought my life would be of crime.

That's what everybody in my community did.

That's all we did. We lived a life of crime.

[siren wailing]

[Tyson] I was 12 years old the first time I was arrested.

That's the first time I went to Spofford.

[narrator] Spofford House, the facility

that houses juvenile lawbreakers in the Bronx

accused of serious crimes like murder, robbery, rape.

It was really scary.

They brought me in the middle of the night, like 4:00 in the morning.

And then at 7:00, it was time for breakfast.

As soon as I get in the cafeteria, I hear,

"Hey, Mike. Yo, Mike! What's up, Mike? Yo, Mike…"

My whole neighborhood was in there.

The first thing they give you when you get there is two cookies, two cigarettes,

and a small container of milk.

I'm 12 years old, they give me a cigarette.

It was better than home.

Mike was locked up like 38 times as a kid.

I got caught so many times. But imagine how many times I got away.

After a bunch of times of going to Spofford, enough was enough.

He got sent to Tryon.

[Tyson] They sent me to Tryon, where no one gets freedom.

That's where all the bad kids go that kill people, that did bad crimes.

You know, apex predator guys go.

They lock you in all the time, 24-7.

And nobody cares about you.

But then one day, I'm in my lock-up,

and I see guys running to the back where the rooms are.

They coming back with their teeth missing. They're bleeding from their mouth.

But they're laughing. They're happy. I'm like, "What the fuck's going on?"

They said, "We're boxing with Mr. Stewart over there."

And I said, "I want to do that."

I was a guard at Tryon, and then I ran a boxing program in our unit.

I was a light heavyweight

and the National Golden Glove champion in 1974.

When I first met him, Mike was very insecure.

He couldn't look you in the eye.

I told him that if he was doing well in school, I would work with him.

I changed my whole life. I wanted to learn how to box so bad.

He went from a third to a seventh grade reading level,

where he was supposed to be at the time, in a matter of a month.

And the teachers started calling, saying, "What the hell happened?"

I said, "Well, he's got something to work for now."

I took to it right away. It was meant for me to do.

Somebody upstairs or something told me that this kid's different.

I couldn't wait to start working with him.

And then when we started,

the first sparring session, he swung, tried to hit me,

and he fell down. He made a fool of everything he did.

[intense dramatic music playing]

I thought, "He's this little white guy. I'm gonna kill this guy, right?"

He beat the shit out of me.

I got hit in the stomach. I couldn't breathe.

I felt like I was dying.

"I can't breathe. What the fuck!" And I went down.

I was boxing with Bob Stewart. He used to hit me with bombs.

They used to hurt and everything.

But I never used to… I used to like getting hit with bombs.

I said, "Can you teach me that,

how to hit somebody in the stomach and make them go down?"

I said, "Wait, and I'll show you."

I trained him probably eight, nine months.

I've seen a million kids go through the system like that,

and no one worked as hard as him.

It was just pulling to me. You have to do this.

Staff I worked with would say, "What are you wasting time for?"

"As soon as he gets out of here, he's just gonna get in trouble again."

Because that's the way most of our kids were.

[exhaling forcefully]

And I swear this is something now that almost makes me cry.

But I can see he wanted…

I'm not saying he's gonna make it, but he wants to make it.

[exhaling forcefully]

He said, "I'm gonna introduce you to somebody else."

"He's gonna take you to the next level. Don't worry about that."

And that's when I met Cus.

It is the mark of a great fighter when he has character plus skill.

Cus brought boxing to another level.

[TV host] Cus D'Amato, the genius of boxing.

My name is Cus D'Amato.

[news anchor] Most knowledgeable man on boxing in the world.

Bobby Stewart told me he was a great trainer.

He had two world champions.

[Stewart] Worked with Muhammad Ali…

Well, you'll have to prove that in the ring.

[Stewart] …Floyd Patterson.

[narrator 2] Cus D'Amato raised Floyd Patterson from the age of 14,

converting him from a juvenile delinquent to a world's champion.

[commentator] A wicked left hook sends Moore sprawling to the canvas.

[narrator 3] Cus used that championship to topple the corrupt boxing establishment

of that time.

But the independent promoter will not pay $4,000

to stuff it down the throats of the managers in the fight.

[narrator 3] But boxing passed him by and left him in exile in the country.

I knew Cus D'Amato, and I knew he was still working with kids.

[D'Amato] All of my life, I've been thinking

in terms of developing a fighter who was perfect. [echoes]

[Stewart] Made a date with Cus to come down to the gym and show Mike off.

So I told Mike, and he was like shaking at first.

He was a little scared to come down.

There was no way. I was just very nervous. I didn't have good self-esteem.

"He won't wanna see me." I said, "Yes, he will."

