Dark Side of the 90's Season 3 Episode 1

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Dark Side of the 90's S3 Episode 1 - Tyson - The Rise and Fall of Kid Dynamite

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00:00In the 90s, boxing, the sweet science, devolves into blood sport.
00:11Oh, he bit him!
00:13Tyson savaged when Mike Tyson, the bad boy of boxing...
00:17Have a nice fight, Mike.
00:19F*** off.
00:20...bites above the belt.
00:21And I was horrified by it.
00:22It was chaotic.
00:23It was just wild.
00:24I was there.
00:25It was unbelievable.
00:28Tyson is the 90s raging bull.
00:30Is he a monster, or is he just macho?
00:33One that refuses to go down for the count.
00:36Mike Tyson was also taken advantage of by a lot of people that didn't have his best
00:40interest.
00:41That's the reason why I'm crying, because I'm not that person no more.
00:42Here we go!
00:43Fight two, round one!
00:58It is showtime!
01:09June 28th, 1997 marks one of the most anticipated rematches in boxing history.
01:17Here we go!
01:18As Iron Mike Tyson attempts to regain the heavyweight title from Evander, the real deal,
01:24Holyfield.
01:25Mike was going to do what he needed to do.
01:26He was going to wear out Evander, and he was going to regain the championship.
01:31So that's what they thought was going to happen at that particular time.
01:35Well, it didn't.
01:37The fight, in its now infamous bite, is a watershed moment for boxing and Mike Tyson.
01:43Out he bit him!
01:45Let's be clear.
01:46When we say bite, I mean, it's a bite.
01:48Part of his ear is on the ground.
01:51This is a really, really vicious, violent attack.
01:54How does boxing's most devastating fighter end up gnawing on his opponent?
02:00Tyson's story begins in 1966.
02:03He was the third child of Lorna Smith, but his father was really never around.
02:09When Tyson was 10, his mother, who he describes as an angry alcoholic, moves the family to
02:15the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
02:17It's a very dangerous, crime-riddled neighborhood, a lot of poverty.
02:22Mike grew up into that.
02:27Cops always stopping.
02:28You know what I mean?
02:29Ambulance always coming to pick up somebody.
02:31Guns always going off.
02:33People are getting stabbed, windows are being broken.
02:35It's very, very hostile.
02:38He's living this very isolated life as this kid that's bullied for his voice, for his
02:42lisp.
02:44But he finds a way to escape.
02:46Mike's outlet was to hang out with pigeons, training them, naming them.
02:53That was his life.
02:54That was his passion.
02:55They were his friends.
02:56They were his confidants.
02:57He could believe in them.
02:58He could trust them.
02:59And so you think about this very tender Mike Tyson that is kind of ruminating here.
03:06One day, an older boy steals one of his feathered friends.
03:10Mike begs for it back, but the bully uses his hands to break the pigeon's neck, then
03:15laughs and throws the dead bird in Mike's face.
03:19So young Mike Tyson uses his hands.
03:23That enraged Mike to the point where he beat up the kid, and he found some sort of value
03:29in beating up and hurting people.
03:34Years later, speaking at GQ magazine, Tyson describes how this pivotal moment in his past
03:39helped shape his future.
03:41I'm a kind of, I'm a really sensitive guy, and I'm, um, how can I explain this, um, for
03:49being Billy, I could be really, um, really, um, malevolent, you know?
03:55As Tyson tells Pierce Morgan on CNN, he becomes the bad kid in the neighborhood, disappointing
04:00his mother.
04:01I did a lot of bad things.
04:02Um, I, I robbed a lot of a friend's houses and stuff like that.
04:09And that tended to be his life as a youngster.
04:12He was arrested nearly 40 times by the age of 12.
04:16On a path to life in prison or worse, in 1979, Tyson is sent away to live in a remote reform
04:23school in upstate New York.
04:26When he was at Tryon School for Boys and institutionalized as a youth, there begins to be a shift in
04:32Tyson as he meets different people who teach him about boxing.
04:37I am Dr. Rudy Mondragon, and I study the sport of boxing, the political economy of sport,
04:43and the ways in which boxers express themselves.
04:46And in the 90s, I was playing Punch-Out, Mike Tyson edition.
04:52But Tyson hasn't become a Nintendo star yet.
04:55As a 13-year-old, Tyson meets a counselor and former Golden Gloves champ named Bobby
05:00Stewart, who runs a boxing program at the school.
05:04Tyson was intrigued by that.
05:05He saw the kids boxing, and he asked Stewart if he could become a part of it.
