Ready To Soar To The Very Top

Stewart and Tyson sparred for Cus in that gym, and the boy tore relentlessly after the older man. No one could believe the kid was only 13. When the session was over, D'Amato told Tyson, "If you want to stay here, and if you want to listen, you could be the world heavyweight champion someday."

D'Amato had seen all he needed to see, and the boy had heard all he needed to hear. A few weeks later, with D'Amato agreeing to take custody of him, Tyson moved into the big house on the hill in Catskill. For nearly six years, until D'Amato died of pneumonia at age 77 on Nov. 4, Tyson lived and learned in a relationship that became more father-son than teacher-student, especially after D'Amato became his legal guardian in 1981. Outside the ring, under D'Amato's influence, the 5'11½" Tyson became more like the gentle-natured kid he had been back in Bed-Stuy.

In the ring he became a model of the D'Amato style of boxing. Hands up in a modified peekaboo, chin down, he moved aggressively forward in an elusive bobbing motion, exploding punches in flurries at the targets D'Amato thought vital: the liver on the right side, the floating rib on the left, the jawbone below the ear lobe, the point of the chin.

Like most of D'Amato's fighters, Tyson became a long-playing record of the man's philosophical and psychological beliefs, and today there are moments when, in talking to the fighter, it is as if you were talking to the teacher himself. The old themes recur: fear, discipline, will, character, determination. They were drilled into Tyson hour after hour, every night. "He talked about the same things over and over again," says Tyson.

Mike quoting D'Amato on discipline: "Without discipline, no matter how good you are, you are nothing! One day, and I might not be around, you're going to meet a tough guy who takes your best shot. He'll keep coming because he's tough. Don't get discouraged. That's when the discipline comes in."

On fear: "Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It's like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you; it can heat your house. If you can't control it, it will burn everything around you and destroy you. If you can control your fear, it makes you more alert, like a deer coming across the lawn."

On finishing an opponent: "When you're a great finisher, you'll become popular. Joe Louis was a great finisher. So was Ray Robinson. Ray Leonard. They got a man in trouble and they threw everything they had at him. Bring him down."

Influenced by both co-manager Jacobs and D'Amato, Tyson also became a student of boxing history and an avid viewer of fight films. Jacobs and Cayton own the world's largest collection of such films, about 26,000, and Tyson began borrowing from it regularly.

"I've learned a lot watching films," he says. "I watch them almost every night. Robinson-La Motta, Robinson-Maxim, Sharkey-Carnera, Dempsey-Tunney. I also have Battling Nelson and Ad Wolgast, 1910. Forty rounds of nonstop action. I love watching Panama Al Brown [the bantamweight champion of the late '20s and early '30s]. He was 116 pounds but 5'11" tall. The things he did! A guy nearly six foot moving in and out, side to side, punching to the body, bobbing and weaving. I also liked Marciano's style. He broke fighters' wills. It shows great character for a man to do that."

Will and character. That's the teacher speaking through the student again. Just how much will and character the young man has remains, of course, to be seen. The talent is indisputable. Torres, now the commissioner of boxing for New York State, says, "Mike Tyson is so fast and so powerful that it is almost impossible to resist the guy's punching power. Wherever he hits you, you're going to feel it. He reminds me maybe of George Foreman, but Tyson's much faster than Foreman. He reminds me in style of Rocky Marciano, but he's much faster than Marciano, and he's much bigger, 217 pounds. And he's faster and much more powerful than Joe Frazier, with a better hook. I really have no one to compare him with in terms of punching power."