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By Thomas Gerbasi - Days of Grace. The tattoo on Mike Tyson’s left arm, a portrait of the late tennis great Arthur Ashe and the title of his autobiography, raised a lot of eyebrows when it was first revealed, perhaps even more so than the inked headshots of Mao Tse Tung and Che Guevara that adorn the former heavyweight champion’s body.
The reason was simple. For years, you could have described Brownsville, Brooklyn’s Iron Mike as the anti-Arthur Ashe. Where Ashe was reserved, Tyson was in your face; as Ashe amazed with his technical brilliance on the court, the youngest man to hold the heavyweight title shocked with his ferocity.
But nearly seven years after his final fight against Kevin McBride in 2005, Mike Tyson, at 45, is no longer an angry young man. As he approaches the premiere of his one-man show – Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth - at the MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theatre in Las Vegas on April 13th (the show runs through April 18th), there’s a distinct sense that he’s moved on, even if the boxing world still remains fascinated with the man formerly known as “Kid Dynamite.”
“I don’t watch that stuff no more,” Tyson told BoxingScene this week when asked if he ever pulls out the old fight films to relive his glory days. “I don’t want to think about that guy, I want to think about this new guy that we’re trying to invent that’s gonna bring a light to this field.”
It makes sense. Because for all the good memories associated with his time in the ring, there are just as many bad ones, ones that make him look back and wonder how he was able to survive and make it to this point as a husband, father, and survivor. I ask him if he misses the sport at all.
“Yes, slightly,” he says quietly. “But that sport allows me to get too dark when I’m in it. I needed to have my dark side to really eclipse anything in that sport, so in order to do that, I had to think of myself better than I actually and truly was, and in doing that I offended a lot of people.”
These days, as the next generation of heavyweights plies their trade in a world sorely missing a Tyson-esque presence, the former champ’s workouts are limited to two hours a day of cardio and some work with a medicine ball for his abs. No speed bag, no shadowboxing, not even a few whacks on the heavy bag, though a look at him on his recent Animal Planet series Taking on Tyson showed that he could still rip off a hook or three. [Click Here To Read More]
The reason was simple. For years, you could have described Brownsville, Brooklyn’s Iron Mike as the anti-Arthur Ashe. Where Ashe was reserved, Tyson was in your face; as Ashe amazed with his technical brilliance on the court, the youngest man to hold the heavyweight title shocked with his ferocity.
But nearly seven years after his final fight against Kevin McBride in 2005, Mike Tyson, at 45, is no longer an angry young man. As he approaches the premiere of his one-man show – Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth - at the MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theatre in Las Vegas on April 13th (the show runs through April 18th), there’s a distinct sense that he’s moved on, even if the boxing world still remains fascinated with the man formerly known as “Kid Dynamite.”
“I don’t watch that stuff no more,” Tyson told BoxingScene this week when asked if he ever pulls out the old fight films to relive his glory days. “I don’t want to think about that guy, I want to think about this new guy that we’re trying to invent that’s gonna bring a light to this field.”
It makes sense. Because for all the good memories associated with his time in the ring, there are just as many bad ones, ones that make him look back and wonder how he was able to survive and make it to this point as a husband, father, and survivor. I ask him if he misses the sport at all.
“Yes, slightly,” he says quietly. “But that sport allows me to get too dark when I’m in it. I needed to have my dark side to really eclipse anything in that sport, so in order to do that, I had to think of myself better than I actually and truly was, and in doing that I offended a lot of people.”
These days, as the next generation of heavyweights plies their trade in a world sorely missing a Tyson-esque presence, the former champ’s workouts are limited to two hours a day of cardio and some work with a medicine ball for his abs. No speed bag, no shadowboxing, not even a few whacks on the heavy bag, though a look at him on his recent Animal Planet series Taking on Tyson showed that he could still rip off a hook or three. [Click Here To Read More]
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