I've had to take three weeks off of my job to run my wife's business while she recovered from a difficult child birth, but in doing so I've had a little more time than I usually have to devote to boxing and such.
Since there has been so much discussion on his downfall, and a plethora of Tyson topics in general, I decided to truly look into what caused the downfall of Mike Tyson. It had been a few years since I had put forth any serious conviction into Tyson's career because I had mostly been interested in fighters in the pre-1970s eras.
That being said, I've went back and read and looked at many materials I've had from the 1980's and early 90's and have come up with a sketch of what I think can be traced as the origins, and pen ultimately, the real downfall of Mike Tyson. I present to you my take on Tyson’s downfall.
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When looking for the root cause of Mike Tyson's downfall alot of people think you need to go back to Cus D'Amato's death but I don't think that is the case. While having a huge emotional impact on young Mike, it was not the the beginning of the end as some people point out. I think the true seeds of Mike's ultimate downfall were sewn before Cus passed.
By all accounts when Mike reached a certain level of success Cus started to allow Mike to, to an extent, do as he wanted without accountability. Case in point, the whole Teddy Atlas situation. Mike had made unwanted ***ual advances, including physical touching and feeling, to an underage female close to Atlas. Atlas retaliated in a very extreme manner, but none the less, Mike Tyson was in the wrong. However instead of punishing Mike, he is sent away for the weekend in order for Cus to deal with Atlas.
Ultimately Atlas is fired and Tyson is brought back as if nothing had happened. If you're of the mind to do some digging, you can uncover several more instances similar to this regarding Mike and Cus, but this being the most prominent is the one I included. Anyway, this type of thing gave Mike the false impression that he was untouchable, as well as unaccountable to anyone, thus being able to do whatever he wanted to do. Thankfully at this time he still had the stabilizing forces of Jimmy Jacobs and Kevin Rooney to counter any such non-sense.
Fast forward abit and we come to two very key happenings in the lie and career of Mike Tyson. The very pivotal year of 1988 is the proverbial lighting of the fuse that, in the end, led to Mike Tyson's implosion. First he meets, and becomes smitten with, Robin Givens. Second, Jimmy Jacobs succumbs to leukemia.
Of all the people close to Mike, I think the death of Jacobs truly had the utmost impact. Jacobs was more than a manager and partner in the triumvirate that controlled Mike's career. He deeply cared for Mike and was seen as a best friend/big brother type. More importantly, by all accounts, he was a key balancing act in keeping Tyson on the level so to speak.
People may discount this, but think about it. Mike is truly a man child. He was not mature enough, nor was he emotionally old enough, to deal with allot of what was going on around him - that is where Jacobs came in. A calm in the storm that had become Mike's career.
After he died - it lessened the voices that were leading in the right direction. Now we have the sole voice of reason Kevin Rooney, trying to not only train Mike but I think to be the same balancing force that Jacobs was. But he is no match for, now wife Robin Givens.
By all accounts it was Robin Givens' greed and lust for more money that led to the door being opened for Don King. True King had been sniffing around Tyson for years but was always rebuffed by the combined efforts of Jacobs/Cayton. Now that Jacobs was gone it was only a matter of time. True Cayton remained, but he was not as invested in a personal sense as was Jacobs. He was the hardnosed business man that spearheaded the negotiations and by all accounts remained at arms length where personal matters were concerned.
But now with D'Amato and Jacobs gone, Robin Givens, and her mother I might add, firmly entrenched in his life. We have the beginnings of a truly disastrous ending. It was only during this time period that allegations against Cayton and Rooney arose that they were stealing Mike's money. These originated from one source Robin Givens. She stated herself that she had found irregularities in his financial situation. There were even instances where she called certain financial institutions demanding Mike's money for herself.
The whole Givens situation allowed the biggest enemy of any fighter into the equation - Don King. There is even evidence to suggest that Givens perpetuated the said involvement of King.
Even with Rooney still as trainer, Tyson was taking shortcuts. He was becoming harder to coach and morphing into a headhunter who steadfastly got away from what had brought him the greatest success. As well as spending less time training and out living it up he was not taking his opponents seriously at all. So great was his ego that he came to feel he didn't need to train to defeat the top heavyweights and challengers of the time.
It wasn't long after the marriage to Givens that everything truly changed. Cayton and Rooney were fired. Don King was brought in and things would never be the same again. During all of this you could visibly see the effects that everything was having on Tyson - his work in his fights was increasingly sloppy and he continuously made headlines for car accidents and incidents of ill repute.
Tyson now surrounded himself with only Yes men and enablers of anything he wanted. There was no one around who truly cared. Everyone was out for what they could get from Tyson, not what they could do for him. The ring leaders of all of this were Don King and Robin Givens.