05:11My name is George Willis.
05:12I'm a long-time sports writer, and I am also the author of The Bite Fight, The Night That
05:18Changed Boxing Forever.
05:21Stewart got in the ring with Mike and beat him up pretty good just to see if he wanted
05:25to come back for more.
05:27Mike came back for more, and he showed that he was really passionate about the sport.
05:33So Stewart introduces Tyson to Cus D'Amato, a boxing legend who once trained heavyweight
05:38champs Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres.
05:41Well, Cus D'Amato was an old-school trainer, and he took in fighters at his home in the
05:47Catskills.
05:48Cus's live-in boxing school is so unique that it becomes the subject of a documentary in
05:52the early 1980s.
05:54The film captures the young boxers being cared for by Cus and his partner, Camille.
05:59They're better off being in this house than anybody else.
06:03I don't know.
06:04It was like a big family, a big training camp, and all they talked about was boxing.
06:09All they did was watch fight films.
06:10Your right shoulder should be more this way.
06:13You're gonna do real damage.
06:15You might drop the guy with one punch.
06:17When Cus D'Amato told him that he could be the heavyweight champion of the world, that's
06:21the first time Mike heard someone have some sort of belief in him.
06:26And for Mike, that was the first person who showed him love.
06:31For years, Cus and his training staff teach Tyson the physical skills needed for the peekaboo
06:36style of boxing that will one day make him near unbeatable.
06:40It was chaotic.
06:41It was just wild.
06:42You had to keep your eye on him because he did some quick movements.
06:48There's also mental training.
06:49Decades later, Tyson reveals to Joe Rogan that Cus used hypnosis to sharpen some aspects
06:55of Mike's personality.
06:58What kind of shit do they make you do?
06:59You know.
07:00How do they do it?
07:01You relax.
07:02You go under.
07:03You totally focus on blackness, nothingness.
07:06Right.
07:07And you go under, and you're just being this savage, intelligent animal, just working.
07:11You're gonna do this.
07:12You're gonna be a ferocious animal.
07:14Wow.
07:15So they're putting you under and just teaching you that mindset.
07:18Yeah.
07:19Whoa.
07:20Did he give you any advice on how to shut it off?
07:23No.
07:24Without an off switch, Tyson remains dangerous outside the ring, reportedly racking up a
07:29string of assaults and stealing money from his trainer, Teddy Atlas, to buy drugs.
07:36Then when Tyson is 15, Atlas threatens him with a gun, believing Tyson is capable of
07:42sexually assaulting Atlas' 11-year-old niece.
07:46Atlas describes the incident in an interview with ESPN in 2012.
07:51Because of what he did to an 11-year-old girl in my family, and took him on his word
08:00for the things that he said he wanted to do to the 11-year-old girl, so in a sexual way.
08:07When Atlas tells Cus about it, Cus says what Mike does inside the ring is the only thing
08:12that matters.
08:13So Atlas quits.
08:16Cus doesn't care.
08:18His focus is Tyson, who Cus has fighting up to four fights a month, but it's quantity
08:23over quality.
08:24He wasn't fighting against great competition, so he was getting easy wins.
08:28But that just stirred the interest.
08:31Tyson wins 24 of his 27 fights as an amateur.
08:34Weighing 214 pounds, Mike Tyson.
08:40At 18, Tyson turns pro against Hector Mercedes.
08:47It's a brutal hit and run.
08:48Tyson scores a technical KO in the first round.
08:56Eight months later, it's Tyson who receives a near knockout blow.
09:01Cus D'Amato, the first person to ever believe in him, dies at age 77.
09:08But Tyson's managers, who have been working under Cus, step up to keep Tyson's career
09:13on track.
09:14To their credit, Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Caton put together this marketing plan where he
09:20was featured on Sports Illustrated, and so the nation started to hear about him.
09:25And once that hit the newsstands, he became a national attraction.
09:30Including an appearance on Letterman, where the audience can't seem to get enough of the
09:34gap-toothed, soft-spoken teenager.
09:37Here's a picture of you on Sports Illustrated.
09:38That must have been a big thrill for you, huh?
09:41Yeah.
09:42Okay.
09:43A big part of Tyson's appeal is his in-ring transformation into the most aggressive and
09:47antagonistic champion the sport will ever see.
09:54Fighting Mitch Blood Green, a former gang leader from the Bronx, Tyson taunts and teases
09:59his opponent.
10:00Look at him.
10:01Look at him.
10:02He's laughing.