[tense music playing]

We boxed. He's really, really doing good.

Cus was screaming, "Whoa! That's beautiful."

"How did you learn that move? It's magnificent."

[Stewart] After two rounds, he said, "All right, that's enough."

Cus was taking my gloves off.

So I said, "He's 13 years old. What do you think of him?"

He said, "Well, nobody here thinks he's 13."

He said, "Listen, I'm telling you right now, don't lie to me."

"Tell me the truth. How old are you? Are you 13?"

I said, "Yeah. You got my birth certificate."

So he said, "What do I think of him?" Honest to God, I'm not lying.

He said, "Barring outside distractions,

that's the heavyweight champion of the world."

Heavyweight champion of the world.

The greatest heavyweight champion we've ever had.

Will be the heavyweight champion of the world and probably the youngest.

[Tyson] How am I to believe that, really?

I've come from nothing but crime.

I've come from nothing but filth, and scum, and all that stuff.

How am I to believe that from this white man?

My biggest objective, how can I rob this guy?

He said, "Give me two years, three years of your life, Mike."

"You will never regret it."

"Just give me three years, three years of your life."

[dramatic music playing]

So when I first got out of Tryon, I moved straight in with Cus.

I've been living the last nine months in a detention home.

And then I come here.

Can you imagine being a young Black boy from the slums all his life living in…

His parents lived in abandoned buildings. He could never wash.

He smelled when he went to school. He had dirty clothes all the time.

And then he came and moved here at 14.

But my mother was uncomfortable at first. "What's the purpose of this?"

Coming from the atmosphere of Brooklyn, I used to never trust anybody.

You don't trust anybody.

Because up here, Cus was doing something for nothing.

And you're not used to people in the city doing something for you.

I said, "Ma, I wanna be the champ of the world."

I don't think she is believing me.

Because I'd never lived up to anything that I said to her before.

She probably thought this guy was using me for something.

He had to get my mother's okay.

I was just begging her, "Ma, please sign it. Please."

So she signed the paper.

When I first came here,

we had up to probably seven guys here at one time.

It was like a camp. That's what it was. It was a fighting camp.

[Tom Patti] When I first met Mike, very quiet, kept to himself.

For five years, we were roommates and training partners.

[Tyson] I started training in the gym for at least five, six months

without any fights or anything, just doing the motions.

That's where my life began.

That's how I felt. My life is beginning right here.

[exhaling forcefully]

Right here. Cus would be right here.

He would be right here, and then he'd walk around.

And he'd watch me hit.

When I'm punching, and moving, and slipping.

[grunting]

Mike was training for the Junior Olympics seven days a week.

First thing in the morning, I wake up, I go running.

No matter what day it is, every day, we run.

It was my whole life as a kid.

Cus perfected a style. They called it the peekaboo style.

Cus just called it a tight defense.

Just jab, jab. Keep your distance.

Why have your hands down when you might be vulnerable?

You have your hands like that. You're protecting yourself.

[Patti] The most important thing is don't be stationary.

Move after your last punch, put yourself in another striking position

so the other fighter's constantly having to adjust to your movement.

[exhaling forcefully]

Defense and attack. Attack and defense.

You're gonna do real damage. You might drop the guy with one punch.

But you're aiming here and bring the same hand…

When he hits here, he's liable to bring it down,

if he's got it down, bang, over here. Bang! With the left hook here or here.

This is not no old, puny, white man that just feels sorry for this Black guy.

No, this is a warrior. This is a Roman emperor I'm dealing with.

I'm dealing with a master.

Cus D'Amato was only satisfied with perfection.

Make it perfect. It's good, but it's not perfect.

[Tyson] Everything had to be perfect. It has to be like this.

[grunting]

[Patti] He didn't want Mike complimented.

He wanted Mike to keep struggling for approval.

Your work on the bag is always impressive. I'd just try to make it perfect.

It's good, but it's not perfect.

It's really good. It is good. It's just not perfect.

What the fuck? What?

I don't even think I know how to hit this anymore.

It's been so long, but…

Works off rhythm. Hear the rhythm?

Cus would say boxing's about 75% psychological

and 25% physical.

Physical part of boxing is so minor

that most people would never believe it or accept it.

[Patti] Cus dealt with people that had trauma,

because people that find their way into a boxing gym

are people that have no other option as it is.

He likes damage. [laughing] He likes damage.

I only can help anyone that I can influence.

[Tyson] I never knew what desire was, to want something real bad,

till I met him.

I fell in love with that feeling.

Once he gave me that feeling, I'd do anything he'd tell me.

Cus always pushed for more. He always found your vulnerability.

I have to first determine his emotional state at the time

so that I get to the core of the person.

Once I reach that point and he's become receptive,

now I can first begin to teach him.

