Original subtitles

I really thought a lot about myself.

I was the greatest fighter that ever lived.

We always say somebody is the greatest fighter that ever lived.

But my ego was always a forerunner for my low self-esteem.

But cocaine and liquor, it gives you that

courage and that confidence.

It feels incredible when it's working, when you first start using it.

You can't do no wrong.

And then it starts to get ugly.

You never really know that you're addicted to drug until it's really too

late.

My name is Cino.

I specialize in addictions.

I've been Mike's therapist for about 19 years now.

When we first met, he was depressed. He was suicidal.

He was not in a good place.

I'm not saying I'm not afraid to die.

I'm just saying I wasn't clinging to life back then.

I felt bad that I felt like that. I felt greedy.

In order for you to be as good as you were, you had to turn the darkness on.

I'm very chaotic.

All my life exists of controlled chaos.

You know, when the camera comes on, they come on.

If I wanted to accomplish something in life, those demons will appear.

We try to fight somebody prior to the second Holyfield fight.

But Mike said, you know, I want Holyfield.

This has been a long time grudge.

It's about who will remain the baddest man on the planet standing.

He wants revenge.

There's been a thousand boxing matches of the century. This one may be it. We

got back to camp fast. Mike was hyper-focused.

Mike's dedicated. Mike's going to the gym. Mike's sparring.

I'm up with Mike at 4.30 in the morning, and Mike's running. When he's training

and locked in, they don't want nobody around him. You can't even bring no kind

of girls around.

That's when he's like, that's when you know he ready.

I'm going to slip him forward to one. I think if I win, I win, it will be a

knockout. First fight, the headbutts affected Mike greatly, and he had to

overcome that.

He had a goal again.

He wanted to disprove that Holyfield was better.

I'm more focused now than I've ever been.

Coming into this fight, I realized I got to bring more than I broke last time.

The advent of cable television was into everybody's homes, and so the hype and

the media behind this captured everybody's attention worldwide.

I was a volcano waiting to explode.

The rematch is here.

Tyson predicting a sensational victory.

They just don't want to fight and win.

Here we go, fight two, round one.

A straight right by Mike Tyson, shrugged off by Evander Holyfield.

Bad intentions on the punches from both fighters.

First couple of rounds, Mike is smooth.

And a lot of movement by Tyson.

He's moving good.

He's ready. He's on point.

Nice right hand by Mike. He is trying to get that right hand home.

And lo and behold,

There's a huge headbutt.

There's a cut.

Just like in the first fight, Tyson looks over for help from the referee.

Holyfield clinches, headbutt, gashed eye.

Here we go for round three.

You just wonder what mental scars have been left in Tyson's mind from the first

battle. I was getting pretty angry at this moment, yeah.

The cut over the right eye is fairly deep.

You can see the headbutts. You can see he's frustrated.

And then we saw Holyfield jump like a little kid when they'd have a tantrum.

Evander Holyfield, look out, he's pushed right here above us by Tyson.

Ringside, you're like, there's confusion.

What's going on? I don't know what's going on.

Oh my goodness, he's got a bloody right ear.

I looked up at the screen, I said, did he just bite him?

I can't believe what I'm seeing.

I think he just fucking bit him.

Holyfield bit by a dirty Mike Tyson.

What the, like, what just happened? Did he really just do that?

Mike bit him.

Mike bit his ear arm.

I'd never seen anything that remotely resembled it.

He just lost it.

Everybody trying to figure out, is we fighting, is we not, is it over?

There's going to be a two-point deduction.

The fight will go on.

And this is to Evander's credit.

He said, give me my mouthpiece and let's go back. Let's go.

A very angry Evander Holyfield now.

Oh, fuck.

The second bite was obvious because he was in there like

my dog on a bone.

You can see it. You can see it.

You know, I was in total shock because no one had ever been in this situation

before. It's over!

It's over! I think they've just about had enough.

It was pandemonium. Members of both camps got into the ring. Fighting in the

ring after the end of the fight.

Tyson's trying to get at Holyfield again, I believe.

I didn't feel safe in there. I didn't know what the crowd was going to do.

It is complete diplomat. Tyson is just taking swipes at anybody in front of

him.

When I was watching it, I could not fucking believe that it was happening.

Your whole concept of an athlete or a thing is changing right in front of you.

It was the most unprofessional thing I'd ever seen in the sport of boxing.

Mike Tyson has apparently lost his reason.

Mike was going crazy, and I'm trying to hold Mike back. I'm like, Mike, let's

get out of here. Come on, let's go.

And we left out of the ring.

Tyson's bodyguard fighting with the security.

People throwing waters and cups and all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, it was crazy.