10:03As if he's playing with his food before he eats it.
10:05I can think about watching Mike Tyson and not being able to look anywhere else.
10:12But immediately after the fight, Tyson is back to being a mild-mannered young man folks
10:16saw on Letterman.
10:17Are you on track to the heavyweight title?
10:20What's your schedule for the heavyweight championship?
10:22In this predicament, you have to focus on the charming gentleman on my left.
10:27Okay.
10:28When you look at Mike Tyson's early start in his career, I mean, he had a group of white
10:33handlers.
10:35And these white handlers, his management team, his trainers, as a white leadership team,
10:40he was, you can say, carrying himself in a way that's palatable to the masses.
10:44He was trying to get attention, but not rock the boat too much.
10:50But he has no problem sinking opponents and doing it fast.
10:57Marvis Frazier lasts only 30 seconds.
11:00As quickly as they fall, Tyson's celebrity seems to rise even faster.
11:04Mike Tyson was must-see TV.
11:06Very quick knockout.
11:07There's this buildup that kind of transcends culture that even if you don't watch sports,
11:13this is the thing you have to watch.
11:16But as he drops his opponents, Tyson's kinder, gentler persona also starts to drop away.
11:22I wish one of your guys had children so I could kick them in the head and stomp on their
11:26testicles.
11:27But soon, the powder keg known as Kid Dynamite is ready to explode.
11:35Released in 1976, Sylvester Stallone's saga, Rocky, embodies the American belief that we're
11:41all just one break away from greatness.
11:46A decade later, it's a black kid born to poverty that personifies that American dream.
11:52He has this story of tragedy, of having to fight to really maintain himself in a really
11:57rough environment, and then having this legendary coach come through and teach him how to fight
12:03properly.
12:04The Hollywood narrative's already built in.
12:06My name is Courtney Cox.
12:08I'm a former ESPN employee and current scholar looking at all things sport and culture.
12:15At the turn of the 1990s, Mike Tyson is one of the most captivating humans on the planet,
12:20period.
12:21Maybe the most.
12:22It's fact.
12:23I'm the best.
12:24You know what I mean?
12:25Sometimes I don't want to believe it myself, but it's the truth.
12:26I'm the best.
12:27And it ain't bragging if it's true.
12:31It's a 27-0 Tyson who steps in the ring to fight Trevor Burbick for one of the three
12:35heavyweight titles.
12:38Ringside is a who's who of the sport.
12:41Speaking of the greats, Muhammad Ali and his new wife, Lani.
12:45The man behind the star-studded event is fight promoter Don King.
12:49Don King, during that time period, had control of the heavyweight division.
12:55King is an ex-con who went from serving a manslaughter sentence to setting up the famed
12:59Ali versus Foreman rumble in the jungle.
13:02He who runs the day will live to fight another day.
13:06He's always creating something mystical and magical.
13:10My name's Aaron Snowell, and I have trained over 30 world champions.
13:15Mike Tyson went on to fight Trevor Burbick in order to become the WBC heavyweight champion
13:22of the world and the youngest heavyweight champion of the world.
13:26Tyson goes to work right away, and he's got Trevor in trouble, and he's down.
13:31He wins that in two rounds.
13:33And so that's his 28th fight in two years, 24 of which of those victories came by way
13:39of knockout.
13:41That was Tyson.
13:42And he is the WBC champion of the world.
13:46But Mike Tyson is just getting started.
13:49Three months later, Iron Mike's fighting ex-police officer Bone Crusher Smith.
13:55Bone Crusher is half a foot taller than Tyson and has an extra 11-inch reach.
14:00Tyson still wins by decision, capturing his second heavyweight title.
14:05But the stress of Tyson's grueling fight schedule is starting to show.
14:10He develops alopecia, and when he shows up to fight for the last remaining belt in the
14:14division, he has the bald spot to prove it.
14:17That might have been the best shot that Mike Tyson has ever taken right there.
14:21But in the end, he triumphs.
14:24Mike Tyson, at 21 years old, becomes the unified heavyweight champion of the world,
14:30the first ever to hold all three belts, a mark that is second to none in boxing history.
14:37The little kid with the pigeons is now a high-flying celebrity.
14:41There probably was not a more popular athlete on the planet at that particular time.
14:49Everybody loves Mike Tyson.
14:51So much so that just like two other famous Mikes, Jackson and Fox, Mike Tyson starts
14:56doing Pepsi ads.
14:57Mike, how do you feel about sharing your title?
14:58No problem.