After many stormy months, the Givens relationship finally buckled. The breaking point came during a nationally televised interview where she alleged abuse, among other things. Not long after came the ugly divorce and all that follows such things. It was a brutally public affair - no doubt taking a tremendous emotional strain. Out of all of this chaos and turmoil, no one truly stood by Tyson. He was alone, although surrounded by supposed friends. During, and after all of this, he continued to defend his title and it was clear he was drifting further from who he had been.
His trainer now, Aaron Snowell, and his co-managers, long time friends Rory Holloway and John Horne did not have the ability to prepare Tyson in his customary manner. Only clear is that they were mostly likely out to be paid from the Tyson money machine.
So this rolling train wreck kept chugging along and all the while pieces of Tyson's seemingly impregnable armor continued to fall off and be chipped away. When you look at all of the baggage, it's hard to see how everything didn't come crashing down sooner than it did.
Now we come to the place in time where it all changed forever. Mike was supposed to be in training for a routine defense of his title against unheralded challenger, Buster Douglas. But training was not in the cards. There is evidence that during this time period that everyone around Mike was telling him he didn't have to train to defeat Douglas. And as evidence supports he took them at their word. Preferring to live the night life instead. Example being, when they arrived in Tokyo, Mike hardly trained. Instead he went out night after night to bask in the adulation of the Japanese people and party.
Tyson's aforementioned trainer and co-manager/cornermen were just as inept at training Tyson as Tyson was at training. He made numerous short cuts and followed ill fated advice. Now I'm not going to go into the fight. It's been well documented the failings of not only Tyson, but of those around him. It was not only a defeat. It was a one sided affair that saw Mike Tyson take something he had never experienced before - a thorough beating that ended with a brutal knockout.
After the fight we saw all the excuses and all the reasonings of those around Tyson.Everything other than the truth behind what had happened. Even after the fight we saw those who were supposed to work for Tyson work against him. When negotiating the rematch with Douglas (which wasn't included in the contract because Tyson was supposed to steamroll Buster), Don King lowballed Douglas with an offer of $500,000 as opposed to millions for Tyson. Douglas countered with the fact he deserved a comparable, if not equal, share but King wouldn't budge thus thwarting any rematch attempt.
Then we move on and run straight into the Desiree Washington **** ordeal. Again Don King’s greed comes into play. Instead of hiring a prominent criminal defense attorney, Don King takes the frugal route and appoints one of his own tax attorneys to defend Tyson. We all know how that turned out.
So in the end, you can truly say that greed and money caused the crash of Mike Tyson. Robin Givens started the ball rolling and Don King came in and put on the finishing touches. Don King’s vanity and disloyalty to his own fighters were the final nails in the coffin of what once had beena career destined to be the greatest ever.
Since there has been so much discussion on his downfall, and a plethora of Tyson topics in general, I decided to truly look into what caused the downfall of Mike Tyson. It had been a few years since I had put forth any serious conviction into Tyson's career because I had mostly been interested in fighters in the pre-1970s eras.
That being said, I've went back and read and looked at many materials I've had from the 1980's and early 90's and have come up with a sketch of what I think can be traced as the origins, and pen ultimately, the real downfall of Mike Tyson. I present to you my take on Tyson’s downfall.
***************
When looking for the root cause of Mike Tyson's downfall alot of people think you need to go back to Cus D'Amato's death but I don't think that is the case. While having a huge emotional impact on young Mike, it was not the the beginning of the end as some people point out. I think the true seeds of Mike's ultimate downfall were sewn before Cus passed.
By all accounts when Mike reached a certain level of success Cus started to allow Mike to, to an extent, do as he wanted without accountability. Case in point, the whole Teddy Atlas situation. Mike had made unwanted ***ual advances, including physical touching and feeling, to an underage female close to Atlas. Atlas retaliated in a very extreme manner, but none the less, Mike Tyson was in the wrong. However instead of punishing Mike, he is sent away for the weekend in order for Cus to deal with Atlas.
Ultimately Atlas is fired and Tyson is brought back as if nothing had happened. If you're of the mind to do some digging, you can uncover several more instances similar to this regarding Mike and Cus, but this being the most prominent is the one I included. Anyway, this type of thing gave Mike the false impression that he was untouchable, as well as unaccountable to anyone, thus being able to do whatever he wanted to do. Thankfully at this time he still had the stabilizing forces of Jimmy Jacobs and Kevin Rooney to counter any such non-sense.
Fast forward abit and we come to two very key happenings in the lie and career of Mike Tyson. The very pivotal year of 1988 is the proverbial lighting of the fuse that, in the end, led to Mike Tyson's implosion. First he meets, and becomes smitten with, Robin Givens. Second, Jimmy Jacobs succumbs to leukemia.
Of all the people close to Mike, I think the death of Jacobs truly had the utmost impact. Jacobs was more than a manager and partner in the triumvirate that controlled Mike's career. He deeply cared for Mike and was seen as a best friend/big brother type. More importantly, by all accounts, he was a key balancing act in keeping Tyson on the level so to speak.