Pandemonium breaking out here as Mike Tyson is leaving the ring.

People getting knocked over. Our camera goes down.

So I went back to the locker room. I guess when a guy feels that he's

pleading with the referee to give him some consideration and he don't get the

consideration, then he just goes beyond reason.

And one thing about Don King.

Don knows that he had an audience that he had to satisfy.

So he made it his mission to go inside and he brought Mike back out.

You bit him. Was that a retaliation for the eye?

Regardless of what I did, he bit me for two fights. But you got to address it,

Mike. I did address it. I addressed it in the ring.

Mike went in survival mode.

and did what he had to do, just like if he was on the street. I can't continue

getting butted like that. I got children to raise, and this guy keeps butting me,

trying to cut me and get me stopped on cut. I got to retaliate.

I'm sorry.

And you know what? If you're getting headbutted, knock the other guy out or

butt him back.

Mike would say, you do what you got to do to win and apologize later.

That's just a philosophy.

He spit the mouthpiece out.

He spit the mouthpiece out. Vander had kept his cool.

And part of it was because if Vander had done the exact same thing as an amateur,

he had bit an opponent's ear.

You know, I truly believe that fear, fear itself calls people to do the

easiest thing, the quickest thing to get out. What are you going to do now in

terms of your career, Mike? Will you continue to fight?

Okay, okay.

And it just happened.

Too much fault.

I can't blame no one for that.

I'm really a sport brat.

Especially a small brat in boxing, so I was being a brat.

Why do you think you lost control?

Just at the moment.

He was headbutting me. He was kicking my ass, too.

I just lost my head. I just lost it.

Now the question is, will boxing shut down Mike Tyson? If he has any

credibility as a fighter, he's got to apologize for what he did. I don't feel

a bit sorry for him. I think that he should be banned. He doesn't deserve to

box under the rules of boxing.

Oh, they killed me.

They pressed their number on me.

Tyson acts like a thug. I think he should be barred from boxing forever as

a punishment.

Even Bill Clinton felt a certain way about it when he saw what happened, you

know? Your personal reaction to what happened in that Tyson fight on Saturday

night? I was horrified.

Wow, really? Look who's talking, huh?

So now, you know, he's Hannibal Lecter as well.

Mr.

Tyson needs some mental health.

I think he's really having a problem. He's struggling.

Why do you think... You did what you did. I know you lost it. Everyone loses

it in some ways. I think for the first time in my professional career in

boxing, I think I got personal.

I got mad.

I was wrong.

And I expect to pay the price.

We knew there was consequences of his actions.

We was trying to minimize him.

But we knew the boxing commission... They had to do what they had to do. This

is a very serious matter. Not only the biting incident, but the fighting

afterwards and all that is not going to be put up with in the state of Nevada.

The commission revoked his license.

Tyson cannot fight, nor even train.

He was fined a max, and he was suspended.

Nobody's ever been penalized. The millions of dollars that Mike was

financially penalized.

I pretty much believed I was going to be banned forever.

And it was really bad when I got suspended.

Mike was isolated.

He wasn't fighting.

I think Mike became bitter. And you got a million people coming after Mike.

Well, the IRS has hit former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson with a knockout punch.

They've placed a huge lien on his mansion in Connecticut, $6.3 million.

How did this happen?

I didn't know.

When the IRS came after me, that's when we did an audit, and we found out where

the money went.

We told Mike, Don is ripping you off.

You're not getting an accurate accounting.

Got some papers and showed him he was being ripped off.

Shelly came in and really exposed a lot with Mike Money being gone.

My lawyers had told me Don was stealing.

They were taking a great share of my money, almost equal as I was taking.

We're talking tens of millions of dollars.

I don't know if Don stole from Mike.

I didn't hear none of the records, see none of the records.

What I do know, and I can testify to, that with Don King as a promoter, Team

Tyson made more money than any boxing team or any sports figure in history.

I asked Don King one time, you don't steal from your fighters, do you? He

said, of course I do.

He said, and they're still going to make more money from me than they would from

anybody else.

I know that he was furious with Don for it.

And he also said to me, people don't understand why I'm so angry.

He says, it's not the money. That doesn't matter to me as much.

It's that I love this guy. I trusted him.

I felt very betrayed because they kept the truth from me.

Boxer Mike Tyson has filed suit against his former promoter, Don King, for $100

million. Everybody has a price in life.

Everybody has a price.

The lawsuits and stuff came down. Things got ugly.

This is a lawsuit that totally has no merit at all. And I think the evidence

will back up and support that.

It saddens me that Mike Tyson would let himself be used as a pawn.