14:59Check my sham or die Pepsi.
15:03And he finally becomes that Nintendo star.
15:06Mike Tyson's punch-out is an instant hit, selling more than two million copies.
15:11Mike Tyson is the epitome of the American dream, and then some.
15:14He used to walk up, see guys on the street, and he'd hand them $1,000, $500, and they
15:20looked down and see that kind of money, they couldn't believe it.
15:24He's boxing's king, and soon goes looking for his queen.
15:28In 1988, a People magazine cover celebrates Tyson's marriage to actress Robin Givens.
15:34I'm with Robin Givens, who was attending her first Mike Tyson fight as Mrs. Champion.
15:41Immediately, people speculate that Robin is with Tyson for the wrong reasons.
15:47I think people saw Robin Givens as a bit of a gold digger.
15:52Robin does have her own career, co-starring in an ABC sitcom.
15:56My problem is not Dr. Samuels, it's my parents.
15:59But on Head of the Class, Robin is part of an ensemble.
16:02They'll go with me.
16:03With Mike, she increasingly seems to want to be the lead, taking top billing on a Life
16:09magazine cover and turning Mike's Pepsi deal into a duet.
16:16Sometime when one of his managers dies, the newly-minted Mrs. Tyson starts making her
16:21husband's business her business.
16:24Robin, upon the death of Jim Jacobs, wanted to know a little bit more about how much Bill
16:29Kane was making off of Mike's fight.
16:32She wanted to see contracts, she wanted to see where Mike's money was and how much money
16:38Mike was owed.
16:39Right.
16:40I want him to step into the ring as often as he wants, because he wants to, because
16:44he enjoys it.
16:45Never for financial reasons.
16:47After successfully defending his title against Michael Spinks, Tyson, with the blessings
16:51of Robin Givens and Don King, fires Bill Caton and Kevin Rooney, the only men left from the
16:57custom auto days.
16:59It's a significant disruption, and Mike's physical conditioning suffers.
17:04I haven't been training properly, and a lot of things I haven't been doing, I'm disciplining
17:08myself a lot.
17:11So when I start training Mike Tyson at Don King's camp, he was over 300 and some pounds.
17:17He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to do it.
17:21Tyson appears to be spiraling out of control.
17:24He gets into a street fight in Harlem with a former opponent, Mitch Green, breaking Green's
17:29face and his own hand in the process.
17:33Green claims Tyson sucker punched him and sues for $25 million in damages.
17:38Mike Tyson is a sissy.
17:41Tyson's dissent continues.
17:42There was always something about, you know, Mike crashing his car, Mike having an argument
17:47with Robin, Mike being admitted to the hospital because he was injured in an accident.
17:53There was all these wild stories about them.
17:56He has so many women, he's a homosexual, his family is crazy, he has a wild life.
18:01Things get so bad, Tyson reportedly attempts suicide.
18:05Mike Tyson went through a great stage of depression during that time.
18:11He loved Robin Gibbons.
18:14But Tyson's face during the interview with Barbara Walters on 20-20 suggests he doesn't
18:18love it when Robin shares his mental health diagnosis with the world.
18:22Michael is a manic depressor, he is, I mean, that's just a fact.
18:27A lot of people, I believe, had a lot of sympathy for Mike because they saw this heavyweight
18:34champion, this warrior of the ring, being basically emasculated on national television
18:41by his wife.
18:43Tyson later says Robin supplied him with the drugs Thorazine and Lithium before the interview.
18:48Robin, who by now is considered the most hated woman in America, files for divorce.
18:54The marriage turned out to be Iron Mike's longest bout and maybe even his toughest.
19:02To boost Tyson's morale and his own bank account, Don King sets up a series of fights meant
19:07to be not much more than televised sparring matches.
19:10Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson was supposed to be a tune-up fight.
19:15That was the plan and nobody was really too interested in this fight, except for maybe
19:21Buster Douglas.
19:22You know, I knew what I had inside of me and I knew what I could do.
19:26I knew I had the ability to compete on that level.
19:30Hi, I'm James Buster Douglas and in 1990, I shot the world by becoming the undisputed
19:36heavyweight champion of the world.
19:39The Tyson-Douglas fight is set to take place at Japan's Tokyo Dome.
19:43Bookmakers have Buster as a huge underdog.
19:46His odds are a discouraging 42 to 1.
19:49But it actually motivated Buster to become dedicated.
19:53He became a fighter who had nothing to lose, so to speak.
19:58Nothing to lose, but everything to win.
20:01So Buster trains hard up to the very last moment.
