To accuse Mike Tyson of lacking a menacing aura is like telling an eagle it has no wings to fly.
The suggestion is completely nonsensical, and yet, iconic boxing coach Cus D’Amato used those exact words before his young protégé became ‘Iron Mike.’
In many ways, their relationship was more than just one between a fighter and trainer, with D’Amato swiftly becoming a father figure to the troubled youngster.
Of course, the guidance and wisdom he offered to Mike Tyson is legendary, underpinning a fierce bond that facilitated the development of not just a boxer, but a man.
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Mike Tyson turned into ‘Iron Mike’ after conversation with Cus D’Amato
Around three decades before his farcical showdown with YouTube star Jake Paul, Tyson was widely regarded as the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet.’
This moniker, though, only emerged after countless hours spent at the famous Catskill Boxing Club, where the Brooklyn-born bruiser gradually cultivated a formidable fighting style.
Under the tutelage of D’Amato, Tyson learned the compelling art of infighting, utilizing his stocky frame to generate frightening power at close quarters.
This style, too, was synonymous with former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, another of D’Amato’s students.
What both Tyson and Patterson lacked in size, they made up for – in spades – with explosive movement, always bursting into range with an unwavering degree of tenacity and aggression.
But still, D’Amato could not help but highlight Tyson’s shorter build as a weakness, suggesting that, if he were more like heavyweights such as Mike Weaver or Ken Norton, the already ferocious wrecking machine would be far more intimidating.
Yet this only motivated Tyson to change his approach, recalling the conversation in his autobiography, ‘Undisputed Truth.’
“That was the day I turned into Iron Mike; I became that guy 100 percent,” he wrote.
“Even though I had been winning almost every one of my fights in an exciting fashion, I wasn’t completely emotionally invested in being the savage that Cus wanted me to be.
“After that talk of being too small, I became that savage.”
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Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion after beating Trevor Berbick
Sure enough, D’Amato’s words resonated with Tyson, who somehow developed even more of a killer instinct following their conversation.
But while his destructive surge throughout 1985 continued at an unrelenting rate, his mentor and legal guardian sadly passed away in November of that year.
Tyson, though clearly affected by the loss, went on to become the youngest heavyweight champion of all time, halting Trevor Berbick with a brutal second-round finish.
And yet, still to this day, the American does not know where he would be if he had never met D’Amato.