-In the 90s, boxing, the sweet science,
devolves into bloodsport.
-Oh. He bit him!
-Tyson Savage.
-When Mike Tyson, the bad boy of boxing...
-Have a nice fight, Mike.
-[Bleep] off. -...bites above the belt.
-And I was horrified by it.
-It was chaotic. It was just wild.
I was there.
It was unbelievable.
-Tyson is the 90s' Raging Bull. [ Camera shutters clicking ]
-Is he a monster, or is he just macho?
-One that refuses to go down for the count.
-Mike Tyson was also taken advantage of
by a lot of people that didn't have his best interest.
-That's the reason why I'm crying,
because I'm not that person no more.
[ Hip-hop music plays ]
♪♪
-Here we go. Fight 2! Round 1!
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ] -It is showtime!
-June 28th, 1997 marks one of the most anticipated rematches
in boxing history...
[ Bell dings ] -Here we go.
-...as "Iron" Mike Tyson
attempts to regain the heavyweight title
from Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield.
-Mike was gonna do what he needed to do.
He was going to wear out Evander,
and he was going to regain the championship.
So, that's what they thought was going to happen
at that particular time.
Well, it didn't.
-The fight, and its now infamous bite...
is a watershed moment for boxing
and Mike Tyson.
-Oh, he bit him! -Let's be clear.
When we say bite, I mean, it's a bite.
Part of his ear is on the ground.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
Like, this is a really,
really vicious, violent attack.
-How does boxing's most devastating fighter
end up gnawing on his opponent?
[ Sirens wailing ] Tyson's story begins in 1966.
-He was the third child of Lorna Smith,
but his father was really never around.
-When Tyson was 10, his mother,
who he describes as an angry alcoholic,
moves the family to the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
-It's a very dangerous, crime-riddled neighborhood
with a lot of poverty. [ Sirens wailing ]
Well, you know, Mike grew up into that.
-Cops always stopping. You know what I mean?
An ambulance always coming to pick up somebody.
Guns always going off.
People are getting stabbed. Windows are being broken.
It's very, very hostile.
-He's living this very isolated life as this kid
that's bullied for his voice,
for his lisp.
-But he finds a way to escape.
-Mike's outlet was to hang out with pigeons --
training them, naming them.
That was his life. That was his passion.
They were his friends. They were his confidants.
He could believe in them. He could trust them.
-And so, you think about this very tender Mike Tyson
that is kind of ruminating here.
-One day, an older boy steals one of his feathered friends.
Mike begs for it back, but the bully uses his hands
to break the pigeon's neck.
[ Neck cracks ] -[ Laughs ]
-Then, laughs and throws the dead bird in Mike's face.
So, young Mike Tyson uses his hands.
-That enraged Mike to the point where he beat up the kid,
and he found some sort of value in beating up
and hurting people.
-Years later, speaking to GQ Magazine,
Tyson describes how this pivotal moment in his past
helped shape his future.
-I'm a kind of -- I'm a really sensitive guy,
and I'm, um, how can I explain this?
Um...
...from being bullied, I can be really, um,
really, um, malevolent, you know?
-As Tyson tells Piers Morgan on CNN,
he becomes the bad kid in the neighborhood
disappointing his mother.
-I did a lot of bad things, um, I've, um...
robbed a lot of, like, friend's houses and stuff like that.
[ Sirens wailing ]
-And that tended to be his life as a youngster.
He was arrested nearly 40 times
by the age of 12.
-On a path to life in prison or worse,
in 1979, Tyson is sent away
to live in a remote reform school
in upstate New York.
-When he was at Tryon School for Boys
and institutionalized as a youth,
there begins to be a shift in Tyson
as he meets different people
who teach him about boxing.
I am Dr. Rudy Mondragon,
and I study the sport of boxing,
the political economy of sport,
and the ways in which boxers express themselves.
And in the 90s, I was playing Punch-Out!! --
Mike Tyson Edition.
[ Action music plays in game ]
-But Tyson hasn't become a Nintendo star yet.
As a 13 year old,
Tyson meets a counselor
and former Golden Gloves champ
named Bobby Stewart,
who runs a boxing program at the school.
-Tyson was intrigued by that.
He saw the kids boxing,
and he asked Stewart
if he could become a part of it.
My name is George Willis.
I'm a long-time sportswriter, and I am also the author
of "The Bite Fight: the Night That Changed Boxing Forever."
Stewart got in the ring with Mike
and beat him up pretty good,
just to see if he wanted to come back for more.
Mike came back for more,
and he showed that he was really passionate about the sport.
-So, Stewart introduces Tyson to Cus D'Amato,
a boxing legend who once trained heavyweight champs
Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres.
-Because D'Amato was an old school trainer,
and he took in fighters at his home in the Catskills.
-Cus' live-in boxing school
is so unique that it becomes the subject
of a documentary in the early 1980s.