Listen, you get these guys.

Shelly Finkels.

These are guys who manipulated Mike.

I think they're vultures.

So do you think Shelly kind of weaseled his way in a little? That's exactly what

happened. That's just the way it is? Listen, it's just the way it is.

I truly cared about Mike.

Mike and I always had a good relationship.

and was interested in him as the person as opposed to a cash machine.

Who's leaving out me?

I'm the power.

I found out I was fired and Team Tyson dismantled,

watching ESPN like everybody else.

Tyson is taking a break from co-managers John Horn and Rory Holloway, in which he

sheds the image of a man-child who's coddled and controlled by others.

Why did you part ways with Rory?

Yeah, it was better. I just wanted to start on my own.

We never had a conversation.

To this day? To this day.

It's been over 20 years.

You feel like you guys were...

A good team for a while?

Yes.

Why?

Because it was. Why? I don't know. Yes, it was.

See, that's where it gets fucked up. You ask me why, because they're my team. I

put them together.

You want an explanation? I can't give you an explanation.

No.

I mean, you felt like you guys were training, winning fights, everything was

working okay. I don't understand what you're talking. You're making this

difficult for me now.

Why are you doing that? This is my team. I picked the team.

That's it.

Mike has a big ego. They have big egos.

Once you tear something apart, it's hard to put it back together.

It hit me hard.

It hit me hard. I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't want to be known as no

victim because I made a lot of money with Mike.

I just thought I deserved a conversation.

But Don, one day Point Blank said it.

You cats better have a B plan and essentially you better save your money

because Mike gonna leave y'all.

He was right.

I just wanted to get my life back together.

Did some soul searching.

Going back to my roots and stuff.

There they go.

They wanted to get a dog walking video of us. We could literally walk that way

and walk right back. I don't want to walk the dog.

Well, you're not walking, and we'll just walk, and then they just need a B-roll.

There's a B-roll right here.

Okay,

we got our B-roll.

Boom.

We've been married for 16 years.

We've been together for so long, there's a trust that comes with that.

Trust is a big thing with Mike.

And once he loses that trust, I don't think you ever really gain it back with

him.

He can forgive, but it's done.

I'm sure he was hurt, especially because of his relationship with Rory and Don.

That's very tough, constantly having someone come into your life and say

they're the answer or having to trust somebody to handle something.

being disappointed.

But that is the American story, right?

People love to see you get knocked down and come back.

I ain't going out there, man. You got nothing to worry about.

What you mean I ain't got nothing to worry about?

I was a hero for it in the streets, believe it or not, for biting the band's

ear. A lot of people thought that was entertainment.

By Tyson, he's still my dog. He's still my dog. I'm down with him. And I was

saying to myself, that's really barbaric. We still love you, Mike.

Even though I did it, you know, for somebody to tell me that it was cool,

you know, and you think they're a rational person.

Really, Holyfield brought that onto himself.

I think all fans love him more.

He was headbutting him, so he bit him.

Whoa, this is crazy.

That looks like bite marks. That'll work.

And for the people that say it's not in good taste, I say, yeah, but it tastes

good. I felt like I fucked up. They made it glorious.

And I was seeing what people really were.

I understood it.

It's animalistic shit.

That's what people want.

More fighting in the ring after the end of the fight. They're all animals, man.

That's my field. That's the fire kicking.

Mike Tyson says he's ready to come back to boxing.

Boxing now decides if it's ready for Mike Tyson. I just wanted to let you

know in the Las Vegas Commission, I'm very sorry. I'm extremely sorry.

How you doing, my young man?

Hi. All right.

I'm really a good guy.

My guy.

I welcomed him with open arms, and we started to work together then.

I said, look.

We got to figure out how to get you relicensed, because that's the big key

now. Without your license, you can't fight, and you can redeem yourself in

the ring.

Today, almost in tears, Iron Mike pleaded with the athletic control board

for a chance to fight again.

So Mike has this opportunity to get back in the sport, and athletes have a

closing window.

I'm sorry for what I did, and I wish it never happened. It'll haunt me for the

rest of my life.

I felt like I was in court. I did a crime. I was the bad guy.

We have four yes and one no motion carries.

They suspended Mike for a year.

And they were like, all right, okay, next fight.

Everyone wanted him back because he still was the biggest drawer in the

sport. Is Las Vegas going to turn down a guy who could generate, you know, $100

million in a weekend? Of course not.

Give him back his license. What are you telling him?

As you are, Mike, right?

It all worked. Keep going.

Mike Tyson.

There's a gladiator.

How could it be surprising that men who do that?

have a streak of violence.

And there's something in our innate nature as human beings that attracts us

to that.

