May 19, 2008 @ 12:51 pm

Tyson Documentary Premiers At Cannes

by: Linda Hobbs

Fighter, film receive standing ovation

For years he’s been called a “loose-cannon,” “abuser,” “winner,” “loser,” “inspiration,” “nut-case”— but over the weekend, former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was a film star.

Tyson’s documentary Tyson debuted over the weekend at the Cannes film festival. Directed by the boxer’s long-time associate James Toback, Tyson documents the boxer’s tumultuous rise to prominence as one of the most feared and celebrated boxers of all-time, and his storied collapse.

Tyson includes the revealing details that even diehard fans never knew about the boxer like his losing $300 million over the last few decades, the AP reports. It also sheds light into his romantic life- rife with sexual details- about how Tyson sought to capture and possess the women in his life.

"Jim, he just elicited all this stuff out of me, I don't know how he did it," Tyson said. As for his now-famous marriage to actress Robin Givens, a seeming fairytale turned nightmare after Givens accused Tyson of physical abuse, Tyson looks at the situation in hindsight. “We were just kids," he says.

During the standing ovation, the 239-pound, 41-year-old ex champion let his sensitive side slip. “I've never experienced anything like this in my whole career,” he admitted. "I'm an athlete and this is totally out of my field here - it's kind of intimidating."

In 1986, at 20-years-old Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in the world. He was an undisputed champion from 1987 until 1990.

Article tags: Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, 50 Cent