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So, when I met him [D'Amato], Cus said, "If you want to be heavyweight champion, I'll make you the youngest heavyweight champion in the world." He said, "You could be great, and you could help your friends and your family." I didn't get it. I didn't know what great was. I was just a young, ignorant cat, I didn't know. And when he said, "What [does] that mean to be great? It's doing the most difficult thing in the world, but doing it with the simplest of ease. And I said, "Wow."
On being offered $100 million to fight again and refusing:
I was offered a hundred [million dollars]. Yeah, somebody offered me 50 [million dollars], but I did something to a friend who's an older fighter. He's like, "Yeah, you can come back, Mike." "Give me 50 million," I'm just talking. And this guy's old, he's a retired fighter, but he says, "That could be arranged, one moment, Mike." But he was dead serious. We can make that phone call and talk to these guys over here, we can go over here. I said, "Nah, you crazy?" Because, when you look at these guys and you think about fighting, it's humiliating.
It's the most humiliating thing in the world to just be physically beat up. The money just wouldn't matter, you couldn't give me a billion dollars, because it never was the money. It was just my ego, I wanted to be the best, I was nothing and I was the best at something in the world at one time. So that really drove me, I was intoxicated with that. Money, I never had no money before, who cares about money, I was the greatest in the world. And I told people I was a god. And they believed me so, what money, how could money replace that.
If he were granted a do-over:
I'd like to think being this Mike Tyson guy, Iron Mike, whatever they called me back then and that whirlwind stuff, I left a lot of wreckage. I wasn't a good stay-home dad, hands-on dad, and all that stuff comes back to haunt you. I have some awesome kids, I don't even deserve to have the kids I have the kind of father I was. Some of the women I've been married to or some people I've been involved [with], they shouldn't even say hi to me or talk to me, but I just realized that there's so much love in this world. There's no way I look into the world as being pessimistic no more, I'm just totally very positive, opportunistic about everything in life. I have such good friends who I never thought were my friends. If I didn't have friends, I'd be in prison somewhere with AIDS or I would be really jacked up. In spite of who I thought were my friends or weren't, I'm so indebted, owe my life to so many people and I could never pay them back.
Favorite moment in his career:
Buster Douglas. Macho stuff, I say I took it like a man. I was a little kid, I thought I was tough. Back then, when you think about money, you're so into yourself. When you're into yourself and you're in that megalomania frame of mind, money means nothing. You're the most important thing in your life. I was in love with myself.
On how his life is surprisingly serene now:
I feel awesome, and it's scary. That I feel that I don't have no drama going on right now. Just scary but, why nobody's trying to sue me or something. I try to pick reasons to fight with my wife 'cause everything's going too good. That's just something I'm not accustomed to.
On Tyson's drug use and his boxing legacy:
I don't know if I have greatness. But, I'll say, the attempt for greatness is the biggest drug in the world. Because after fighting I tried every drug in the world, it just doesn't do it. A couple of OD's and everything, it just doesn't do it. If you're trying to get that championship, that high off of drugs, you're going to die. It doesn't work.
On Tyson never having a problem with Don King:
Of course I'm with Don King, anybody don't like Don, I don't like them. That's the kind of guy I am. If I'm with somebody, you don't like him, then I'm going to attack you: I just thought he [Don King] was cool, he was pretty flashy, he talked my lingo back then. And he's a scoundrel, but listen, it takes one to know one. I'm no church choir boy: I'm just as rotten as he was back then. That's why we got along so well. And I got just as much as I took, and I guess he got the same. I'm not the guy you guys think. I'm not the poor guy who's been abused for his money. No, I am just a maniac, I am just a wild man, and whatever happened to me, I deserved, I put it on myself, and I was just uninhibited about it.
On Cus D'Amato's breaking him down and building him up again:
He thought I could be champ at 15 years old, but he said, "You don't have enough belief in yourself." In order to make me this guy who people think I am, this guy broke me down. He could design whatever kind of fighter he wants. Just talking about my character, and my discipline, and I didn't know what discipline was, so he explained that. He said, "Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but doing it like you love it." So he spoiled me a little bit, but he saw that I was willing to give up my pleasures of life.
Oh his new habits:
I'm a vegan. I don't eat anything. I'm starving myself, but in order to live I have to die. I feel awesome, and it's scary.
When asked if there was any boxer he would have liked to fight against:
No. But, I believe I'd beat anyone.
Best piece of advice anyone ever gave him:
Old too fast, smart too late.
Quote from the article
http://www.yesnetwork.com/news/artic...0391970&vkey=1
So, when I met him [D'Amato], Cus said, "If you want to be heavyweight champion, I'll make you the youngest heavyweight champion in the world." He said, "You could be great, and you could help your friends and your family." I didn't get it. I didn't know what great was. I was just a young, ignorant cat, I didn't know. And when he said, "What [does] that mean to be great? It's doing the most difficult thing in the world, but doing it with the simplest of ease. And I said, "Wow."