It's maybe the most unattractive part of our human nature.

But there it is. These big fights reached its most intense form

in Las Vegas.

Are you fighting to try to get the title back? Just being Mike Tyson is the

motivation. And not alone.

Being me, that's what I do.

What nobody else would do.

They could keep their title. I don't want their title. I want to strip them

of their fucking health.

But it fades, doesn't it, the motivation?

Yeah, but I don't.

I laugh forever.

Everything else fades with me.

You take into the ring a lot of rage.

Does that work for you, or does it work against you at times?

Well, it's a fight, so whatever happens, happens.

It just got to the point where he'd already been vilified, and he just

wasn't going to play the game.

So when you don't care, you have no filter.

Mike, why do you have to talk like that?

Well, I'm talking to you the way I want to talk to you.

Do you have a problem? Turn off your station.

You know what? I think we'll end the discussion right now.

Go off.

There's a twisted charisma that exists there, but you can't turn away.

You think I give a damn about you and any of y'all other... I don't care about

living or dying. I'm not no... I'm a dysfunctional motherfucker.

Everybody's talking about it. You want to be the only one without an opinion on

Mike Tyson?

If I'm not Mike Tyson, the baddest man on the planet, how you gonna make some

money on me?

That became who I was, you know?

Addicted to chaos, controlled chaos. That's just who I became.

What does it mean to be addicted to chaos?

Everybody has to look at me.

You don't know if he's actually that out of control, because he has moments where

he's lucid. I don't know. I'm probably just mad at me. If mad, I don't know

what's mad at me. You're not mad anymore?

No, at least I don't appear to be, no.

But then he says things that are just so fucked up that you're like, what the

hell is going on?

that you can win this fight. Are you talking out of turn?

No, I think we're all talking together.

I normally don't do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them.

Maybe he just did things that were so outlandish because he was trying to top

himself, and so he got lost in it and couldn't reel it in.

I wish one of your guys had children before I could kick them in the fucking

head or stomp on their testicles before you could feel my pain, because that's

the pain I have, waking up every day.

I think that's when I started doing my drugs a little.

I felt like I could do anything in and out of it because everybody told me I

could.

How did you pass your drug tests?

Oh, fuck.

What is the Wizinator?

Do you remember using that?

Yeah. What is it, like a... A fake penis.

That's how I beat the drug test.

Here we go, then.

Using the included syringe, fill the Wizinator with your urine sample.

You are now ready to provide the Wizinator with a heat source so your

urine stays warm.

What, they want to stop this money to come in the city?

They're not going to give that money up because I'm getting high.

Lennox Lewis, I'm coming for you.

Lennox is a conqueror. No, I'm Alexander. He's no Alexander.

I'm the best ever. There's never been anybody as ruthless. I'm Sonny Liston.

I'm Jack Dempsey. There's no one like me. I'm from Nairclaw. There's no one

that can match me. My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable.

And I'm just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children.

When he said he wanted to eat my children, my mom was horrified. Like,

what does he mean he's going to eat your children?

And I'm like, Mom, don't worry about it. It's just jail talk.

I didn't want that era to end without people knowing who the best fighter in

that era was.

Finally, Mike got the fight that the world was waiting for.

One of the biggest announcements in sports history, Mike Tyson, Lennox

Lewis, for the heavyweight championship of the world.

They were bitter rivals.

I'm a tyrannical titan. There's no way he can beat me. He's a cartoon character

to me. I'm going to teach him a lesson. I'm going to discipline him.

I've worked my way up winning the heavyweight championship of the world,

and he's coming to try and get it.

I'm not going to allow that.

I think that Mike never could finish his career without finding Lennox Lewis.

We were training.

And he was digging in.

The press conference was about to come.

And I'm like, yo, we do not need to break camp to go to this press

conference. Ain't no telling what's going to happen if we go to New York.

Introducing the challenger, the WBC number one rated heavyweight in the

world, the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Iron Mike

Tyson.

I was there.

Oh, man, that was an interesting day. I don't think he was in the greatest mood.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the defending champion, he is the

heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Lewis.

And the next thing I know, I've seen him take off his hat and throw it on the

ground. To me, I've seen that before. That's like a declaration of war.

I made sure that I got my punches in first. Boom, boom, boom.

I tried to take Lennox's head off.

I mean, I just missed him.

I start feeling some pain on my leg, and I was pushing against the pain, and I

could see him looking at me like this.

And I was like, yo, he's biting my leg, he's biting my leg.

I was a fucking nut back then, huh?

Everybody say beat you and say yeah, you beat me Lennox Lewis produced like this

bleeding hole in his his leg, you know this we're fighters Why you bite? It's

not a biting match. It's a fighting match.

