Michael Gerard “Mike” Tyson was born on June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York. His father was listed on his birth certificate as Percell Tyson, but Mike considers Jimmy Kirkpatrick his true father because Kirkpatrick was living with his mother, Lorna Smith Tyson, at the time of his birth. Shortly thereafter, Kirkpatrick abandoned Mike, along with his mother, brother, and sister.
Mike Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight world champion boxer. As of the year 2012, he remains the youngest man to win the International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Council (WBC) titles at the age of 20. He was also the first to hold all three titles concurrently.
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Early Life
Mike Tyson was exposed to a criminal element early in his life while living in high-crime areas. He indulged in petty thefts and fighting. His high voice and lisp were a frequent catalyst to engage in fisticuffs on the street, which he did often. By the time he was 13, he had been arrested more than three dozen times. He was reprimanded to the custody of a juvenile detention centre in Johnstown, N.Y., where he began to hone his boxing skills.
A member of various street gangs at an early age, Tyson was sent to reform school in upstate New York in 1978. At the reform school, social worker and boxing aficionado Bobby Stewart recognized his boxing potential and directed him to renowned trainer Cus D’Amato, who became his legal guardian.
Personal Life Struggle’s
When Mike was only 16, his mother passed away and he was all but left in the custody of Cus D’Amato, someone who became a true father figure to him. D’Amato was a boxing trainer who took young Mike under his wing, seeing the potential in the future champ.
Tyson’s sister died of a heart attack at the age of 24. His brother went on to become a doctor’s assistant at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He and Mike have remained in contact with one another, although their visits are infrequent. He also considers Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick, son of Jimmy Kirkpatrick, his half-brother.
Amateur Career
In 1981 and 1982, Mike Tyson won Gold Medals at the Junior Olympics. He was also the 1984 National Golden Gloves Champion, although he did lose two amateur bouts to Henry Tillman, who eventually won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Professional Career
Mike Tyson’s professional debut was as an 18-year-old boxer in 1985. His first 19 professional bouts all resulted in wins, with 12 of them being decided in the first round. He went on to win 26 of his first 28 professional bouts by knockout or technical knockout, with 16 of those being in the fight’s initial round. Tyson was short and squat and lacked the classic heavyweight boxer’s appearance, but his surprising quickness and aggressiveness in the ring overwhelmed most of his opponents. On November 22, 1986, he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history, with a second-round knockout of Trevor Berbick, to claim the crown of the World Boxing Council (WBC).
On March 7, 1987, he acquired the World Boxing Association (WBA) belt when he defeated James Smith. After he defeated Tony Tucker on August 1, 1987, Tyson was unanimously recognized as champion by all three sanctioning organizations (WBC, WBA, and International Boxing Federation [IBF]). On February 11, 1990, in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, Tyson lost the championship to lightly regarded James (“Buster”) Douglas, who scored a technical knockout in the 10th round.
Controversies
Tyson was charged and convicted of rape and served three years of a six year sentence. Another comeback attempt followed his release and he once again captured the WBC and WBA titles by defeating Frank Bruno again and Bruce Seldon. Even after a somewhat successful comeback after being released from prison, Mike Tyson could not escape the negative public perception of him following his 1992 rape conviction. Allegations of continued abuse toward women followed him, including during his first marriage to actress Robin Givens.
Tyson was again incarcerated for a year after being convicted of assaulting two motorists during a road rage incident in Las Vegas. He has been convicted of at least two DUIs and other minor drug possession charges during his fall from grace. Following his release from prison in 1995, Tyson resumed boxing and in 1996 regained two of his championship belts with easy victories over Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon. On November 9, 1996, in a long-anticipated bout with two-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, Tyson lost for the second time in his professional career, by a technical knockout in the 11th round. In a rematch against Holyfield on June 28, 1997, he was disqualified after he twice bit his opponent’s ears, and, as a result of the infraction, he lost his boxing license.
Tyson’s self-control problems continued. After the referee stopped a fight in June 2000 with American Lou Savarese, Tyson continued punching and inadvertently injured the referee. In comments made to the press after this fight, Tyson outraged boxing fans with bizarre and vicious remarks about British heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. In his October 2000 bout with Andrew Golota, Tyson won in the third round, but the fight was later declared a no-contest because Tyson tested positive for marijuana.
Retirement
On June 11, 2005, Tyson quit before the start of the seventh round in a close bout against journeyman Kevin McBride. In the 2008 documentary Tyson, he stated that he fought McBride for a payday, that he did not anticipate winning, and that he was in poor physical condition and fed up with taking boxing seriously. After losing three of his last four fights, Tyson said he would quit boxing because he felt he had lost his passion for the sport.
Personal Life
He has been married three times, and has seven children, one deceased, with three women; in addition to his biological children, Tyson includes his second wife’s oldest daughter as one of his own. Raised as a Catholic, Tyson has stated that he converted to Islam before entering prison and that he made no efforts to correct what was reported in the media. He first completed the Islamic pilgrimage Umrah in July 2010 and more recently in December 2022 accompanied by DJ Khaled, a Palestinian American Muslim.