He believed the power of thinking, the power of the mind.

[D'Amato] You're dealing with people's minds,

and there's nothing more interesting than that.

I was with the master.

You listen to the master, everything will be okay.

That's what I did. I listened to him.

[D'Amato] What I do is find out how many layers I have to peel off of him

until I get down to the man himself.

The greatest obstacle to learning is psychological.

We are today the sum total of what we've been.

Layers I have to peel off.

[distant siren wailing]

[Tyson] My earliest memory is me wanting attention.

I put Drano on my thumb, and I put it in my mouth.

And I had to go to the hospital.

[Floyd Russ] Attention from your mom?

If anybody was around, they were drunk and high, talking,

and I wanted to be a part of that energy, and nobody would listen to me,

so I'd… I'd try to hurt myself.

[laughs]

I wanted attention.

-[Floyd Russ] Did it work? -Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.

My mother was, um… [sucks teeth]

…a sex worker, prostitute, whatever you call it.

-[Floyd Russ] Did you see that? -Yeah. Absolutely, yeah, I seen that.

I saw it firsthand. I was in the bed with her.

Yeah.

I've seen a lot of vicious fighting.

I remember my mother fighting with her boyfriend.

I saw him beat her. He knocked her teeth out.

Then I saw her scald him with some boiling hot water.

My mother was very violent.

She hit me with anything. Extension cord, a liquor bottle, anything.

[Floyd Russ] What about your dad? What kind of guy was he?

A pimp. A pimp who was a trick. He was more of a trick than a pimp.

My mother used him. My mother treated him horrible too.

[D'Amato] The greatest obstacle to learning is fear.

And all great fighters will rise to the occasion.

Mike first burst on the amateur scene at a national level

by going to the Junior Olympics.

[distant crowd shouting]

[Patti] This is the building blocks for the next generation of fighter.

[tense music playing]

Look, look, look. Just relax, Michael. Relax. Just relax.

-[Tyson sniffling] -[Atlas] Just relax. Relax.

-[Tyson] It brings up a lot of memories. -Yeah, but you need to relax. Just relax.

-[Tyson] Remember when we first started? -I know. Well… Just relax.

[Tyson] I never knew where my fear came from.

You know, you just have it.

You know, we just have it. That's a defense mechanism.

[Tyson, tearfully] I came a long way, remember?

I'm Mike Tyson. Everybody likes me.

-[Atlas] Yeah. Everybody likes you. -[Tyson] I'm proud of myself.

Nature gave us fear in order to survive. Without fear, we would all die.

It was our friend. That we should never avoid it.

He said, "Once you start avoiding it, that's the beginning of your downfall."

You need to control those emotions. You control the fear.

You control the anxiety.

You control the self-doubt. You control pain.

[Tyson] He thought I had a low self-esteem.

And he didn't think he had enough time to teach me how to handle success.

So he just override it. He just said, "Fuck it, you're the greatest ever."

[D'Amato] The greatest fighter that ever lived.

[Tyson] Cus introduced me to a hypnotist.

He just put me under. Then he talked to me.

It was like he put a spell on me.

[Floyd Russ] Do you remember the type of stuff that was said?

-Yes. I don't wanna tell you. -You don't wanna tell me?

-No. It doesn't matter really. -[Floyd Russ] It matters.

It doesn't matter. Just ask me another question.

I don't trust anybody in general. I don't like people to know me at all.

And I just recently trusted him. And I don't let no one get that close.

Nobody really knows Mike Tyson. Nobody's really friendly with Mike Tyson.

Except Cus D'Amato.

[Floyd Russ] What do you think about the word "brainwash"?

I believe in brainwash. Absolutely.

I believe in that particular state. I believe in brainwash. Yeah.

[Floyd Russ] And that Cus brainwashed you?

[Tyson sighs heavily]

Yeah. Yeah, I would say that. But he brainwashed me…

He cleaned a dirty mind, and he made it better.

All right. Let's go get ready for our fight. Come on.

[intense dramatic music playing]

[D'Amato] A guy comes to me with a spark.

I fan the spark until it becomes a flame.

I feed the flame until it becomes a fire.

Then I feed the fire until it becomes a roaring blaze.

He won't take my title. No way.

[Atlas] Fight smart and hard.

[horn blares]

[spectators shouting]

[spectators cheering]

Hey! Calm down. Relax. Calm. Calm. Calm. Relax.

Hey, Cus. Eight-second knockout in the first round. Eight-second knockout.

Fastest knockout ever.

How you doing, Cus? How you doing?

No, I'm just trying to win.

[uplifting music playing]

I got more and more hungry, and I got more and more confident.

I'm gonna go home and relax. I don't want my head to swell any more than it is.

I won the National Junior Olympics.

