At 20 years old, Mike Tyson became the youngest ever heavyweight-boxing champion—the baddest man on the planet with global fame and a fortune worth more than $300 million. Now the controversial sports icon opens up about his acclaimed award-winning documentary Tyson (Sony). The film details his dramatic rise and fall, and what he feels is his redemption.
VIBE: So Tyson got a standing ovation last May at the Cannes International Film Festival?
Mike Tyson: It was crazy. I said let’s give it a run because I trusted James [Toback, the director]. I got an ovation for nothing because it was just me expressing where my life was at the particular time. But sometimes I wish I wasn’t as honest as I was. Sometimes I come across crude and people get the wrong impression. I didn’t know what these folks wanted from me.
How did director Toback talk you into doing the film?
I never had a documentary done about myself. I’ve had 40 or 50 books written about me by different authors, but they are not true. James is a longtime friend of mines and he just approached me and explained the significance and historic impact of giving my own point of view; that archive shit.
You start off the film by saying, “the first question we ask ourselves is who am I.” Who is Mike Tyson today?
I’m just Mike. I take all of these compliments like being called a legend, a bad motherfucker and this and that. All the stuff I did when I was young was about me trying to be the stupid superstar boxer. I thought being the heavyweight champion of the world meant being a spectacular champion in the mode of John L. Sullivan, Joe Lewis, and Muhammad Ali. Those are the guys, that during their era of fighting, they were the kings. And I wanted to be that guy. I remember being in Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in the Bronx in 76-77 and Ali came to visit us. I was just in awe of him. I said, “I want to be like him.”
Were you surprised when you broke down in tears while discussing your close relationship with trainer Cus D’ Amato?
I was really vulnerable at that particular moment. I was talking about
someone who gave me a great deal of belief in myself that I never received before. For Cus not to be able to see me finish our blueprint was devastating to me emotionally.
When you watch the late ’80s footage of you knocking out boxers in the first round, do you think to yourself, “Damn, I was a beast?”
Nah. I think about all the mistakes Cus would have said I was making in the ring. He would have been on my ass even if the fights lasted 10 seconds [laughs].
In the film you called Desiree Washington (the former beauty queen Tyson was convicted and imprisoned in February of 1992 for sexually assaulting) a “wretched swine of a whore” and Don King, “a slime motherfucker.” Do you still harbor such anger?
That’s how I felt during that time. I wouldn’t take it back, but I know it wasn’t the proper thing to say. The way I say things is not [always] the most proper way of saying it.
How did prison change you?
While I was in prison I would call home during nights where boxers were fighting and they were playing volleyball with the heavyweight championship of the world. Really, when I came out the only thing I wanted to do was get back in the ring.
So you weren’t really thinking about rehabilitation?
No. I was caught up in being Mr. Mike Tyson, the champ, the legend or whatever the fuck I was back then.
At one point you say you feel no malice toward your ex-wife Robin Givens. Do you feel any regret about the way things turned out between you two?
Robin and I, we were just two young black kids in the spotlight. We couldn’t transform as human beings. I recently saw her at a movie preview and she looked fine as all outdoors.
Does boxing still have a place in your life?
Honestly, no. It’s not the person who I am now. The person who I wasn’t cool with was that guy who the fans loved. I wasn’t cool with being “Mike Tyson.” I’ve learned to accept the person who I am now. I’m still that unpredictable
person, but I’m cool with that person.
You were recently in a drug-rehab center for your battles with cocaine. When did you begin to notice you had a serious drug problem?
I always knew that. My mother died from alcoholism. My sister died from cocaine…it’s hereditary. Regardless of my success I became another drug statistic. There are many successful addicts, but the fact is you are still an addict. It’s just an ongoing process until I die.
Is this the hardest fight of your life?
Yeah. I have to continue to work on myself. I have to improve myself as a better individual. Drugs are just the solution to a bigger problem. Drugs are insanity because why would you use something that you know is going to kill you? That’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And that’s what I was doing.
The one calming theme throughout Tyson was your kids. What is it like being a dad after boxing?
[My kids are the] the most precious thing in my life that I ever produced. They were starting to grow without me so I had to start putting in some time with them. They were going to college without me. I don’t even know where
those years went.
What do you hope that people take away from Tyson?
The fact: I am who I am. Most people are afraid to be who they are. There are plenty of people that you know that are like me, but they are afraid to express themselves because they are afraid of being judged. People want to be put in a certain light. But we have to be objective and be proud of who we are.
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