I Didn't know Mike bidding but he told me I'm sorry

Why why'd you better

let's be in a dick dick sometimes

I was there at the press conference.

They all scared to grab him.

When I jumped on the stage, I said, Mike, we could turn this motherfucker

out or chill the fuck out.

What you want to do?

And he's like, all right, just get off me.

The last time me and him met, you know, we shook hands and we said we'll see

each other down the line.

Thought he was a nice kid.

Seeing this, Mike, I don't know that Mike.

Why is he so mad at me?

And then Tyson did something even weirder.

Mike's facing the audience,

and I'm sideways.

and i'm looking like this but i'm talking to mike as i'm looking i'm like

yo man come on let's get the out of here i

mean this guy was having a

mental breakdown on the stage at this theater i didn't know whether to

chastise him in print to feel sorry for him to call for an ambulance i don't

know what the to do Because this is like the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in

my life.

I

don't

know what happened, though.

Well, I don't know. What do you think happened? I don't know.

No, that's not true, brother. Why did you do it?

I don't judge my emotions.

I don't think I'm weak when I cry.

It's just I don't judge them. It just happens.

This camera, to me, is a narcotics.

This camera.

I'm so overwhelmed and overpowered by this narcotic, I'll make a fool out of

myself.

It's just that addicting.

I'll fuck you till you love me. I will overwhelm you with pain until you give

in to me. Who are you to judge me?

Boxing just done normally is unpredictable.

They throw Tyson in the mix.

You forget about the fight. I mean, he may kill somebody on the way to the

ring. You know, and if he does, you want to be there to see it.

Don't worry, let's fight. He bit me. I'm going to get him back in the ring.

They charged $2,500 a ticket, and I sold that instantly.

I thought it was a big opportunity for me.

I can't wait to make some money.

Lennox Lewis is a very vulnerable guy.

Been knocked out by Tyson's sparring partner, Oliver McCall. He's been

knocked out by Hudson Rockman, and he's a slow starter.

I decide Tyson's going to blitz him in the first round and knock him out.

There's a line of security inside the ring.

Look at the security.

I have never seen this. It's a human partition to keep these guys apart.

We're old enough. We're not kids anymore.

Now I'm a complete fighter

If

you

look at the fight Lennox was nervous about engaging him expected lennox to be

more on the offense and he's not it's mike tyson purely on the attack he threw

a hook and it just missed lennox if that hook had landed he would have done

damage okay just relax yourself baby that was a good round you won the first

round okay he was trying to back me up and i was like yeah you're gonna meet

these uppercuts to show him yo this is what you're gonna get

My hands were a little swolled after, and that was like the first time ever my

hands got swolled, so I was hitting him pretty hard.

There's a little bit of a cut by the right eye of Mike Tyson, you see.

Mentally, as a boxer, when you see somebody cut, it kind of eggs you on,

like, yo, all right.

Fuck.

Remember getting my ass kicked?

For God's sake, you have two hands, you understand?

Just let your hands go.

The next round, I came out to get rid of him.

I seen he was open

for the right hand the round before.

He tries to get up. It looks like Tokyo all over. And it is.

Lennox Lewis knocks out Mike Tyson.

It's over.

Lennox Lewis cements his legacy as one of the best heavyweight champions of

this era.

It was just a great fight.

He did a hell of a job.

I felt that, you know, even the fact that Mike lost, he showed me true

respect by coming and wiping the blood off my face.

That's how he was when I was with him the first time, when we were younger.

I would say that I love and respect him too much to do anything disrespectful to

him. He was, to me, like a big kid in that sense. You know, a kid that's bad

and he's ruthless, and then all of a sudden his mom comes and slaps him and

goes, boop, boop.

And then that kind of wakes him up and says, okay, I'll behave now.

You know, I've been through a lot with Don King and these guys, and it just

really transformed my behavior.

I think it was, I had to do this fight, I did it, and...

Now I'll see where I'm going.

About a week before the Lennox-Lewis fight, Mike invited me to come down and

be a guest.

It was the night of the fight, and she came over, and my face was swollen. She

put the ice on my face all night.

And I think we came back to New York together.

I was, like, taking care of him. He moved into my apartment.

And he had so much charisma and, like, a shyness.

I've never before had that experience, like, in a relationship where I adored

my partner.

But I knew he was off at the time.

I'm not going to say I was naive.

Like, I knew he had a reputation.

But a girl can hope.

I was living a double life.

Never coming home.

Always cheating, having girlfriends all over the place.

He was, like, cheating on me, but, like, having, like, a real relationship with

someone else.