And that gave me an ego that I could beat the world.

This is the beginning of my legacy. I just knew what this was all about.

I hate using that word "legacy." But this was my dream.

I knew I was gonna be the greatest fighter that God ever created.

[D'Amato] I was so certain that he would win the tournament,

I went and bought a big banner to string across Main Street in Catskill here.

Welcome home, champs. Michael Tyson.

It's got the sauce already on it, Cus.

-Put that in front of the cup. -Yeah.

-Leave the macaroni in front of me. -You said you didn't like it. Remember?

That was just the best part. As a kid, 14 to what… 18?

Yeah, those were my best years.

-That's when you were the happiest? -Yeah.

-Smurf was… -Show me the Smurf.

-Get out of here! -Teach me the Smurf. Come on, Michael.

-Come on. Teach me the Smurf. -Get out of here.

-Let's see the Smurf, Mike. -[boy] Mike does it good too.

Does he do the Smurf?

-[boy] Show 'em how you do it. -[Patti] Come on.

[indistinct chatter]

It was beautiful. Camille always cooked for us.

Camille Ewald, who was my adoptive mother.

She did all the cooking, and we did the cleaning.

-[man] I'm not sure you got enough. -I only got what I'm eating.

I felt pride, because even among white people,

it was the first time I ever felt like an equal.

And they made me feel like an equal.

This coat was stolen by the fastest runner in the world.

Come and get me.

[all laughing]

[Tyson] Whole life changed. You get up in the morning.

Go run. Come back. Watch some fight movies.

Take a shower, a bath, wash. Then go to school.

[Patti] At school, Mike's starting to garner attention.

Mike's a very big, super-imposing person.

When I first came to school at Catskill, they thought I was the teacher.

They said, "He's the new teacher?" [laughs]

I was too big to be there.

[Patti] A lot of the kids might tease him, call him Mighty Joe Young,

and likening him to a gorilla.

I hit a teacher one time. I was trying to get out of school.

At some point, it was just not a healthy environment

for Mike to be subjected to.

[Tyson] I wasn't meant for school. I wasn't born for that.

I wanted to be a fighter.

[dramatic music playing]

Cus made me believe everybody else wasn't worth listening to. You know?

He only wanted me to listen to him. Everything he said, I believed.

It was like the Bible to me.

[trainer] Move your head. Jab and flip. Flip and jab.

We sparred 100%.

When that bell rang, you fight, and you fight hard.

You don't wear the headgear.

[Tyson] No headgear.

Cus said it gave you a false sense of security.

[Patti] Mike's 15 years old, and we'd hire sparring partners

to come up and train with Mike,

and after one day of sparring, they're leaving.

Sometimes in the middle of the night, they'd climb out the window and be gone.

They just wanted out of the house,

'cause they didn't want one more day of training with Mike.

There was only one sparring partner Cus said had no fear.

My name's Lennox Lewis.

I'm the last undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

When I first heard about Mike Tyson, I was around 15, 16.

When I was at the World Junior Championships,

most of the Americans said, "Oh, well, you didn't beat the best guy."

I'm like, "I didn't beat the best guy?"

And I was looking at my trainer and said, "Well, who's this guy?"

"Well, his name's Mike Tyson." So we found where he lived, Catskill.

We drove up there from Canada.

He came to America to box with me.

I remember saying, "Wow, listen to how he talks."

[Lewis] I met him. He greeted me.

He was a nice guy until we went and worked out the next day.

-[bell rings] -[Lewis] When the bell rang,

he just ran over to me and tried to take my head off,

and I was like protecting myself, doing the Muhammad Ali thing.

Because I didn't know how to deal with that type of ferociousness.

It's basically how I spar. It's hard sparring.

Mike is like Dr. Jekyll outside the ring. He's nice, polite.

But Mr. Hyde inside the ring.

As soon as I get in the ring, it's a different story.

I'm the killer then.

-[man 1] Just whacked him. -[man 2] Yeah, I see that.

I was moving around, and Mike kinda got frustrated,

so he kinda put his head up like this to try and have me hit it.

Cus D'Amato said, "Mike, don't you do this!"

"You're gonna fight this guy someday."

So I always remembered that.

We're gonna fight someday. And I was like, "Okay."

[projector whirring]

[Lewis] Later on, he said, "Let's go upstairs

and watch some old-time fights."

He actually hanged up a sheet in his room, and there was a projector there.

He turned it on, and we start watching a lot of different fights.

[Tyson] Every day, all day, before and after training,

I used to watch boxing films.

Most of my fighting heroes are back in the olden days. Watching films…

it's just a whole different ball game from now.

He said, "Have you ever seen these guys before?" I said, "No."