People may discount this, but think about it. Mike is truly a man child. He was not mature enough, nor was he emotionally old enough, to deal with allot of what was going on around him - that is where Jacobs came in. A calm in the storm that had become Mike's career.
After he died - it lessened the voices that were leading in the right direction. Now we have the sole voice of reason Kevin Rooney, trying to not only train Mike but I think to be the same balancing force that Jacobs was. But he is no match for, now wife Robin Givens.
By all accounts it was Robin Givens' greed and lust for more money that led to the door being opened for Don King. True King had been sniffing around Tyson for years but was always rebuffed by the combined efforts of Jacobs/Cayton. Now that Jacobs was gone it was only a matter of time. True Cayton remained, but he was not as invested in a personal sense as was Jacobs. He was the hardnosed business man that spearheaded the negotiations and by all accounts remained at arms length where personal matters were concerned.
But now with D'Amato and Jacobs gone, Robin Givens, and her mother I might add, firmly entrenched in his life. We have the beginnings of a truly disastrous ending. It was only during this time period that allegations against Cayton and Rooney arose that they were stealing Mike's money. These originated from one source Robin Givens. She stated herself that she had found irregularities in his financial situation. There were even instances where she called certain financial institutions demanding Mike's money for herself.
The whole Givens situation allowed the biggest enemy of any fighter into the equation - Don King. There is even evidence to suggest that Givens perpetuated the said involvement of King.
Even with Rooney still as trainer, Tyson was taking shortcuts. He was becoming harder to coach and morphing into a headhunter who steadfastly got away from what had brought him the greatest success. As well as spending less time training and out living it up he was not taking his opponents seriously at all. So great was his ego that he came to feel he didn't need to train to defeat the top heavyweights and challengers of the time.
It wasn't long after the marriage to Givens that everything truly changed. Cayton and Rooney were fired. Don King was brought in and things would never be the same again. During all of this you could visibly see the effects that everything was having on Tyson - his work in his fights was increasingly sloppy and he continuously made headlines for car accidents and incidents of ill repute.
Tyson now surrounded himself with only Yes men and enablers of anything he wanted. There was no one around who truly cared. Everyone was out for what they could get from Tyson, not what they could do for him. The ring leaders of all of this were Don King and Robin Givens.
After many stormy months, the Givens relationship finally buckled. The breaking point came during a nationally televised interview where she alleged abuse, among other things. Not long after came the ugly divorce and all that follows such things. It was a brutally public affair - no doubt taking a tremendous emotional strain. Out of all of this chaos and turmoil, no one truly stood by Tyson. He was alone, although surrounded by supposed friends. During, and after all of this, he continued to defend his title and it was clear he was drifting further from who he had been.
His trainer now, Aaron Snowell, and his co-managers, long time friends Rory Holloway and John Horne did not have the ability to prepare Tyson in his customary manner. Only clear is that they were mostly likely out to be paid from the Tyson money machine.
So this rolling train wreck kept chugging along and all the while pieces of Tyson's seemingly impregnable armor continued to fall off and be chipped away. When you look at all of the baggage, it's hard to see how everything didn't come crashing down sooner than it did.
Now we come to the place in time where it all changed forever. Mike was supposed to be in training for a routine defense of his title against unheralded challenger, Buster Douglas. But training was not in the cards. There is evidence that during this time period that everyone around Mike was telling him he didn't have to train to defeat Douglas. And as evidence supports he took them at their word. Preferring to live the night life instead. Example being, when they arrived in Tokyo, Mike hardly trained. Instead he went out night after night to bask in the adulation of the Japanese people and party.
Tyson's aforementioned trainer and co-manager/cornermen were just as inept at training Tyson as Tyson was at training. He made numerous short cuts and followed ill fated advice. Now I'm not going to go into the fight. It's been well documented the failings of not only Tyson, but of those around him. It was not only a defeat. It was a one sided affair that saw Mike Tyson take something he had never experienced before - a thorough beating that ended with a brutal knockout.
After the fight we saw all the excuses and all the reasonings of those around Tyson.Everything other than the truth behind what had happened. Even after the fight we saw those who were supposed to work for Tyson work against him. When negotiating the rematch with Douglas (which wasn't included in the contract because Tyson was supposed to steamroll Buster), Don King lowballed Douglas with an offer of $500,000 as opposed to millions for Tyson. Douglas countered with the fact he deserved a comparable, if not equal, share but King wouldn't budge thus thwarting any rematch attempt.
Then we move on and run straight into the Desiree Washington **** ordeal. Again Don King’s greed comes into play. Instead of hiring a prominent criminal defense attorney, Don King takes the frugal route and appoints one of his own tax attorneys to defend Tyson. We all know how that turned out.
So in the end, you can truly say that greed and money caused the crash of Mike Tyson. Robin Givens started the ball rolling and Don King came in and put on the finishing touches. Don King’s vanity and disloyalty to his own fighters were the final nails in the coffin of what once had beena career destined to be the greatest ever.
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