The film captures the young boxers being cared for by Cus
and his partner Camille. [ Indistinct conversations ]
-They're better off being in this house
than -- than anybody else, I don't know.
-It was like a big family, a big training camp,
and all they talked about was boxing.
All they did was watch fight films.
-Your right -- Your right shoulder
should be more this way.
-You're going to do real damage.
You might drop the guy with one punch.
-When Cus D'Amato told him that he could be
the heavyweight champion of the world,
that's the first time Mike heard someone
have some sort of belief in him.
And for Mike,
that was the first person who showed him love.
-For years, Cus and his training staff
teach Tyson the physical skills needed
for the peek-a-boo style of boxing
that will one day make him near unbeatable.
-It was chaotic. It was just wild.
You had to keep your eye on him, because he did
some quick movements.
-There's also a mental training.
Decades later, Tyson reveals to Joe Rogan
that Cus used hypnosis to sharpen some aspects
of Mike's personality.
-What kind of shit did they make you do?
-You know. -How did they do it?
-Just you relax, you go under,
you totally focus
on blackness, nothingness.
-Right? -And you go under and you're
just being the savage, intelligent avenue -- animal.
Just working. You're going to do this.
You're going to be a ferocious animal.
-Wow, so, they're putting you under
and just teaching you that mindset.
-Yeah. -Whoa.
Did he give you any advice on how to shut it off?
-No. -[ Blows raspberry ]
-Without an off switch, Tyson remains dangerous
outside the ring, reportedly racking up
a string of assaults and stealing money
from his trainer, Teddy Atlas, to buy drugs.
Then, when Tyson is 15,
Atlas threatens him with a gun. [ Gun cocks ]
Believing Tyson is capable of sexually assaulting
Atlas's 11-year-old niece,
Atlas describes the incident in an interview with ESPN in 2012.
-Because of what he did to,
uh, an 11-year-old girl in my family,
and, um, took him on his word for the things
that he said he wanted to do to the 11-year-old girl.
Uh, so, in a sexual way.
-When Atlas tells Cus about it, Cus says what Mike does
inside the ring is the only thing that matters.
So, Atlas quits.
-[ Shouts ]
-Cus doesn't care.
His focus is Tyson,
who Cus has fighting up to four fights a month,
but it's quantity over quality.
-He wasn't fighting against great competition,
so, he was getting easy wins,
but that just stirred the interest.
-Tyson wins 24 of his 27 fights as an amateur.
-Weighing 214 pounds --
Mike Tyson!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-At 18, Tyson turns pro against Hector Mercedes.
It's a brutal hit and run.
Tyson scores a technical KO in the first round.
[ Crowd muttering, booing ] -Mike Tyson!
-8 months later, it's Tyson who receives
a near knockout blow.
Cus D'Amato, the first person to ever believe in him,
dies at age 77.
[ Solemn notes play ]
But Tyson's managers,
who have been working under Cus step up
to keep Tyson's career on track.
-To their credit, Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Cayton,
uh, put together this marketing plan
where he was featured on Sports Illustrated.
And so, the nation started to hear about him.
And once that hit the newsstands,
he became a national attraction.
-Hey, Mike. How you doing? [ Cheers and applause ]
-Including an appearance on "Letterman,"
where the audience can't seem to get enough of the gap-toothed,
soft-spoken teenager.
-Here's a, uh, picture of you on Sports Illustrated.
That must have been a big thrill for you, huh?
-Yeah. It was okay.
-But the other part of Tyson's appeal
is his in-ring transformation into the most aggressive
and antagonistic champion the sport will ever see.
-Yo, yo, yo, yo.
Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on, Mike.
-Fighting Mitch "Blood" Green,
a former gang leader from the Bronx,
Tyson taunts and teases his opponent.
-Look at them. Look at him. Look at him.
-Just laughing at him.
-As if he's playing with his food
before he eats it.
-I can think about watching Mike Tyson
and not being able to look anywhere else.
-But immediately after the fight,
Tyson is back to being a mild-mannered
young man folks saw on "Letterman."
-Are you on track to the heavyweight title?
What's your schedule for the heavyweight championship?
-Well, in this predicament, um, you'll have to talk to the
charming gentleman on my left. -[ Laughs ]
-Okay. -When you look at Mike Tyson's
early start in his career, I mean,
he had a group of white handlers.
And these white handlers,
his management team, his trainers,
as a white leadership team,
he was, you can say, carrying himself in a way
that's palatable to the masses.
He was trying to get attention
but not rock the boat too much. [ Bell rings ]
-But he has no problem sinking opponents and doing it fast.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Frazier is down!
-Marvis Frazier lasts only 30 seconds.
As quickly as they fall,
Tyson's celebrity seems to rise even faster.
-Mike Tyson was must-see TV.
-A very quick knockout.
