Mike Tyson met Cus D’Amato in 1980, in Catskill, New York, when he was just 13 years old. The veteran trainer’s gym, who guided the career of champion Floyd Patterson, was taken by Irishman Bobby Stewart, one of the therapists at the Elmwood Penitentiary, who also taught boxing to inmates who asked for it. Thanks to Stewart, ‘Iron Mike’ began to discipline himself and from there he became D’Amato’s pupil, at first part-time as his outings from Elmwood were controlled.
The relationship between the two grew closer and, when Tyson was 16, Cus and his wife Camille became his legal guardians. The fighter stayed with them at their home in Catskill and the legendary trainer began to mold the future champion both mentally and athletically. D’Amato achieved his goal, although he died before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. During his lifetime, Cus managed to keep ‘Iron Mike’ away from the clutches of promoters such as Don King but, as happened with Patterson, whom he lost when he stood up to the International Boxing Club run by gangster Frankie Carbo, Tyson would end up being handled by someone who did not look after his welfare.Today marks the 40th anniversary of D’Amato’s death and last Saturday Mike returned to the gym where he learned to box to pay tribute to his mentor. The Cus D’Amato KO is now a non-profit boxing gym. Upper Main Street was closed for the former world champion to address those present. “Bobby took me to meet Cus and I immediately started to think something was wrong because he was talking about me wanting myself,” Tyson said. “I thought Cus was just a weird old man. But every week I went to the club, and then I started going a couple of times a week and started doing really well,” continued the fighter who grew up in the New York neighborhood of Brownsville.
I thought something was wrong because Cus was talking about me loving myself
Through tears, Mike also confessed: “When I met Cus, my self-esteem was so low that it practically didn’t exist. The only thing I knew was the streets and that all my friends had died from drugs. In my mind, there was no way I was going to be or do anything different from those guys. But Cus kept saying those things and after a while it all sank in, and that’s why we’re here today. I can tell you that if I hadn’t met Bobby Stewart and Cus, I would have gone down the same path as all my friends”.
“Cus D’Amato, that peculiar guy, turned me into the most famous person in the world. He taught me that my mind was bigger than the universe,” summed up ‘Iron Mike’, who added: “If someone had tried to tell me that before, I might have shot or stabbed him. Loving myself was the hardest thing I could imagine, knowing that I had stolen and hurt people. Cus was a serious guy, very disciplined, but everything he said started to make sense and what he said started to come true and that made me want to make him happy.”
The boxer did clarify what the path was: “The way to make him happy was to knock people out. He was ruthless and cruel in boxing. He knew how to hit eye sockets and cheekbones, and he taught me. That was his job: to create boxers. Mine was to knock everyone out, but there was something else. I learned to survive. I learned to love myself. If I could, anyone can.”
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