On being offered $100 million to fight again and refusing:
I was offered a hundred [million dollars]. Yeah, somebody offered me 50 [million dollars], but I did something to a friend who's an older fighter. He's like, "Yeah, you can come back, Mike." "Give me 50 million," I'm just talking. And this guy's old, he's a retired fighter, but he says, "That could be arranged, one moment, Mike." But he was dead serious. We can make that phone call and talk to these guys over here, we can go over here. I said, "Nah, you crazy?" Because, when you look at these guys and you think about fighting, it's humiliating.
It's the most humiliating thing in the world to just be physically beat up. The money just wouldn't matter, you couldn't give me a billion dollars, because it never was the money. It was just my ego, I wanted to be the best, I was nothing and I was the best at something in the world at one time. So that really drove me, I was intoxicated with that. Money, I never had no money before, who cares about money, I was the greatest in the world. And I told people I was a god. And they believed me so, what money, how could money replace that.
If he were granted a do-over:
I'd like to think being this Mike Tyson guy, Iron Mike, whatever they called me back then and that whirlwind stuff, I left a lot of wreckage. I wasn't a good stay-home dad, hands-on dad, and all that stuff comes back to haunt you. I have some awesome kids, I don't even deserve to have the kids I have the kind of father I was. Some of the women I've been married to or some people I've been involved [with], they shouldn't even say hi to me or talk to me, but I just realized that there's so much love in this world. There's no way I look into the world as being pessimistic no more, I'm just totally very positive, opportunistic about everything in life. I have such good friends who I never thought were my friends. If I didn't have friends, I'd be in prison somewhere with AIDS or I would be really jacked up. In spite of who I thought were my friends or weren't, I'm so indebted, owe my life to so many people and I could never pay them back.
Favorite moment in his career:
Buster Douglas. Macho stuff, I say I took it like a man. I was a little kid, I thought I was tough. Back then, when you think about money, you're so into yourself. When you're into yourself and you're in that megalomania frame of mind, money means nothing. You're the most important thing in your life. I was in love with myself.
On how his life is surprisingly serene now:
I feel awesome, and it's scary. That I feel that I don't have no drama going on right now. Just scary but, why nobody's trying to sue me or something. I try to pick reasons to fight with my wife 'cause everything's going too good. That's just something I'm not accustomed to.
On Tyson's drug use and his boxing legacy:
I don't know if I have greatness. But, I'll say, the attempt for greatness is the biggest drug in the world. Because after fighting I tried every drug in the world, it just doesn't do it. A couple of OD's and everything, it just doesn't do it. If you're trying to get that championship, that high off of drugs, you're going to die. It doesn't work.
On Tyson never having a problem with Don King:
Of course I'm with Don King, anybody don't like Don, I don't like them. That's the kind of guy I am. If I'm with somebody, you don't like him, then I'm going to attack you: I just thought he [Don King] was cool, he was pretty flashy, he talked my lingo back then. And he's a scoundrel, but listen, it takes one to know one. I'm no church choir boy: I'm just as rotten as he was back then. That's why we got along so well. And I got just as much as I took, and I guess he got the same. I'm not the guy you guys think. I'm not the poor guy who's been abused for his money. No, I am just a maniac, I am just a wild man, and whatever happened to me, I deserved, I put it on myself, and I was just uninhibited about it.
On Cus D'Amato's breaking him down and building him up again:
He thought I could be champ at 15 years old, but he said, "You don't have enough belief in yourself." In order to make me this guy who people think I am, this guy broke me down. He could design whatever kind of fighter he wants. Just talking about my character, and my discipline, and I didn't know what discipline was, so he explained that. He said, "Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but doing it like you love it." So he spoiled me a little bit, but he saw that I was willing to give up my pleasures of life.
Oh his new habits:
I'm a vegan. I don't eat anything. I'm starving myself, but in order to live I have to die. I feel awesome, and it's scary.
When asked if there was any boxer he would have liked to fight against:
No. But, I believe I'd beat anyone.
Best piece of advice anyone ever gave him:
Old too fast, smart too late.
Quote from the article
"Buster did an awesome job. You can't take that way from him. And I will always tell people, I think that was my best fight I ever had, I always rank that my best fight. It's just weird because Cus [D'Amato] used to always tell me, 'You have to beat up everybody, you could do this, and this was what's going to happen when somebody starts beating you up, can you take it?' Wow, and that fight proved that I can take it."
— Mike Tyson on his knockout loss to James "Buster" Douglas
— Mike Tyson on his knockout loss to James "Buster" Douglas
http://www.yesnetwork.com/news/artic...0391970&vkey=1
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