-There's this buildup
that kind of transcends culture,
that even if you don't watch sports,
this is the thing you have to watch.
-But as he drops his opponents,
Tyson's kinder, gentler persona
also starts to drop away.
-I wish one of your guys had children
if I could kick them in the [bleep] head,
or stomp on their testicles.
-But soon the powder keg known as Kid Dynamite...
is ready to explode. [ Camera shutter clicks ]
-Release the 1976
Sylvester Stallone saga --
"Rocky" embodies the American belief
that we're all just one break away from greatness.
A decade later,
it's a black kid born to poverty
that personifies
that American dream.
-He has the story of tragedy,
of having to fight to really maintain himself
in a really rough environment,
and then, having this legendary coach come through
and teach him how to fight properly.
And so, the Hollywood narratives
are already built in.
My name is Courtney Cox.
I'm a former ESPN employee
and current scholar looking at all things
sport and culture.
At the turn of the 1990s, Mike Tyson
is one of the most captivating humans on the planet.
Period.
Uh, maybe the most.
-In fact, I'm the best. Do you know what I mean?
I, sometimes, I don't want to believe in myself,
but it's the truth, I'm the best.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-And it ain't bragging if it's true.
It's a 27-0 Tyson who steps in the ring
to fight Trevor Berbick for one of the three heavyweight titles.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Ringside is a who's who
of the sport. -Speaking of the greats --
Muhammad Ali and his new wife, Lonnie.
-The man behind the star-studded event
is fight promoter Don King.
-Don King during that time period had control
of the heavyweight division.
-King is an ex-con who went from serving
a manslaughter sentence to setting up
the famed Ali versus Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle."
-He who runs the day will live to fight another day.
-He's always creating something mystical and magical.
My name's Aaron Snowell,
and I have trained over 30 world champions.
Mike Tyson went on to fight Trevor Berbick
in order to become the WBC,
uh, heavyweight champion of the world
and the youngest heavyweight champion of the world.
-Tyson. Tyson goes to work right away.
And he gets Berbick in trouble!
And he's down!
-He wins that in two rounds.
And so, that's his 28th fight in 2 years,
24 of which of those victories came by way of knockout.
That was Tyson.
[ Reporters clamoring ] -There he is, the WBC
champion of the world.
-But Mike Tyson is just getting started.
3 months later, "Iron" Mike's fighting
ex-police officer Bonecrusher Smith.
Bonecrusher is half a foot taller than Tyson
and has an extra 11-inch reach. [ Cheers and applause ]
Tyson still wins by decision,
capturing his second heavyweight title.
But the stress of Tyson's grueling fight schedule
is starting to show. [ Bell rings ]
He develops alopecia,
and when he shows up to fight for the last remaining belt
in the division, he has the bald spot to prove it.
-That might have been the best shot
that Mike Tyson has ever taken right there!
-But in the end, he triumphs.
Mike Tyson, at 21 years old,
becomes the unified heavyweight champion of the world,
the first ever to hold all three belts.
-A mark that is second to none in boxing history.
-The little kid with the pigeons
is now a high-flying celebrity.
-There probably was not a more popular athlete on the planet
at that particular time.
Everybody loves Mike Tyson.
-So much so that just like two other famous Mikes,
Jackson and Fox,
Mike Tyson starts doing Pepsi ads.
-Mike, how do you feel about sharing your title, huh?
-No problem. Just not sharing my Diet Pepsi.
-And he finally becomes that Nintendo star.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is an instant hit,
selling more than 2 million copies.
-Mike Tyson is the epitome of the American dream.
And then some. -He used to walk up,
see guys on the street,
and he'd hand them $1,000, 500,
and they look down and see that kind of money.
They could -- They couldn't believe it.
-He's boxing's king and soon goes looking for his queen.
In 1988, a People Magazine cover
celebrates Tyson's marriage
to actress Robin Givens.
-I'm with Robin Givens,
who was attending her first
Mike Tyson fight as Mrs. Champion.
-[ Laughs ]
-Immediately, people speculate that Robin is with Tyson
for the wrong reasons.
-I think, people saw Robin Givens as a bit
of a gold digger.
-Robin does have her own career
co-starring in an ABC sitcom.
-My problem is not Dr. Samuels.
It's my parents.
-But on "Head of the Class,"
Robin is part of an ensemble. -No, it's just that
they'll go with me.
-With Mike, she increasingly
seems to want to be the lead...
-Robin! -Hey, Mike!
-...taking top billing on a LIFE Magazine cover.
-Hey, champ. -And turning Mike's Pepsi deal
into a duet. -Yes, dear.
[Ding!]
-And when one of his managers dies
the newly minted Mrs. Tyson starts making
her husband's business
her business.
-Robin, upon the death
of Jim Jacobs,
wanted to know a little bit more about
how much Bill Cayton was making off of Mike's fight.
She wanted to see contracts.