[Tyson] Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Joe Gans, Joe Walcott,

so many guys, so many nationalities. They're all fucking legends.

[spectators cheering]

I'd be sleeping at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning,

and I'd hear Mike training above me in the house,

shadowboxing against Joe Lewis or Jack Johnson.

He's just watching,

and he's pretending like he's fighting, he's sparring them in the ring.

[Tyson] I used to pick his brain 24 hours a day,

just trying to rip everything from his head.

All day, I'm in his fucking face. "Cus, what happened to this guy?"

"What happened when he fought? What happened back in 1922?"

Did you see when he fought Mad Dog?

[D'Amato] Yes, I did.

"Do you remember that fight? Were you there in 1922, and Dempsey?"

"Yeah, I was there," he says.

I used to know it all back then.

[music fades out]

[Patti] After Mike won the Junior Olympics,

Cus wanted Mike to have 20 or 30 more amateur fights.

And then Mike and Cus had a plan for Mike to turn pro.

[tense music playing]

The amateurs is all about gaining experience.

Before you turn pro, you have to have the most amount of experience possible.

You had to fight in horrible places and get no press for it.

It was beautiful.

It's real fight fans constantly going crazy, screaming.

Cigarette smoke all in the place.

[commentator] Tyson does not fool around. He comes at you with a vengeance.

[commentator 2] Mike Tyson knocked out every fighter he fought.

[spectators cheering]

Mike was putting in the extra effort, and the results were showing.

He was an absolute force to be reckoned with in amateur boxing.

This is me. I'm here. That's how Mike Tyson began.

I went back periodically to see my friends.

They were dying doing the stuff they were doing.

We're shooting dice one day, and Mike comes to the project.

Nice haircut, nice clothes on, clean sneakers.

We look at him like, "Shit! Mike's clean."

I came back there with the energy and confidence

that I'm gonna conquer the world, 'cause Cus had put that shit in my mind.

Then I come home and I'm telling my mother,

and she thinks I'm a weirdo.

I was just a kid. I was so proud. I thought I'm going to be somebody.

I'm in this horrible apartment,

decrepit, dilapidated apartment, falling apart,

rats, bugs, roaches, and I'm telling her how great I am.

[laughs] I'm telling her how great I am.

She must think I'm totally insane.

"These white people done fucked my son up."

"Read, Ma. Read about me." She said, "No, I'll read about it later."

She'd never heard no talk like this from me before.

She said, "There's always somebody better."

I said, "Yes, exactly, Ma. I'm the guy you're talking about

that's always better than the other guy. That's me."

"I'm the guy you're talking about right here."

She didn't like me no more after that. She thought something was wrong.

Didn't understand where all this confidence

and all this zest came from.

[D'Amato] Did you see that picture clearly?

Good picture, isn't it?

[Tyson] My mother never got to see me fight.

She was very sick.

I would go to the hospital and see my mother.

She was doing bad. She wasn't gonna last long.

Cancer, cirrhosis of the liver. She was just really bad.

It was just hard, because I was talking to her,

and the next thing you know, boom, she's dead.

When Mike's mother passed away, Mike dealt with it completely on his own.

And I had just lost my little brother.

And so I went to Mike one day, and I said, "I'm sorry you lost your mom."

"I lost my brother. If you ever need somebody to talk to, let me know."

Mike just looked at me. He goes…

And that was it. Never talked about it again.

Cus told me, "Just keep on succeeding in life."

"That's what she wants you to do, is keep succeeding."

[intense dramatic music playing]

[Patti] Cus knew it was time for Mike to go after the big goal.

Youngest heavyweight champion ever.

[Tyson] Cus said, "We're pro fighting now. It's time to sign a contract."

And he told me, "I did not put a gun to your head

to make you sign this contract, right?" I said, "Yeah." So I signed the contract.

[Patti] Traditionally in boxing, a manager gets 33%,

the trainer gets 10%, and the fighter gets the rest.

And that's the agreement they had.

I really didn't care much about the money back then.

I was so focused on fighting.

From the moment the decision was made to turn professional,

Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Cayton became the managing partners of Mike Tyson.

I have good friends like Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton,

who are thoroughly and completely honest and competent in every area.

[Patti] Jimmy Jacobs thought like Cus.

He managed like Cus, because they were very close for decades.

But Cus maintained control of all the decisions.

The goal was to be the youngest heavyweight champion.

Before me, the famous fighter Floyd Patterson was the youngest champ.

And Floyd won it at 21 and 10 months.

Now Mike is 19 and 10 months. So he's got two years.

[Tyson] My first pro fight was with Hector Mercedes.

He had a losing record. He was a short, fat kid.

The morning of the fight, he comes in, he goes, "I'm ready. I'm gonna win this."

I said, "I know you are." I said, "Go out and dominate."