And I was so heartbroken.

Nah, I didn't care.

Getting caught up with partying too much.

Cocaine keeps me up, and that feeds my personality.

It's always my ego talking to me. It's my biggest fan.

When he got his tattoo, it was just crazy times.

I wanted to tattoo my face.

I didn't like the way it looked. I just wanted to change it.

It's one of my rebel acts in life.

Nobody was really walking around with a face tattoo, except if they were, like,

a complete lunatic.

Mike was gonna do here, here, here. He was gonna cover his whole face and go

live in the woods, eat off the berries.

Um, luckily, we talked him out of that.

I knew that everything after this would only be for money and would only be as a

roadshow. I just want to get my shit together. I'm so messed up, man. I just

need to get my life together, brother.

I feel like the tattoo was indicative of what Mike was at that time.

It was just a cultural sideshow.

Mike, were you really sick this week? What was the problem?

I broke my back.

What do you mean by that? Your back is broken.

A vertebrae or what portion?

Spinal. That probably should have been the end of his career, but he didn't go

into oblivion. He came back.

Just a target for McBride.

So why do you keep fighting?

I don't even know. I can't even tell you.

I'm watching the fight, and Mike got beat up by a big white boy.

Kevin McBride, a journeyman, is making Mike... Tyson looked like a third-tier

heavyweight.

It was oddly how you expected the story to end at that point.

Got a knockdown, McBride just pushing Tyson down.

I just wanted to stop that moment.

Tyson quits on his score.

He's not coming out for the seventh round. It's over.

And if he does everything that he's capable of doing,

he may go down as one of the greatest fighters of all time.

I don't have that ferocity. I'm not an animal anymore.

Does that mean we won't see you fight again? Yeah, most likely I'm not going

to fight again.

It's just a dark moment in time.

I didn't care no more.

And I was concerned, what will he do with himself?

What kind of a life will he lead?

Mike, a lot of people wonder what you'll do now with your life. Boxing has been

your whole life. Well, I'm sure I'll find something to do.

And from then, he just kind of starts spiraling down. And he stayed in Phoenix

with his son's mom at the time.

And that's when he was really at his lowest point.

Everybody loves him right away.

Brothers, sisters, stepmothers.

My buddy.

My mom was a dancer at a club in Phoenix.

My dad did a lot of training in Arizona, so that's when he met her.

And, you know, she said that he closed down the strip club, you know, because

he thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

Did you fall in love with her?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Man, I must have been like six, seven, around that age.

We just had this little home in Phoenix.

It was me, my mother, and then they had my sister, Exodus.

We grew up in a family with a lot of love, but also other extremes.

I remember my dad coming off of his retirement and...

yeah just kind of going into like this depressed type of lull in his life he

had his episodes become irrational a lot of screaming a lot of yelling a lot of

you know hiding i was really disastrous as a father at first you know going

on in these rampages where he's throwing furniture across the house and screaming

at my mom and you know locking her in her room while my dad's doing his drugs

and orgies then he would leave wouldn't see him for four or five months at a

time, you know, and it would just be me, my mother, and my sister.

I get a little foggy on the timeline of my dad's relationships because there's a

lot of overlap with different girls.

But this was a time where he was probably also with Kiki.

Mike called me, like, out of the blue, and he wanted me to come visit him in

Vegas.

I started visiting him.

in November of 2007.

I was always waiting to get over him.

He was just, like, the person, like, I never got over.

And then we were exclusive.

I'd never been around, like, an addict.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

You know, um... cocaine is a drink that wants to get you alone and keeps me

alone.

Coke Mike is the worst.

He just doesn't give a shit.

It's

like

watching just a soulless person just infiltrating your space.

It's...

I've never seen anything like it. It just turns you insane.

Turns you insane.

He had spent all of his money, and, I mean, honestly, it was a blessing,

though. I'm really glad he didn't have fuck-you money to throw at the problem.

We really had to communicate, because there was no fuck-you money.

I started to realize he was kind of just living off his fame.

to do all of the things he was doing.

Yeah, I was in need of a buck or two.

I did audition for the hotel lobby for money.

How was that, huh?

What do you think, huh?

Give it up for Mike Tyson, folks. Come on, give it up.

Let's go.

Thank you very much.

It's obviously a lot of energy coming from the crowd.

What does that do for you?

I think these guys are looking to see somebody that don't longer exist

anymore.

I think for that time in Mike's life, he's fighting probably different

versions of himself.

They want me to curse them out. They want me to grab my crotch, and they want

me to be that.

that tough guy.

I say to myself, all that hard work, all that stuff, all the fight, all the ego

talking shit and tough, why is that so important?