She wanted to see where Mike's money was
and how much money Mike was owed.
-I want him to step into the ring as often as he wants,
because he wants to.
Because he enjoys it.
Never for financial reasons.
-After successfully defending his title
against Michael Spinks.
Tyson, with the blessings of Robin Givens and Don King,
fires Bill Cayton and Kevin Rooney,
the only men left from the Cus D'Amato days.
It's a significant disruption,
and Mike's physical conditioning suffers.
-I haven't been training properly.
And I think, I just haven't been doing,
um, discipline myself well.
-So, when I start training Mike Tyson at Don King's camp,
he was over 300-and-something pounds.
He didn't want to be there.
He didn't want to do it.
-Tyson appears to be spiraling out of control.
He gets into a street fight in Harlem with a former opponent,
Mitch Green, breaking Green's face
and his own hand in the process.
Green claims Tyson sucker punched him
and sues for 25 million in damages.
-Mike Tyson is a sissy!
-Tyson's dissent continues. [ Camera shutter clicks ]
-There was always something about, you know,
Mike crashing his car,
Mike having an argument with Robin,
Mike being admitted to the hospital,
because he was injured in an accident.
Uh, there was all these wild stories about them.
-He has so many women. He's a homosexual.
His family is crazy in the wild life.
-Things get so bad,
Tyson reportedly attempts suicide.
-Mike Tyson went through a-a great stage of depression
during that time. [ Camera shutters clicking ]
He loved Robin Givens.
-But Tyson's face during the interview
with Barbara Walters on 20/20
suggests he doesn't love it when Robin shares
his mental health diagnosis with the world.
-Michael...
is a manic depressive.
He is. I mean, that's just a fact.
-A lot of people, I believe,
had a lot of sympathy for Mike,
because they saw this heavyweight champion,
this warrior of the ring,
being basically emasculated
on national television
by his wife.
-Tyson later says Robin supplied him
with the drugs Thorazine and lithium before the interview.
Robin, who by now is considered the most hated woman in America,
files for divorce.
[ Cheers and applause ] -The marriage turned out to be
"Iron" Mike's longest bout,
and maybe even his toughest. [ Camera shutter clicks ]
-To boost Tyson's morale and his own bank account,
Don King sets up a series of fights meant to be
not much more than televised sparring matches.
-Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson
was supposed to be a tune-up fight.
-That was the plan.
And nobody was really
too interested in this fight.
-Except for maybe, Buster Douglas.
-You know, I knew what I had inside of me,
and I knew what I could do.
You know, I had the ability to compete on --
on that level.
Hi, I'm James "Buster" Douglas,
and in 1990,
I shocked the world by becoming the undisputed
heavyweight champion of the world.
-The Tyson-Douglas fight is set to take place
at Japan's Tokyo Dome.
Bookmakers have Buster as a huge underdog.
His odds are a discouraging 42 to 1.
-But it actually motivated Buster to become dedicated.
He became a fighter who had nothing to lose, so to speak.
-Nothing to lose, but everything to win.
So, Buster trains hard up to the very last moment.
-Right before the fire, we get a shake out.
You know, break a little sweat.
Loosen up. Do a body check.
Then, lay down and go to sleep
and wake up the next day,
the day of the fight, ready to go.
-Tyson's pre-fight ritual is a bit different.
He and his wingman, rapper Bobby Brown,
spend the night before the fight out on the town
with a gaggle of groupies.
-He was a single man again,
and most of his time was spent fooling around.
So, Mike was just doing his thing in Tokyo,
and a lot of it didn't have to do with training.
-Buster Douglas, absolutely having the night
of his life to this point.
-I mean, you watch the fight,
and you hear the stories that Mike was partying,
that Mike wasn't really taking this fight seriously,
because he thought he had it in the bag.
And it's a circus.
-I haven't seen Mike in this kind of trouble before.
[ Indistinct conversations, shouting ]
-Well, no Mr. Nice Guy in this fight.
-Mike Tyson terrorized opponents
and thrilled crowds throughout the 80s.
But just weeks into the new decade,
the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world
is struggling to keep up with Buster Douglas.
-Look at this! Look at this!
-It's in round 10 that Buster does
what no one has done to Tyson
in 37 professional fights.
-Oh! Nice uppercut!
Point goes to Douglas! Look at this!
He's knocked down...
-2! -...for the first time
in his career! -3!
-It's the biggest upset in boxing history.
[ Cheering, announcers speaking indistinctly ]
-Boom.
You know, it happens.
-Buster Douglas is the new
heavyweight champion of the world.
-Mike definitely confused.
-Mike asked me, "What happened?"
I said, "You got knocked out."
And I grabbed him,
so, he wouldn't fall.
But without a doubt, uh, that night
changed the course of history.
