Daniel Cann

Torres was uniquely placed to fully understand the complexities of Tyson as he had the same trainer in Cus D'Amato and maintained strong links with 'Team Tyson' that included co-managers Jim Jacobs and Bill Cayton, trainer Kevin Rooney and assistant Steve Lott. Also being a former fighter himself the author understands what goes behind the making of a boxer and what fears and anxieties he will face. This is not an armchair fan's second-hand account but an 'insider's' view of one of the most destructive and engaging sports personalities of the 1980s.

I will say that this is an indispensable guide for any Tyson fan. Torres has done his research and his biography contains interviews with not just his subject's boxing family but with his friends and relatives from the time he roamed the mean streets of Brownsville, NYC as a reckless youth. These early chapters offer fascinating insight into Tyson's formative years. Believe it or not he was bullied at school and regularly beaten up. In this tough environment he developed into a gang member and played truant from school. He was involved in petty theft and muggings and even recounts to his biographer how his gang used to shoot into crowds for thrills. Torres emphasizes that Tyson is prone to exaggeration and invention at times. But the indisputable fact is that after attending juvenile detention centres and spending most of his early life being arrested and in court Tyson was heading for early oblivion. At the age of twelve and already with enough experiences for a lifetime he came under the wing of legendary trainer of champions, Cus D'Amato. Torres takes the reader on a revealing tour of Tyson's early amateur career as he became an apt student of his unconventional benefactor who used psychology as much as conventional training methods. Torres explains the theories and background of D'Amato which makes for engaging and enlightening reading.

Despite continuing progress Tyson could still not shake off the demons of his past and he would often abscond from the mansion in the Catskills that he shared with his adoptive family and return to the streets of his youth for mischief. Understandably any young man would probably rebel a little at the monastic and strict regime he was subjected to. Torres alleges that Tyson would drink alcohol and smoke marijuana and go to parties on his many 'disappearances.'

Women too became a big part of his young life and would also prove to be his undoing later. Again, what Torres wrote about all those years ago make for poignant reading with the added value of hindsight. The reader can see the reckless behaviour that would lead to trouble later in life for the fighter. The book highlights the fact that for all the training and direction young Tyson received he was still a product of his background and could not shake off who he really was. The public learned about his reckless ways once he had captured the world heavyweight title and was famous, the book reveals that to a degree he was always involved in activities like this right from the start. One particularly disturbing incident is where Tyson admits to Torres that he likes to physically hurt women. This is a dark side to the fighters nature and does not make him a particularly sympathetic and endearing character.

There are many episodes from his childhood as well as a young adult that show Tyson to have almost psychotic leanings. Violence is a part of his everyday existence as a child and he admits that he saw his mother being physically abused by his step-father on a daily basis. He also admits to getting kicks from administering beatings himself and that the best punch he threw was not in the ring but when he hit his wife. Charming! The book shocks on a regular basis and is not for the faint hearted! Torres really did have the inside goods on his young friend and the picture that emerges as the pages turn is not a pretty one.

Torres writing style is like that of an older brother or Uncle to Tyson. He is particularly concerned for Tyson's wellbeing as these patterns will have major repercussions in later life. Torres claims that Tyson suffered with a venereal disease as an up and coming contender and had a very cavalier approach and attitude to sex. Another story is recalled by a Tyson friend, Rory Holloway where it was claimed that the pair of them shared and enjoyed the company of twenty four women in one night. There is a mean, chauvinistic streak emerging here in Tyson. Some of the claims from Tyson and his cronies are so outlandish it is sometimes hard to believe but Torres faithfully records them. I doubt he was on Tyson's Christmas card list once this book was published!

For the early part of his career Tyson's indiscretions were covered up by his managers and people were paid off for their silence to protect his image. Eventually this team would not be around to protect him or bail him out, but the book reveals that Tyson was always treading on thin ice and reckless by nature.

The book documents how Tyson did not know his real father, had a violent step-father and how everyone close to him died while he was still very young. Torres reveals how devastated Tyson was when his mother died at an early age. Cus D'Amato died after only Tyson's thirteenth professional boxing match followed a few years later by another close mentor in Jim Jacobs. All of these incidents acted as hammer blows to the young troubled fighter.

Torres meticulously details the opponents Tyson faced as an up and coming contender and why they were chosen at various stages of his career. Fights are described in an informed expert way. Once he won the world title (becoming the youngest boxer in history to do so at twenty years old) and unified it, Tyson was hot property.

Torres documents how Tyson quickly began to unravel. How his stormy marriage to actress Robin Givens ended in bitter divorce after just eight months and his troubles began as his old team were replaced by inexperienced amateurs and how promoter Don King skillfully gained control of the naïve and increasingly vulnerable champion. We all know the rest.

What makes this book so powerful is that we can see the seeds of discord already planted, we have evidence of the type of man Tyson already was and how he never really stood a chance. Torres concern is evident as he documents Tyson becoming more withdrawn, publicly aggressive and untrusting as time moves on. Everyone it seems is out to exploit Tyson for their own ends. Despite his fortune and ring successes Tyson emerges as a lost man, a product of his early environment and unable to exorcise his personal demons. Its all here. Despite covering a short period, the book manages depth and particularly now taken in context with what has unfolded in the subsequent years, this is a prophetic and portentous work. The writing was on the wall for Tyson long ago. This is the book that blew the whistle on his private life and portrayed the richest star in sports as a doomed figure.

I recommend this book as someone who can remember as a young boy being enthralled and mesmerized by the force that was 'Iron' Mike Tyson and now as an adult seeing the private side that ultimately was always going to bring him down. Compelling and tragic this book should not to be overlooked by Tyson aficionados.