Mike Tyson

1. Mike Tyson Mike Tyson is a retired American boxer . Throughout his life, he has experiences numerous peaks and downfalls during his life. Tyson was born on the 30th of June 1966 in Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York City. His family went through quite a number of hardships, as his father left the family when Tyson was 2, he had an older brother who was five years older than him and his sister died of a heart attack at the age of 25 in 1991, leaving his mother to look after them on her own. After going through times of financial burden, Tyson’s mother passed away when he was just sixteen years old, leaving Mike in the hands of his boxing manager and trainer, Cus D’Amato, who eventually became his legal guardian. Tyson was a small and shy boy who was often targeted for bullying.. This resulted with Michael developing his own style of street fighting, eventually this developed into criminal activity. He was assigned by his gang, the Jolly Stompers, to clean out cash registers while the older members of the group held victims with a gun. He was only 11 and he frequently ran into trouble with the police from these criminal activities.. By the time he was 13 years of age, he had been arrested over 30 times. He landed in Tryon School for Boys and he met a counsellor named Bob Stewart. Stewart had been an amateur boxing champion and it was obvious that Tyson want to learn some boxing from this champion. Stewart agreed to give him some lessons on a condition that he would stay out of trouble and work harder in school. He became determined to do learn anything he could about boxing and often slipped out of bed to practice after dark. After Stewart taught Tyson all he knew, he was introduced to a boxing legend manager , Cus D’Amato. He trained hard and developed a reputation as he competed in the Olympics and many other competitions. He success kept on rising however, after meeting a television actress, Robin Givens, he game seemed to decline. Allegations of spousal abuse began to surface the media. The Givens and her mother demanded access to Tyson’s money for a down payment on a $3 million home in New Jersey. His behaviour became more and more violent and erratic. In 1988, he broke a sprawl in his right hand after 4am street bawl with a professional fighter. He was also sued for his inappropriate attentions toward two nightclub patrons. He was reported with anti-social behaviour, which included raping a beauty pageant contestant in an Indianapolis hotel room and biting off a piece of fighter Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson returned to boxing following the release of from prison and regained a share of the heavyweight championship on March 16, 1996 . 'MIKE TYSON' 2001, Great Athletes (Salem Press), p. 2599, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 September 2011. Torre, PS 2010, 'Mike Tyson', Sports Illustrated, 113, 4, pp. 74-79, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 14 September 2011.