-The world that night witnessed
that on any given night,
Mike Tyson was beatable.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-But getting knocked out
makes Tyson more relatable
and even more popular. [ Camera shutters clicking ]
-[Rapping] Fresh Prince breaks camp.
Tyson wins first round.
-At the Apollo, DJ Jazzy Jeff
and the Fresh Prince sing about their hero
in their song --
"I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson."
Then, Steve Dunleavy from "A Current Affair"
gets Tyson on the ropes
when he asks him about an upcoming paternity test.
-I don't know anything about that.
-But it's not going to happen? It's not true?
You haven't heard from lawyers? -Well, I --
Well, I don't know if it's not going to happen.
Anything's possible happening. But you know what I mean?
That's a situation I just have to handle.
-But Tyson won't be able to shrug off what happens
a month later.
-Tonight, police confirmed they're investigating
allegations of rape against Mike Tyson.
-His accuser is Desiree Washington,
an 18-year-old beauty queen
Tyson meets at the Miss Black America Pageant.
-Mike Tyson called her at 1:30 in the morning.
By 2:30 in the morning,
they were walking through the hotel lobby
into his hotel suite.
Some 26 hours later,
Desiree Washington went to a local hospital
and said she had been raped by Mike Tyson.
[ Reporters clamoring ] -And soon after that,
the media enters the ring. -Good afternoon, everyone.
Is he a monster, or is he just macho?
-While Tyson is getting booked,
Don King is blowing smoke.
-He will deal with this in the --
in the process of -- of court,
when the day arrives in the court.
-And even Barbara Walters
seems to come to Tyson's defense,
victim blaming Desiree
by reporting statements allegedly made
by some unnamed black female college students.
-One said, "18 year olds are not naive in this day and age.
What did you think a guy wanted at 2:00 in the morning?"
Another said, "She asked for it.
She got it. It's not fair to cry, right?"
[ Camera shutters clicking ] -For Tyson's many supporters,
Desiree Washington replaces Robin Givens
as the most hated woman in the country.
At the trial, scalpers hawked courtroom tickets
like it's a title fight.
-One ticket. $100.
-I don't think anybody really expected Mike
to be convicted of this crime.
-But he is, the jury finds Mike Tyson
guilty of one count of rape
and two counts of criminal deviant conduct.
[ Camera shutter clicks ] -Free Mike Tyson!
Free Mike Tyson! [ Indistinct conversations ]
-Tyson fans think it's a travesty of justice.
-I'm -- I'm sorry, buddy.
I wish I could get you back everything you had.
Okay? -Yes. Thank you.
-He's about 26 years old at this time,
and so, he spends the next 3 years in prison
for his rape charge.
-Behind bars but not forgotten.
Tupac, Whitney Houston,
James Brown, and Florence Henderson
from "The Brady Bunch" --
They all visit Tyson in prison.
-So, to me, it tells me it's less about what you do,
but rather does the public --
Do the media want you to have a comeback narrative?
-In Tyson's case, they do.
Montel Williams and Larry King conduct jailhouse interviews
where Tyson bemoans how he's the real victim.
-I believe, everyone that's involved in my life one day
or the other will betray me.
I believe that. Yes, I totally believe that.
-Mike Tyson is still very much someone
that can operate within the system,
that's seen as valuable.
-Especially to boxing promoter Don King.
As a former convict, King not only believes
Tyson can bounce back from going to prison,
he's banking on it.
-Don King has remained in Mike's corner.
He's remained his promoter.
That allows Don to go out
and negotiate contracts on Mike's behalf,
even while Mike is still in prison.
-Tyson certainly needs the money.
-He's a heavyweight spender.
He loves his Dom Pérignon. He loves his Bentleys.
He loves his jewelry.
-Mike Tyson is a black man
who grew up in poverty,
who was incarcerated as a youth.
And so, if you're a boxer that doesn't have financial literacy
and an awareness of how money works
and you come into money all of a sudden,
how do you handle that?
-Apparently, you spend it.
Well, you spend what you keep
after giving Don King 30%.
That hefty cut helps explain why King is there
on March 26th, 1995,
when "Iron" Mike exits the iron bars after serving
only half of his 6-year sentence.
-So, Mike Tyson, a rapist, convicted felon,
he gets out of prison, and the day he gets out of prison,
he's handed a check, an advance from Showtime for $30 million.
-Tyson spends over 100 grand of that on three pet tigers.
-Most of my friends think I'm nuts.
They don't come around my house
when the lions or tigers or cats are out,
they don't come around. -Man, my heart was
just beating in my -- my -- my mouth.
-That Showtime money means
Tyson needs to put on a show.
King gets his human ATM training
for what is being billed, "Tyson 2.0."
The former world champion of the world,
Mike Tyson.
-This new Tyson is all Mr. Hyde
with almost no Dr. Jekyll.
-We're looking to see Tyson as a spectacle,
as an animal, as a gangster.