He doesn't get a glove laid on him.

Stopped him in the first round.

[announcer] And the winner, in his professional debut, Mike Tyson!

[spectators cheering]

I was ringside for most all of Mike's first pro fights.

And from the moment he entered the arena and climbed up those stairs,

you knew something special was gonna happen.

[commentator] We're in round one.

But we didn't get much chance to see Tyson.

Just a kid, and I'm knocking out guys. And I can't believe I'm doing this.

[commentator] Can Tyson finish this? I think so. So that's enough…

I raised my hand, and the place went crazy.

[spectators cheering]

And I'm, "Cus will be pissed."

"Surprised you knocked him out? Didn't you train all year for this?"

[commentator] Tyson hits like a steam hammer.

[commentator 2] So Tyson goes 5-0 with all five knockouts.

[Patti] It was just a systematic predator and prey.

He have a sledgehammer, man. It's the hardest I've ever been hit.

He was starting to get some recognition.

He was starting to get a following of people really talking about him.

[dramatic music playing]

[Wallace Matthews] When I was covering boxing for Newsday in 1985,

I was young in the business.

One day, myself and my fellow boxing writers at the other papers

were sent a VHS tape.

Mike Tyson's first several fights.

[commentator] Well, this one could be over.

Boy, Mike Tyson is powerful.

-23-pound weight advantage. -[commentator 2] Oh my goodness!

They were all knockouts. And it was a coordinated campaign.

It brought Tyson to the attention of a lot of people who hadn't seen him,

myself included.

[Barry Tompkins] I was at HBO, and they started talking about this kid.

That he was working with Cus D'Amato and living up in the Catskills.

The people at HBO said, "We like this kid. We're gonna see how far he goes."

The whole thing was based around a… a motto.

"Cus and the kid," you know,

and there was a paternalistic thing about it.

[narrator] In their four years together, Michael Tyson and Cus D'Amato

have given each other the same gift, a future.

A chance for Mike. A second chance for Cus.

[Matthews] There was nothing altruistic about this.

I mean, why? Why was he doing it? Why was he doing it?

Because, "This is my way to get another heavyweight champion."

I mean, guys like Cus D'Amato hang around in gyms,

and they wait forever for Mike Tyson to walk in.

At that time, boxing was just kind of wallowing.

[Matthews] Boxing was kind of going through a doldrum.

All these guys that followed Larry Holmes

and were trading the title back and forth, they were nobodies.

They weren't Muhammad Ali.

There was nobody that anybody would know outside the world of boxing.

And now here comes this kid.

[Matthews] I need a guy like this.

This could be my Muhammad Ali. This could be my Jack Dempsey.

[Tompkins] You hear the punches.

It sounded like dropping a watermelon off a building.

[punch lands]

[Tyson] Not to be egotistic, but my shots are so accurate and so precise,

I can't help who you are. You have to go down.

Cus told me, "The more you hurt people, the more these people will love you."

[spectators cheering]

He said, "They'll name their children after you if you listen to me."

It was fun to see him because this is a man I sparred with,

so I wanted to know how far he could get.

[commentator] Make no mistake about it. That was a good performance.

[Fagan] To see one of our friends really be called now Kid Dynamite,

it was something.

"That's fuckin' Dirty Mike!" Like, whoa! We didn't believe him. He's doing it.

Around the time when Mike had nine professional fights,

and then Cus was having some health challenges.

His deterioration was pretty swift.

[Tyson] Well, he never told me he was sick.

He never let me have any information about his health.

[Floyd Russ] Did you visit him in the hospital? Or what happened?

Yeah, I visited him in the hospital. [clears throat]

Did you know he would pass then? What did you talk about?

Yeah, we were talking about he was gonna pass.

This was gonna be my last time talking with him.

[somber music playing]

I know once I left that room, I was gonna never see him again.

What did he say to you? What did you say to him?

Um… "Be a champ," you know. I said, "I don't want to fight anymore."

That's it. He said, "If you don't, I'll haunt you."

And, um…

[sighs softly]

Can you turn that off?

Yeah.

[D'Amato] 'Cause when he's independent of me, I have succeeded.

He has succeeded when he becomes champion.

I have succeeded when I made him independent of me,

that he doesn't need me anymore.

Why did I put myself through this bullshit?

[Floyd Russ] Why do you think it's bullshit?

'Cause it's painful. 'Cause it's really painful.

[somber music continues]

[voice breaking] I promised him I'd be the greatest fighter ever.

[softly] But why is that important, though?

Why is that so important? I look at it now.

Why is that so important?

I'm 60 years old. Why was that shit so important?

There's something wrong with me. Gotta be something wrong.

This shit shouldn't bother me.

