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My Friend Iron Mike
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I've known Mike Tyson for 15 years. Or at least I thought I did. James Toback's mindbending documentary reveals the vulnerability and madness that nobody's ever seen.
Mike Tyson and I have known each other almost 15 years, and whenever we see each other we always make a point to try to chop it up. I remember meeting him at the pool of the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas—he’s always been a cool dude to me, a real cat. But then I saw this film, and it made me realize that no matter how well you think you know someone, you can’t ever really know how raw it gets.
I really identify with Mike and what he went through—being a celebrity, and I’m on a millionth of the magnitude of someone who could be heavyweight champion—it’s insanity, the people coming at you, and the feeling that you can do whatever you want. You are just trying to hold onto everything, but it's real madness.
I think that everyone lives between what they should do and what they want to do. We have these impulses to go nuts. But when you add a few hundred million dollars, that barrier starts to drop, and there are no ramifications or repercussions. People say you’re the king of the world, and then you’re destined for destruction. You’ve seen this with Elvis, with Michael Jackson, and with Mike Tyson—all these people with unbridled power. It always ends terribly. But it’s not necessarily your fault.
See, I am one of those people that when Mike was really winning, he was my hero. What bothers me are the people that dropped him when he had hard times, and walked away from him, not even remembering what he meant to them. I don’t like that part of society, where they just leave you when you lose. When Mike was in prison, he says that he felt that people wanted him to get out so he could fight, but not just so he could be free. It’s like when I’ve been down, and people would say "Ice, can you get back up to entertain us?" And I didn’t know if anyone cared about me at all as a person, or just wanted me to get back up and entertain.
People say you’re the king of the world, and then you’re destined for destruction. You’ve seen this with Elvis, with Michael Jackson, and with Mike Tyson—all these people with unbridled power.
After the movie, Mike said that watching it, he thought he came off as a “very scary guy,” and that’s true. I remember doing the narration for another Tyson documentary and I was allowed to ad lib, and I made the comment, “You train a pitbull, and you get mad when it eats the furniture.” And that’s why boxing is so rough—you take a brutal sport, and you train someone to fight like a barbarian and then ask them to be a gentleman; it’s a paradox. We want to see these guys kill each other, and then we turn around and want some other type of behavior. I think Mike really did the best he could with all the leeches and the other people around him expecting him to never lose.
And now, he’s starting all over again. He is at a ground zero in his life, and I think it’s so great that he bared his soul in this film. The jewel of it is that it’s all in his own words. When people read an interview from you, they don’t know if it's been edited or if it's in your own voice. But this was raw Mike. At this point in Mike’s life, he doesn’t have any endorsements, he doesn’t have any angles, he just said, “Yo I’m-a tell the truth.” When he was talking about the Holyfield fight and how angry he was getting, you felt him getting mad—saying “he was headbutting me and I was getting mad! You know, I didn’t go in there to bite this guy’s ear, but I snapped.” It was good to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
I can’t wait to see what he does now—I know Jamie Foxx will play him in the movie of his life, and that’s a great match. Jamie has the same love for Mike that we all have.
But you know, the real thing about Mike is he is always going to keep his game face on. Even when I saw him at the premiere and I said, we love you for doing this, he simply said, I want respect. He still wants to be a man, and baring himself this way isn’t easy. But I know deep down he is a good person, and that bleeds through in this film.
Ice-T is a Grammy-award winning rapper, actor, and author, who is credited with pioneering gangsta rap in the late 1980s. He plays Detective Odafin Tutuola on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
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Mike Tyson didn't "have hard times"....he made hard times happen to other people. He beat his wife. He raped a young girl. It isn't like bad things befell him.
see his story from the beginning-he was trained from a young age to animalistic in his responses-merely to survive and he did so. Money have never equalled class; there are very wealthy predators. Mike responded as he was taught, he took when the opportunity was presented, just as others "took" from him.
I never cared about boxing. But I cared about Mike. He was a zenith, and I hope he gets that respect.
Tyson is a psychopath!!! Nobody in their right mind would hangout with this guy. If you said something that he would disagree with, he would punch you and probably bite off your ears!