[ Bell rings, cheers and applause ]
-And so, the image switches from this good young man
who became heavyweight champion of the world
to this almost menace of society.
And that's Mike Tyson II.
-At the weigh-in for Tyson's fight
against Evander Holyfield labeled, "Finally."
The media revels in pointing out
how different the ill-tempered Tyson is
from his more good-humored opponent.
-There is no expression at all
except intimidation on the face of Mike Tyson.
Evander Holyfield broke into a big smile.
-Mike and Evander didn't really hang out
in the same circles.
Evander had this religious reputation
as being a God-fearing Christian.
-The good-versus-evil matchup
is set in this marquee mega event
between Tyson and Holyfield,
and it does 1.5 million pay-per-view units.
The world was ready.
-Holyfield, who was misdiagnosed with a heart condition,
is coming back from a forced retirement,
and is what they call, "ring rusty."
-Nobody gave him much of a chance to defeat Mike
in the first fight.
-But they forgot to tell Evander.
-Tyson gets dropped in the sixth round.
-Mike Tyson is down!
-He gets dropped again.
-Tyson is in trouble!
-And in the 11th round, it's just too much,
and the referee intervenes,
stops the fight.
-Unbelievable!
It's over!
-Evander Holyfield
had just defeated Mike Tyson.
-And of course, in the boxing world,
that means we need a rematch.
That's our way of getting resolutions.
-7 months later, they weigh in for the rematch,
promoted as "The Sound and the Fury."
-Don't miss the event Saturday night.
-This time, Tyson's Fury
will be met with the sounds of gasps and screams.
[ Eerie music plays ] -It's June 28th, 1997,
and ESPN is tracking Mike Tyson's every move.
-I can tell you, we've just come from inside the arena.
The electricity is indeed palpable.
-"Holyfield-Tyson II" is billed as the biggest
grudge match in boxing history.
-Here we go. Fight 2! Round 1!
♪♪
-A fight is a fight,
but a marquee boxing event is different,
because there's a story behind the matchup.
Without the story, you don't have an event.
And so, you see Holyfield as a man of Christ,
and you see Mike Tyson as a gangster.
-But in round 2, Tyson calls out
Holier-than-thou Holyfield
to referee Mills Lane.
-He said, "Holyfield was head-butting me.
-Tyson's eyes cut open, and his face streaked with blood.
-Evander Holyfield, he know,
he was doing dirty stuff to Mike.
-The alleged head-butting inflames Tyson,
who now sees in Holyfield that Brooklyn bully
who murdered young Mike's pigeon all those years ago.
-I'm pretty sure people have heard Mike Tyson was bullied
when he was young, and that inflamed him
to fight back.
-You have someone who comes from the hood,
from the barrio,
from the ghetto...
...and he's fearless to authority.
He doesn't care that Mills Lane is right there.
He's going to do what he wants.
-And what Tyson wants
is a pound of flesh.
-Oh. He bit him!
-His frustrations got to a point
where all of a sudden, at the end of the third round,
you see Mike bite Evander on the ear.
-It's so unprecedented.
The referee confers with the chairman
of Nevada's Athletic Commission, Marc Ratner,
who seems equally befuddled as to what's happening.
-Marc Ratner thought he got hit in the balls.
People didn't know what was going on.
-At that moment, it's chaotic.
Tyson wants to keep fighting.
He's clearly still frustrated.
-Mills Lane deducts 2 points from Tyson
and gives him a warning.
-But if you do it again, I'm gonna disqualify you.
It takes about 15 seconds, and Mike bites him again.
-[Gasps] He bit him again.
-And we never see the fourth round,
because in between the third and the fourth,
they disqualify Mike Tyson,
and the fight's over.
-But the brawl has just begun.
-All of a sudden, Mike goes berserk.
Everybody piled into the ring,
law enforcement, trainers.
And then, Mike went nuts and started swinging at anybody.
-Mike Tyson, who kicked off the 90s
as a hero and champion
in and out of the ring,
has been reduced to a madman.
-It was all downhill after that.
Mike Tyson was never the same fighter.
Never the same fighter.
[ Sirens wailing ]
-Holyfield, meanwhile, is on his way to the hospital.
Later, Tyson offers up some kind of explanation
in an interview with ABC Sports.
-I take my beating like a man.
And it's just the fact I-I-I taste blood.
I tripped and I just kept -- I was just in the zone.
I was in that real serious and frantic zone.
-Tyson has turned boxing on its ear.
-It was boxing going into the area of the bizarre.
Was this resorting to WWE tactics?
Was it the sweet science?
Uh, there's nothing sweet about that.
It took a long time for people to trust boxing again,
to believe in their fighters again.
-Don King starts panicking
about his lucrative sponsorship deals.
-You have millions and millions of dollars at stake.
So, first thing Don King did
was to hire a publicist
who crafted a long apology speech.