Somebody might see me crying and think, "This motherfucker is weak."

When it's just the opposite.

Greatest heavyweight champion of all time. That's it. That's what he wants.

You were the pet project of one of the all-time great trainers, Cus D'Amato.

Would it be overstating the case if I said he basically saved your life?

No, not overstating it at all.

[Patti] To lose that support structure around you

was absolutely really devastating for Mike.

But we were trained to be emotionally detached.

You control your emotions to such a degree that you're impenetrable.

"There's nothing about me that's vulnerable."

"I am a destructive machine."

In spite of how you might feel, you have a job. Go to work.

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Tyson!

[spectators cheering]

[commentator] Don't blink, 'cause you could miss it.

[upbeat music playing]

[commentator 2] Mike Tyson is absolutely awesome.

[commentator 3] First punch he threw, and it's over.

After Cus passed,

Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Cayton were now in charge of his career.

And Mike was still marching through exactly as Cus would have wanted.

[commentator 4] 12 and 0. 12 straight knockouts, Mike Tyson.

There was a sense of inevitability. It was pretty remarkable.

It's like, "Wow! They can't even hit him. He gets in right away."

[commentator 5] Tyson does not throw wild punches.

[commentator 6] Big left hook.

He's breathing, and nose is just pouring out.

I'm thinking about that dream of being champ.

Everything else didn't matter. Keep moving up.

[spectators cheering]

[commentator] How many times have we seen that?

Mike was beautiful in the same way a train wreck's beautiful.

[commentator 7] A couple of lefts. Now a right, a left. He's got him down!

He was there to destroy people.

He really was unlike anybody up to that time that I'd ever seen,

and since, for that matter.

[Lewis] Mike Tyson brought a new level of excitement to the heavyweight division

that nobody's ever seen before.

That energy where you're sitting on the edge of your seat.

You don't wanna go to the bathroom because you might miss something.

You might miss that knockout.

[commentator 8] …to go, and there is a solid shot.

We had a running joke on press row where we'd time the national anthem

and take bets on, "Will the fight go longer or shorter?"

[announcer] Mike Tyson!

Mike Tyson!

[man] You're gonna fight all the time. Everybody.

That's right. That's what I'm in the business for.

Within a year, Mike's already building up to being a top contender

and heavyweight sensation.

[commentator 1] Uppercut, and Marvis is hurt.

[commentator 2] Frazier is down.

[Tyson] I wanted to be able to throw the greatest punches,

the greatest timing.

I wanted to be the greatest champion.

Every day, all day, all I did was think about myself.

Say I'm the greatest fighter God created,

greatest fighter since the beginning of life.

I say these things over and over and over and over again.

And when you say it so consistently, it grabs you.

Everything that's in your vision, everything that's in your sight,

you have to believe is inferior to you.

That's what I learned from Cus.

[commentator] And joining us ringside here is unscathed, unmarked,

and undefeated, Mike Tyson.

By the time I'm 20, I have enough fights for the title.

I'm number one in the WBC, number one in the WBA,

so it doesn't matter. I'm gonna fight for the title either way.

Are you confident right now you can beat anybody?

Most definitely, yeah.

[tense music playing]

[reporter] Mike Tyson will now face the greatest challenge of his short career

when he meets Trevor Berbick on November 22nd

for the WBC heavyweight title.

-Do you have a prediction? -The thing is, I'm going there to win.

And I'm gonna try and take him out before seven rounds.

Heavyweight boxing contender, Mike Tyson.

Mike's just barely over 20 years old.

I had a great teacher in Cus D'Amato, and he was saying

he didn't care how young you are. Age is all in the mind.

[Tyson] It would've been great to fight for my title before Cus died,

but it wasn't meant to be that way.

People want to see Mike's ascension to capturing that heavyweight crown.

[Joan Rivers] When you're going to train, do you give up sex?

-No. [laughs] -[Rivers laughs]

I think he's refreshing to boxing.

He's got some dynamite in his fists, no doubt about that. He's a good boxer.

Now Tyson, of course, has a chance to be the youngest heavyweight champion ever.

Once I break this record, I'm at this plateau alone,

and the record, I believe, will last for immortality.

Nobody will ever break the record.

Is there any way in your mind that you can see you losing this fight?

No way. Perhaps if I chop off both of my arms.

[news anchors laugh]

[tense music continues]

[Patti] The lead-up to the Trevor Berbick fight,

the anticipation is what was the most palatable, because it was there.

The electricity in Vegas at the Hilton Hotel.

This is where it all happened. Listen, this is how it was back then.

When you came in here, as soon as you come in here,

boom, it's all in your face. Everybody's drinking, partying.

All the fighters that weren't fighting just came to see the fighters.

Celebrities would be here hanging out. Sylvester Stallone would be here.