Why is that so important?

Why would, you know, really?

That's just, um, that's so ironic. I don't know. I want to change. I want to

run away from that guy, but everybody always pulls that guy back out of me.

Well, I gotta be the baddest motherfucker, though.

Why does somebody have to be that person?

Why does that person have to exist?

i don't know if i'm making sense because i don't it doesn't make sense to me i'm

just trying to get some kind of insight why was that so important i don't know i

don't know anything i really think that's one thing i do know that i don't

know anything i just don't know anything at that time there

weren't consistency in gigs because of mike's past there was no money anymore

and then everything shifted because He had the fluke with the hangover.

Mike Tyson?

This is my favorite part coming up right now.

He still got it.

He had no idea that was about to happen.

I went there and...

We were in a phase of just doing what we had to do to get by. Then all of a

sudden, people are recognizing him for that, and the phone was ringing a little

bit more.

And once he starts to get the fame and the money again, You know, these

insecurities start coming up, and I think the cocaine and all that stuff

just fuels that emotion.

Like a time bomb, you just didn't want to be around when it went off.

So many people don't get to live half of one year of your life, Mike.

Well, that's good for them. They don't get half to spend the pain of my life.

Maybe it's not too much pain, but the pain I'll survive will kill somebody

else.

From that perspective.

It's really not too hard.

Some people are just built to endure pain and suffering, you know?

People are built for it.

We were renting this townhouse, and Exodus' mother called.

A friend picked up the phone and said, Mike, we have to go to Phoenix.

Exodus hurt herself.

It's one of the first memories I actually have.

I was seven, she was four.

That day, me and Exodus got up early.

We're hanging out together, drawing.

And then we turn on SpongeBob in the other room just to have some background

noise.

And focus on my drawing.

And I said, just go, you know, play in the other room or something like that.

Usually she would always come back, you know, it shouldn't bother you as little

sisters do with older brothers.

But my mom gets up maybe an hour later or so and she asked me, you know,

go get Exodus for breakfast.

So I just walk into the room right next door, right? And I walk and I look to my

right and I just see the treadmill cord and my sister's just hanging from it.

neck electrocuted and blood.

And I just walked calmly to the next room and just tell my mom, Exodus is

dead.

How did you keep going after that?

After you lose a daughter?

Well, shit, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know.

We're still working on that.

You know, it's... Like, grief is a weird thing, especially...

You know, a parent losing a child.

It's... He'd have some okay days, and he'd have some really, really sad days,

and some days he'd just have days he'd just cry.

When I first met him... He had to really be in extraordinary pain.

And I also knew that was fueling his addiction as well.

He was close to checking out of life. He really was suspended.

He was in a really severely just disabled place.

He started going to therapy with CINO.

It was really tough because he was just so intrusive.

I had to see if he was serious or not.

You know, I didn't know because, you know, he's a junkie. He's a street guy.

He's a hustler. He's a grifter.

Is it what's... I got to figure out what's real or not.

Is he serious about getting better?

And so he lived here on and off for about two or three months at a time.

This is not a big, fancy place.

It's where you try to get sober.

When I was in rehab, you start to discover who you are and you find out if

you like yourself or not.

I felt like I was in the army.

Gotta clean this room.

You know, it was bumpy.

But the more he got sober, the more I think shame, the more embarrassment he

had about some of the different things he did.

And he relapsed numerous times.

He relapses, and he walks into my room, and he just sits on the bed and just

puts his head on my shoulder and starts crying, right? Just apologizing for

everything.

Think about how this stuff may affect your children.

You know, most people like me, their children don't wind up too good.

You know?

He would have a relapse, and he would be missing a couple days.

And then, of course, no one can sleep. We're all looking for him.

Back then, every time I watched TMZ, I know I'm going to see Mike Tyson. Oh, we

found Mike Tyson dead.

Morning, Arizona.

OK.

He's going to be one of them tragedies, man, like Mike Tyson overdose.

I mean, I remember one time I was, like, even just trying to, like, Google and

find out where he was, and then the next day he walks in the house like nothing,

and I just laid it into him.

My wife, my babies, they can't stop me from doing that. I have to want to stop.

Nobody, there's no reason to stop me from killing myself and hurting myself

if I don't want it to stop. No one can stop me. It's just, that's just how my

brain works.

We've been in many rehabs together.

You're going to be an addict all your life.

You already know that.

It's too late for, you know, you to say, you know, you'll never do it again.

The last relapse that he had, he had, like, a mega relapse.

I thought about it a little bit, and I think about this. It's ODing, and I'm...

I literally,

I thought he was going to die.