-For an athlete in the heat of battle to suddenly lose it.
It's not new, but it's not right.
-"I take responsibility for my own actions."
Yada yada yada yada.
-Unlike when he was convicted of rape,
this time no one is looking to cut him a break.
-He's supposed to be a role model.
This is not a role model's reaction to anything.
You don't bite off a person's ear.
-Tyson's fined $3 million.
-All in favor, say aye. -Aye.
-And his boxing license is revoked.
His own lawyer suggests he's mentally incompetent
to answer for his actions.
-He wouldn't be able to do it,
with all due respect to him.
-And so, thinking about the fact
that a rape conviction is the thing
that one can come back from,
but the bite is the downfall.
That's when we say enough.
-Unable to box, and with endorsements gone,
Tyson's money issues become dire.
-Mike Tyson did make a lot of money,
but he was also taken advantage of by a lot of people
that didn't have his best interest.
-Like Don King.
In 1998, Mike Tyson files a $100 million lawsuit
against King, alleging he swindled him
out of money for years.
-Tyson's lawsuit against King,
filed here in New York Federal Court,
is really an attempt by the 31-year-old boxer
to seize control of his career.
That's something that Tyson,
once considered the baddest man on the planet,
has seemed neither interested in nor capable of in the past.
-Mike felt alone. He felt a little bit abandoned.
And all of a sudden, the people that he thought loved him
and cared for him and would be there for him were gone.
-With no one in his corner and desperate for cash,
Tyson turns the perception he's out of control
into a WWF storyline,
playing the enforcer at WrestleMania XIV.
-Whoa! [ Shouting ]
Whoa! Here we go! -Here we go!
-Luckily for Tyson, boxing is quick to forget
when there's a quick buck in doing so.
-The business is trying to maximize
and fatten their pockets at the expense
and through the utilization of the labor
and the work of a boxer like Mike Tyson.
-Just over a year after "The Bite Fight,"
the state of Nevada reinstates Tyson's boxing license.
ESPN airs his weigh-in with opponent Francois Botha
and wonders if Tyson's mentally stable
enough to make a comeback.
-You know, Cus D'Amato prepared Tyson to deal with all kinds
of pressure when he was a young fighter.
Tyson has fallen down on some of those lessons.
-And Cus would likely have disapproved
of the disrespectful way Tyson speaks to reporter Russ Salzberg
about his upcoming fight.
-You take into the ring a lot of rage.
Does that work for you, or does it work against you at times?
-Well, [bleep] it. It's a fight.
So, whatever happens happens.
-Mike, why do you have to talk like that?
-Well, I'm talking to you the way I want to talk to you.
You have a problem. Turn off your station.
-You know what, I think, we'll end
the discussion right now.
-Then, we could [bleep].
-You got it. Have a nice fight, Mike.
-[Bleep] off.
-It's not a nice fight.
While Tyson doesn't gnaw on his opponent,
he seems to try and break his arm
after the bell,
Tyson's corner rushes in to stop him.
-So, you start to see this sort of chaos and calamity
surrounding Mike Tyson fights.
-But Tyson's next clash will send him back to jail
when he's found guilty of assault
during a road rage incident.
-For many, it confirmed that Mike Tyson was out of control,
that Mike Tyson was a monster,
that Mike Tyson was a savage.
-This time, there's no TV prison specials
or celebs lining up to visit.
-By that time, his reputation had taken a really serious hit.
There was just a stain to him at that particular time.
-When he came out the prison,
you know, the tool of the dungeon
is to break somebody's spirit. [ Jail cell closes ]
People are never the same once they go to jail
and they come out.
-And Mike's no different.
His interviews are so unhinged.
They come with trigger warnings.
-You guys try to label me. You label me a schizoid.
You label me a manic depressive. You label me a crazy [bleep].
I'm probably more schizoid than I am anything.
But you label me so many things.
You drive a [bleep] insane.
-From my viewpoint,
Mike Tyson looked at it upon, the media and stuff
were bullying him.
And Mike Tyson starts lashing back at 'em.
-And then, at the press conference
for his upcoming fight with Lennox Lewis,
Mike doesn't use his words at all.
-Mike physically attacks Lennox.
There's this big brawl at the press conference,
and Mike winds up biting him on the leg.
-Ring Magazine rewards Tyson's bad behavior
by naming "The Brawl" event of the year in 2002.
And Tyson is not done yet.
-I wish one of your guys had children
if I could kick them in the [bleep] head,
or stomp on their testicles.
So, you can feel my pain, because that's the pain
I have waking up every day.
-Boxing fans are holding on tight when Mike Tyson
versus Lennox Lewis kicks off on June 8th, 2002.
And thanks to Tyson's crazed shit talking,
they even have extra safety precautions in place.
-There's this line of security between the two fighters.
-It's a first for boxing.
-He was the boogeyman.