See? Everybody. Everybody would be out here hanging out.

[reporter] How good is Mike Tyson, really?

This fight has brought everybody out of the woodwork.

[Tyson] And it was just beautiful. I was just a boy.

[commentator] So now the moment of truth is not far off.

He could go into the record books tonight

as one of the very youngest heavyweight champions of all time.

[D'Amato] A guy comes to me with a spark.

I fan the spark until it becomes a flame.

[Tyson] I always had his picture in my locker room.

I just wanted him to look at me.

He always was with me.

[D'Amato] I feed the flame until it becomes a fire.

Before the fight, I said to Cus, "I'm gonna really hurt this guy, I think."

More than anything, I wanted to do it for him.

[referee] Both of you. Now, listen.

When you-- If you get in close…

[Tyson] I just knew he was in trouble.

Because I was the trouble that he was into.

That's how I knew.

[commentator] We're just about ready for round one.

And let's watch how quick Tyson will jump on Trevor Berbick.

His whole life has been for this night.

Mike Tyson, kind of feeling him out here,

but he goes to that right-hand lead right away.

He's wild with the left hook, is Berbick. And Tyson-- Look at this combination!

And Berbick ready to go, but he stays on his feet.

Wild with the right hand is Mike. Catches him on off-foot.

Trevor's ready to go again.

I want to hurt him real bad.

[commentator] A good round one for Mike Tyson.

[D'Amato] You're gonna do real damage. You might drop the guy with one punch.

[bell rings]

[commentator] This is round two. The WBC heavyweight championship of the world.

Tyson goes to work right away,

and he gets Trevor in trouble, and he's down!

He'll have to take the standing eight count as he steps right up.

The count's to four, and five, and six.

I know it's over. I'm just trying to keep my composure.

[commentator] Here comes Tyson again.

He knows he can hurt him anytime. Left hook, right hand.

Twenty years old, Mike Tyson on his way to becoming

one of the youngest heavyweight champions of all time.

[D'Amato] You're gonna let that punch go with the worst kind of intention.

Bang! Over here. Bang with the left hook here or here.

[commentator] Bangs the body. Wow! With an uppercut.

Catches him with a light left hook, and he goes down!

[spectators cheering]

[commentator] He goes down. He should be able to get up from this.

His legs may be shot. They are.

I don't know if he's gonna be able to continue.

And he's counted out. It'll be scored as a knockout.

It's all over.

We've got a brand-new heavyweight champion of the world,

Mike Tyson.

Just a kid. Doesn't know anything about life but believes he does.

[announcer] The youngest and new WBC heavyweight champion of the world,

Michael Tyson.

[Patti] That was a true, pure moment.

I mean, all that work.

If you think back on the totality of what it took to get there,

it's pretty overwhelming.

Mike took him out quickly. That was impressive for me.

I was like, "Oh man, he took out Trevor Berbick."

Trevor Berbick is a strong man.

[Tompkins] You know, they talk about killer instinct.

He defined it.

I was coming to destroy and win the heavyweight championship of the world,

which I done.

I'd like to dedicate my fight to my great guardian, Cus D'Amato,

I'm sure he's up there, looking, talking to the great fighters

and saying his boy did it.

And smiling. That's right.

Oh, he would've loved that fight. That fight… He would've been laughing.

He would've said, "My fighter is the greatest fighter that ever lived."

Well, he's always with me, but I never think about him.

He wouldn't want that, because I'm a professional,

and I don't get involved emotionally because it inhibits my performance.

It was spectacular,

but there was a melancholy to it too, and I'll tell you a story.

That night, I came back to the hotel lobby.

Had to be 4:00, 5:00 in the morning.

And who's sitting in a chair by himself with the title belt around his waist

but Mike Tyson?

You know, usually a heavyweight champion has got people around him like flies.

And he was just there by himself, and it was a very odd scene.

And I was like, "What's going on?"

And he goes, "I'm just sitting here."

And he looked kind of almost sad. He was, like, alone.

Can you imagine that, being a little kid, 20 years old, high school dropout,

and you're the champ of the world?

My mother and then my mentor, my teacher,

the people who I wanted the most to see the success…

not exist.

No one else even mattered back then besides those two,

about as far as being proud of me.

And I knew they would have been.

[music fades out]

I always wanted to tell him that the world thinks I'm the greatest fighter ever.

I wish he was here to hear them say that.

[somber music playing]

But he couldn't prepare me for myself.

There's more than becoming the youngest champion.

There's so much more that comes with that.

The liberation, the scrutiny, the pain.

No. Just get out of here, come on.

[laughing]

[Tyson] It's hard to navigate your true self

when you really don't know who the fuck you are.

[dramatic music playing]

[music fades out]