Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography (74 page)

MIKE WOULD LIKE TO THANK:

Cus D’Amato, my mentor, friend, and general. Because of you, my life has reached heights I could never have imagined. Without you, I don’t know where I would be today. My gratitude to you is immeasurable. As long as I am breathing, your legacy will continue to live on. Our names are forever synonymous. You can’t mention my name without a reference to your legacy nor can people mention your name without a reference to my legacy.

I would like to give a very special thanks to my collaborator, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, for being such a cool “cat.” (That’s Larry’s favorite word. I had to edit many of them out of the manuscript.) This entire process wasn’t necessarily easy for me. At times it was very difficult to rehash some of the darker moments in my life. Larry, you have been the fly on the wall that at times I wanted to smash, but you knew how to buzz off and fly back around when the moment was better for me. I am grateful for your patience and diligence. You really know how to roll with the punches. I don’t think there is another writer around that could have done a better job. When it comes to writing, you are “The Baddest Man on the Planet.” You’re more than just a writer to me, you’re family. Looking forward to working on many other projects with you in the near future.

Thank you to David Vigliano at Vigliano Associates for coordinating everything. David, you are a great person. You’re more than just a book agent. I consider you a friend.

Thank you to David Rosenthal, publisher of Blue Rider Press, for your patience and enthusiasm for this project. I’m really grateful that you believed in the vision and have supported it 100 percent.

I would also like to thank my legal team at Grubman Indursky Shire & Meiselas, P.C., in particular Kenny Meiselas for putting together such an incredible legal team. Thank you, Jonathan Ehrlich, for combing through the contracts with a fine-tooth comb.

Thank you to Damon Bingham and Harlan Werner for the initial introduction to Vigliano Associates.

My deepest love and gratitude to my friends, family, and supporters for taking time out of their busy lives to share stories with Ratso.

A very special acknowledgment to my children: Mikey, Gena, Rayna, Amir, Miguel, Milan, and Morocco. Everything I do is for you all. I love you, Exodus Sierra Tyson. You are my eternal Angel. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of you. The four years I shared with you on this planet were the best of my life. You will never be forgotten.

Finally, to my dear wife, Kiki – thank you for your unconditional love and support and putting up with me. I know it’s not always easy, but I am very appreciative of everything you do. I love you.

LARRY WOULD LIKE TO THANK:

Michael Gerard Tyson. To say this project has been a labor of love would be an understatement. I’ve been wanting to work with Mike since 1994, right after
Private Parts
, my collaboration with Howard Stern, was published. For me, Mike was one of the most interesting cultural figures on the scene and I felt that his story would be illuminating and moving. While Mike was incarcerated in Indiana, I sent him a copy of Nietzsche’s autobiography,
Ecce Homo
, and proposed we work together on a memoir.

In 2008, thanks to the recommendation of his then-agent, Harlan Werner, and Dr. Monica Turner, his ex-wife, Mike chose me to be his collaborator. As you’ve read in this book, that time was not propitious for Mike to work on a book, and the project was postponed. Four years later, Mike was in a much better place, and we began.

Working with Mike was the most unusual and gratifying experience I’d had in my career as a celebrity chronicler. As the whole world knows, he’s painfully honest and incredibly sensitive. When certain topics came up in our talks – his childhood or the role of Cus D’Amato, his mentor, are two prime examples – Mike would tear up and sometimes sob uncontrollably. On the other hand, in the middle of relating his favorite stories, he would jump up, do a little dance around the room, and then come back and slap me five. I’ve probably been slapped five more times by Mike Tyson than anybody else on the planet and lived to tell the tale. The man doesn’t know his own strength.

Mike is not the kind of guy to sit down and calmly relate stories from his life. I taped conversations with him in his garage with his mating pigeons cooing in the background, in the back room of the barbershop he hangs out in in north Vegas, in the passenger seat of his Escalade on the way to picking up his daughter from school, and in the Salvatore Ferragamo shop at Caesars in Vegas while he tried on shirts. I carried around my Casio tape recorder 24/7 because I never knew when he would suddenly have an incredible insight into Cus or remember a story from his childhood that was spellbinding.

I spent months in Vegas at Mike’s house, taping our talks, going over his massive legal files, and interviewing some of his closest associates. It’s not easy and not always fun being away from home for so long, but I was adopted by two families in Vegas, both of whom made my life considerably more pleasant.

First, I have to give thanks to Mike’s wonderful family. His wife, Kiki, is a spectacular helpmate to Mike, and you wouldn’t be reading this book right now if not for her. Mike’s mother-in-law, Rita; Kiki’s brother Azheem and his wife, Jahira; and Mike’s oldest daughter, Mikey, were always there to nurture me, feed me, and console me when Mike was more interested in shopping than talking. Mike’s assistant, David Barnes, aka Wayno aka Farid, was always helpful and ready to go the extra mile. And Mike’s two young children, Milan and Rocco, were always a source of much joy and mirth.

I had a second family in Vegas. While I was working with Mike, I stayed at the Slammer, the amazing home of my dear friend Penn Jillette. Penn; his wife, Emily Zolten; and his two children, his daughter, Moxie, and his son, Zolten, were the most gracious of hosts. At night, if I got bored, I went to see Penn and Teller perform. When I wanted to watch a grade-C movie, Penn and Emily’s movie nights in the home theater were always a most welcome and riotous diversion.