He was the spectacle that people were afraid of,
but also intrigued by.
[ Bell rings, cheering ]
-But it turns out Tyson can't walk the walk.
-Lewis online with another right uppercut!
-I think, he just talked a good game
to build up the fight,
and then, he went in there and tried to knockout Lewis
in the first couple of rounds,
and when that didn't happen, he was done.
-He's gonna take that hook.
-Big right hand from Lewis!
Lennox Lewis! -Lewis scores a knockout,
but Tyson thinks he's the big winner.
He earns 17.5 million
and listening to the post-fight interview --
That might be all he cares about.
-I'm happy for him to give me a fight.
The payday was wonderful. I really appreciate it.
-You can tell that he was just done with fighting.
He was only showing up to get a payday.
-But it's not the last time
he'll need to get beat up to get paid.
-Mike Tyson's made a lot of news lately.
None of it good.
Now comes word, he's broke.
"Iron" Mike filed for bankruptcy here,
claiming he's in mega debt. -Hey, Mike!
-Tyson, now sporting a face tattoo,
agrees to get back in the ring
to fight Kevin McBride. [ Bell rings ]
Despite McBride being 8 inches taller,
almost 40 pounds heavier and 6 years younger,
Tyson's doing it for the 5.5 million payout.
-He really didn't care if he won or not.
He would go in there, throw some hard punches in the first round,
and if he didn't knock the guy out, he was done.
-At the end of the sixth round,
Tyson says, "No mas."
-He just gave up and quit on his stool.
He didn't want to be there anymore.
And so, he announced his retirement.
-It's just not in my heart anymore.
You know, it's hard for me to fight.
You know, me starting out. You have to understand.
I'm from Brownsville, Brooklyn. I had nothing. You have to look.
I have wealthy children. Now -- Now, I'm broke.
But my children are wealthy, and they have a great life.
It's just -- It's very difficult to fight
when you're in that kind of situation.
-And so, it's -- it's very hard to see a boxer
go out in that way.
The romance story is that a boxer goes out
in their farewell show.
Win or lose, the crowd is cheering you on.
Sort of like Rocky does in "Rocky Balboa."
[ Cheers and applause ]
For Tyson, it was --
it was the opposite.
And it's brutal, because it has everything
to do with a man's dignity.
-And Tyson's dignity is at least for rent.
-Mike Tyson.
-He accepts $100,000
to appear in the hit movie, "The Hangover."
-Oh, geez.
-According to Mike,
he's high for the entire shoot.
-He obviously had a lot of problems with drugs
and doing a lot of cocaine,
and I don't think he was very happy at the time.
-Tyson's been dealing with a crushing blow.
In 2009, his 4-year-old daughter Exodus
is accidentally strangled to death
by the cord on a treadmill.
Tyson tells HBO's "Real Sports" how he dealt with it
in what will be called his strangest
and most chilling interview.
-[Inhales sharply] You know, I did some cocaine for a week.
I had to get high.
I had to back then. I had to get high.
Um, I couldn't handle it at all.
[ Solemn music playing ]
You have to go now. You understand? Right?
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
-Calling it one of the scariest moments of his life,
reporter Bernie Goldberg and his crew
do what Tyson asks and leaves.
-Mike Tyson hit rock bottom.
-And he stays there until 2013,
when ESPN cameras catch Tyson making amends with Teddy Atlas.
Teddy's the former trainer who pulled a gun on Tyson
and accused him of being a sexual predator,
but as Tyson tells the press, he's the one making amends.
-I'm a motherf-- I'm a bad guy, sometimes.
And I used -- And I-I did a lot of bad things.
And I wanted to be forgiven.
-From vicious to vulnerable,
Mike Tyson starts his healing journey surrounded
by his remaining children and third wife, Kiki.
He even makes up with Holyfield,
who helps Tyson sell his ear-shaped cannabis gummies.
-What is this? -I got you your ear.
-No, it's not. This ain't my ear.
-Yes, it is. Cherry pie punch flavor.
-He's also podcasting these days.
And just watching him host his podcast,
"Hotboxin' With Mike Tyson" and his new third act.
-It's on the podcast with Sugar Ray Leonard as his guest
that Tyson reflects on the toxic grooming
and the monster boxing turned him into.
-I'm working on being the art of humbleness.
Can you believe me? That's the reason why I'm crying.
'Cause I'm not that person no more.
-He breaks down in tears.
A grown black man wearing his emotions publicly
like that is powerful.
-And I like to think of people as Russian dolls.
There's the young Mike Tyson
that's experienced all this childhood trauma.
There's "Iron" Mike, the baddest man on the planet's in there.
The guy that had the fall from grace,
the guy that was in prison is in there.
All these people are still there.
They're just parts of this whole.
This bigger person that he is today.
Reminds me that we have to give people the capacity
and space to grow.
♪♪