Concerning Mike Tyson's past behavior out of the ring, Ice-T summed it up beautifully when he said, "You train a pitbull, and you get mad when it eats the furniture." Let's give Mike Tyson a break. At the end of the day, he's still just a man.
I've never followed boxing... This is the convicted rapist we're talking about, right?
And why are we supposed to have sympathy for him and his downfall?
To paraphrase Ice-T, "you reward a man for acting like an animal, don't be surprised when that's how he acts in other places." Mike Tyson might have had one or two people in his life who really cared what happened to him. All the rest, were just leeches and cretins who jumped on the atm machine that his boxing prowess powered.
Mr Tyson is an ex-convict. He committed felonies. Enough said.
He committed felonies, but he's also one of the greatest boxers the world's ever known. And that's why his life deserves a second look. He can probably teach some of us a thing or two.
First "Tyson" is a great movie. Go see it. But after seeing it I can't understand how anyone can think of Tyson as anything but a deeply disturbed person. It's clear that he as put a great deal of time in recovery and analysis. ( I was particularly impressed with his comment about his own need for the leeches in his life.) But at the end of the day Tyson is still one very bad MF.
I want to see it.
Mike Tyson came from nothing. His father abandoned him when he was 2. He lived in ghettos and his mother passed away when he was 16. The kid was subjected to violence everywhere and then taught violence inside the ring. Say what you want, but by the age of 20. He had united all boxing world titles. His first 19 fights all ended in Knock outs...12 of them were in the first round! Lets see anyone do that! Now, lets see a kid who has been given nothing..had to fight for everything from clothes to food (and I mean actually fight not struggle), with no father, and with little input from a mother.
Iti s not surprising that he was morally misguided. It is surprising that anyone could accomplish what he did. It becomes astonishing when you factor in his impoverished upbringing.
I don't believe for a minute that any of us would not be morally and mentally insane when raised under his conditions and repeatedly taught the same negative life lessons over and over.
I lived in Indiana when Tyson was on trial. Desiree Washington had accused others of raping her as well (before the Tyson Incident). But these were all dismissed. I don't know what happened in Tyson's case...but I wouldn't put it past the good ole boys of Indiana to want to railroad a black man...Especially during the early 90's. Much like Colorado wanted to do with Kobe. Only thing is Tyson wasn't as smart as Kobe.
workerbee.......you have it exactly right. The girl waited 2 weeks before making the charges against Mike, and that was only because her father made her do it. He saw the money, and Mike WAS railroaded. He was tried in a state that was one of the last to abolish slavery and still has the KKK running around. I have known Mike personally for 18 years, my husband has known Mike since he was 20 years old. Unless you know him NOBODY has the right to judge him. I know that Mike DID NOT RAPE THAT GIRL! He sat in front of me and cried, begging me to believe him, and I know in my heart he did not rape her. If anyone wants to comment on Mike, then go and see THE most BRILLIANT documentary you will ever see. I remember at the Holyfield fight, the whole audience screaming at the ref that Mike was being headbutted AGAIN. Holyfield was a dirty fighter and a looser. I am not making excuses for Mikes behavior, but frustration makes us all do crazy things. Mike Tyson deserves all the respect he can get, only then can Mike hopefully start to trust people. He needs to be pardoned, he needs to be understood, he needs to find his soul. I, my husband and my daughter are proud to be called 'family' by Mike and we will ALWAYS be there for him, no matter what.
That film was amazing - you got to see inside "Iron Mike"'s head, to see the conflicts - how he went from Baddest Man on the Planet to just another inmate, to hell, and back, and then back to hell.
Mike Tyson impressed the hell out of me when he first stepped on the scene in 1986, and he STILL impresses me!
I hope Mike Tyson can find the peace and respect he wants. It would be a good idea if he asks them people he hurt in life to forgive him and try to live a good life from now on. Than he truly will get the respect and peace he is looking for. He seems so sad all the time.
I think a few rational humans got a tip to how crazy he is when he tried to bite Holyfield's ear off in front of a zillion people
Very nice article, Ice-T.
I second that. Congrats, Ice-T!
Thank you.
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