I’m indebted to all of Mike’s wonderful friends and colleagues who took the time out of their busy schedules to do interviews with me. Thanks to Brian Hamill, Craig Boogie, Calvin Hollins, Eric “EB” Brown, David Chesnoff, Steve “Crocodile” Fitch, David Malone, Frankie Mincieli, Jeff Greene, Hope Hundley, Jackie Rowe, Jay Bright, Lance Sherman, Latondia Lawson, Steve Lott, Mack Smith, Marilyn Murray, Mario Costa, Mark D’Attilio, Darryl Francis, Anthony Pitts, Michael Politz, Rick Bowers, Rodney Tyson, Sean MacFarland, Muhammad Siddeeq, Tom Patti, Tony Anderson, Damon Bingham, Jim Voyles, and Jeff Wald. We’re also indebted to a man we never met but we heard. Early in the project Mike played me hours and hours of tapes of Cus and Cus’s friends and colleagues talking to a young journalist in Catskill named Paul Zuckerman. These interviews were a great resource in getting into the head of Cus at the time when Mike had just come into his life. We tried to track down Zuckerman, to no avail. But hopefully his insights into Cus and his adroit interviews will someday see the light of day.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to David Rosenthal, publisher extraordinaire, for his infinite patience and levelheaded wisdom. Thanks also to everyone up at Blue Rider Press, especially editor Vanessa Kehren. Also at Blue Rider, special thanks to Aileen Boyle, Sarah Hochman, Gregg Kulick, Phoebe Pickering, Brian Ulicky, Joe Benincase, Meredith Dros, Linda Rosenberg, Rob Sternitzky, and Eliza Rosenberry.

I’m always grateful to my wonderful agent, David Vigliano, for his persistence and counsel and to his associate Matthew Carlini for navigating all the foreign editions of this work.

It wouldn’t be a Mike Tyson book without thanking some lawyers. My longtime lawyer, the late Laurie Rockett, carved out our initial agreement in 2008. Eric Rayman came on board in 2012 and worked his magic when the project was revived. And Linda Cowen did a fine job reviewing the manuscript for the publisher. And much thanks, as ever, to my attorney Charles DeStefano, who’s always there for me.

Thanks always to the greatest transcriber around, Jill Matheson, for sacrificing body and soul to make the deadline. I’m also indebted to Zachary Zimmerman for his conscientious research work. No problem was too hard for him to surf the ’Net and solve.

And finally I’m always indebted to my number-one family, Christy Smith-Sloman and Lucy. They weathered Hurricane Sandy and ate peanut butter and jelly (or, in the case of Lucy, Newman’s Own Peanut Butter Dog Treats) by candlelight while I was working thousands of miles away. Christy is always supportive of my works and my quirks and I’m eternally grateful for her love. And as long as those treats keep coming, Lucy’s in my corner too.

Mike Tyson
is the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and the first boxer to ever hold the three biggest belts in prizefighting – the WBC, WBA, and IBF world heavyweight titles – simultaneously. Tyson’s enduring appeal has launched him into a career in entertainment: He was a standout in the blockbuster films
The Hangover
and
The Hangover Part II
, and recently he has earned tremendous acclaim for his one-man show
Tyson – The Undisputed Truth
. Tyson has launched a clothing company (Mike Tyson Collection) and Tyrrhanic Productions, which currently has several film projects in development. In 2011, Tyson was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Kiki, and their children.

Larry “Ratso” Sloman
is best known as Howard Stern’s collaborator on
Private Parts
and
Miss America
. Sloman’s recent collaborations include
The Secret Life of Houdini
, with magic theorist William Kalush;
Mysterious Stranger
with magician David Blaine;
Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss
with drummer Peter Criss; and
Scar Tissue
, the memoir of Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis. All six books were
New York Times
best sellers.

Images 1 and 2
courtesy of Mike and Kiki Tyson;
Image 3
© Steve Lott/Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas;
Image 4
© Ken Regan;
Image 5
© Steve Lott/Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas;
Images 6 and 7
© Steve Lott/Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas;
Image 8
© Ken Regan;
Image 9
© Ken Regan;
Image 10
© Lori Grinker/Contact Press Images;
Image 11
© Steve Lott/Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas;
Image 12
© Lori Grinker/Contact Press Images;
Image 13
© Richard Harbus/Bettmann/Corbis;
Image 14
© AFP/Getty Images;
Image 15
© Ken Regan;
Image 16
© Charlie Blagdon/Bettmann/Corbis;
Image 17
© Bettmann/Corbis;
Images 18 and 19
© Bettmann/Corbis;
Image 20
© Lori Grinker/Contact Press Images;
Image 21
© Bettmann/Corbis;
Images 22 and 23
© Steve Lott/Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas;
Images 24 and 25
©
The Ring
magazine/Getty Images;
Image 26
© Steve Lott/Boxing Hall of Fame Las Vegas;
Image 27
courtesy of Mike and Kiki Tyson;
Image 28
©
The Ring
magazine/Getty Images;
Image 29
© Misha Erwitt/New York
Daily News
Archive via Getty Images;
Image 30
© Anthony Barboza/Getty Images;
Image 31
courtesy of Mike and Kiki Tyson;
Image 32
© Eugene Garcia/AFP/Getty Images;
Image 33
© John Ruthroff/AFP/Getty Images;
Image 34
© Lennox McLendon/Associated Press;
Image 35
© Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images;
Image 36
© Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images;
Images 37 and 38
© Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images;
Image 39
© Neil Leifer/
Sports Illustrated
/Getty Images;
Images 40 and 42
courtesy of Mike and Kiki Tyson;
Image 41
© Jerry Metellus;
Image 43
© Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank;
Image 44
© AFP/Getty Images;
Image 45
courtesy of Marilyn Murray;
Images 46, 47 and 48
courtesy of Mike and Kiki Tyson;
Image 51
© Jerry Metellus;
Images 49, 50 and 52
courtesy of Mike and Kiki Tyson