So we were all just trying to think like how we can get Mike to get better.

At the time, we had this friend.

He knew a shaman.

who does this thing called 5-MeO DMT.

It comes from the bufa alvarius toad.

They call it the god molecule.

And when you take it, whatever kind of addictions or things that you're going

through, it helps, like, level them in your mind.

We did an intervention with some toads, you know, DMT, and it blew my mind.

I've done it over 100 times.

Anytime I have to make a big decision about anything, I take the toll.

But it worked?

I haven't used cocaine or drank since.

What's it like, though?

Why don't you do it with me?

I don't know if I can.

Come on, you can. You can do it with me. I'm serious.

It's an ego death.

I love you.

For someone that's lived such a life that was based on his ego, it's very

therapeutic for Mike to be able to let all that go.

You're not going anywhere with me, baby.

It attacks my demons right away.

It confronts you with your fears, too.

And I'm still scared of it.

Kiki, stop.

Kiki.

Just breathe.

No.

No, stop.

Let me get up.

This is all bullshit.

Why did I do this?

Why do I want to be this person? Stop.

Why do I want to die? I can't understand.

This is what this is about.

I'm not going to sit here and... This is what you want. Why do you want me to

stop? Why are you stopping me?

Don't you want me to die?

Kiki, I don't want to die in front of all these people.

But it's beautiful, nigga.

Fuck this.

The most publicly demanded pilot

in our time. Iron Mike Tyson.

This is me.

That's how my tightness began.

Is that our ego saying, mortal, I'm immortal?

Or is that just bullshit?

You can still fight, right? Why don't you fight this way? Why don't you fight?

Did it tell me that?

Yes, it did. He brainwashed me. He cleaned a dirty mind.

I have to get to the core of the person.

My mother, my mentor, the people who I wanted the most to see the success

not exist.

Fear is like fire.

Life is about loss.

Everything's about loss.

My father's intimidating to me. My father is a deadbeat.

I had to go through this journey alone.

I'm capable of being loved.

Oh, shit.

Everyone knows.

What are you hiding now?

We did this shit on television, huh? The Toad.

For worldwide, huh?

I swear to

God, it was like... I got Mike back.

Like, he literally, that fast.

Never thought Mike was cured.

I think he's gonna be okay.

He's gonna be good.

You know, but he's got some fucking powerful demons.

It's rewarding, actually, to see my dad become a more involved father.

He accepts himself more as a normal person in a family.

But I don't think he'll ever really have closure.

I think he's just so broken from his past that he is probably beyond fixing.

But I know inside there is a broken guy just trying to be a good father.

I didn't have a family growing up, so I wanted to try to break that cycle in my

life. It sounds so mundane, but I wanted to give my children what I didn't have.

We have two kids together, our son, Morocco, and

our daughter, Milan.

Come on, Morocco, fight.

One, two, get up. To see Mike not just be physically present with the kids,

but... being present with them emotionally.

Good job, good job.

Thank you.

It's a real gift.

What kind of tennis dad is your dad for? He claps his hands.

Awesome,

awesome.

It's funny, like, Mike hasn't changed.

He's just evolved.

Tyson's taking to Broadway.

A confessional one-man show. You know, I'm domesticated now.

I think the fact that he can reinvent himself speaks to his legacy.

A comeback of sorts.

Mike Tyson, film star. Not bad for a washed-up, facially tattooed. The

impenetrable Mike Tyson.

Look at me now.

I ain't Mike again.

For a man or any person to endure all of them ups and downs and

still stand with some kind of dignity, man, you gotta respect it.

He has a way of reaching people.

He's able to laugh at himself at this stage in his life and not take it so

serious.

Someone needs help solving the mystery.

It's the people who make you the champion of the world, who make you the

legend, who makes you whoever it is you are in life.

It's all about the people.

I think the fame is really what it is.

Every kid would dream of being on top of the world.

He literally got there.

And like any drug, you're just chasing that high.

I think even today, it's hard to let that go.

I had to be crazy to believe I was the greatest fighter that ever lived.

People want to believe in the impossible.

How could there ever be the greatest fighter that ever lived when people of

this generation and generations and generations are fighting?

That person doesn't exist.

But we want something that just can exist.

You know, as a kid like me, I just want to look at and follow guys like me. I

just want to be somebody so bad.

You had that as a young kid.

I've been rich and broke more than anybody I know.

I've never had them get bored. Always, all of it or nothing.

What happens to me doesn't happen to people.

I know that I'm special.

I know I'm special.

I have no idea.

I'm very special.

I don't have to exist.

I don't have to exist.

For some reason, something allowed me to exist.

And I give praise to that.