20:04Night before the fight, I get a shake out, break a little sweat, loosen up, do a body
20:10check, then lay down and go to sleep and wake up the next day, the day of the fight, ready
20:15to go.
20:16Tyson's pre-fight ritual is a bit different.
20:20He and his wingman, rapper Bobby Brown, spend the night before the fight out in the town
20:25with a gaggle of groupies.
20:28He was a single man again and most of his time was spent fooling around.
20:33So Mike was just doing his thing in Tokyo and a lot of it didn't have to do with training.
20:37Buster Douglas absolutely having the night of his life to this point.
20:41I mean, you watch the fight and you hear the stories that Mike was partying, that Mike
20:46wasn't really taking this fight seriously because he thought he had it in the bag and
20:52it's a circus.
20:54I haven't seen Mike in this kind of trouble before.
21:03Mike Tyson terrorized opponents and thrilled crowds throughout the 80s, but just weeks
21:08into the new decade, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world is struggling to keep
21:13up with Buster Douglas.
21:15Look at this!
21:17Look at this!
21:18It's in round 10 that Buster does what no one has done to Tyson in 37 professional
21:23fights.
21:24Oh, nice uppercut by Buster Douglas!
21:26Look at this!
21:27He's knocked down for the first time in his career!
21:33It's the biggest upset in boxing history.
21:36Unbelievable!
21:37Unbelievable!
21:38Boom.
21:40You know, it happens.
21:42Buster Douglas is the new heavyweight champion of the world!
21:47Mike definitely confused.
21:50Mike asked me what happened.
21:52I said, he got knocked out.
21:54And I grabbed him so he wouldn't fall.
21:57But without a doubt, that night changed the course of history.
22:02The world that night witnessed that on any given nights, Mike Tyson was beatable.
22:09But getting knocked out makes Tyson more relatable and even more popular.
22:14At the Apollo, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince sing about their hero in their song,
22:20I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson.
22:23Then Steve Dunleavy from A Current Affair gets Tyson on the ropes when he asks him about
22:28an upcoming paternity test.
22:30I don't know anything about that.
22:32But it's not going to happen?
22:34It's not true?
22:35You haven't heard from lawyers?
22:36Well, I don't know if it's not going to happen.
22:38Anything's possible happening.
22:39But you know what I mean?
22:40That's the situation I just have to handle.
22:43But Tyson won't be able to shrug off what happens a month later.
22:47Tonight, police confirmed they're investigating allegations of rape against Mike Tyson.
22:52His accuser is Desiree Washington, an 18-year-old beauty queen Tyson meets at the Miss Black America pageant.
22:59Mike Tyson called her at 1.30 in the morning.
23:02By 2.30 in the morning, they were walking through the hotel lobby into his hotel suite.
23:08Some 26 hours later, Desiree Washington went to a local hospital and said she had been raped by Mike Tyson.
23:17And soon after that, the media enters the ring.
23:20Good afternoon, everyone.
23:21Is he a monster or is he just macho?
23:24While Tyson is getting booked, Don King is blowing smoke.
23:27He would deal with this in the process of court when the day arrives in the court.
23:32And even Barbara Walters seems to come to Tyson's aid.
23:35And even Barbara Walters seems to come to Tyson's defense, victim blaming Desiree,
23:40by reporting statements allegedly made by some unnamed black female college students.
23:45One said, 18-year-olds are not naive in this day and age.
23:49Why don't you think a guy wanted a two in the morning?
23:51Another said, she asked for it, she got it.
23:54It's not fair to cry rape.
23:57For Tyson's many supporters, Desiree Washington replaces Robin Givens as the most hated woman in the country.
24:04At the trial, scalpers hawk courtroom tickets like it's a title fight.
24:11I don't think anybody really expected Mike to be convicted of this crime.
24:15But he is.
24:16The jury finds Mike Tyson guilty of one count of rape and two counts of criminal deviant conduct.
24:27Tyson fans think it's a travesty of justice.
24:34Thank you.
24:37He's about 26 years old at this time.
24:39And so he spends the next three years in prison for his rape charge.
24:46Behind bars, but not forgotten.
24:48Tupac, Whitney Houston, James Brown, and Florence Henderson from the Brady Bunch?
24:54They all visit Tyson in prison.
24:56So to me, it tells me it's less about what you do,
24:59but rather does the public, do the media want you to have a comeback narrative?
25:04In Tyson's case, they do.
25:06Montel Williams and Larry King conduct jailhouse interviews where Tyson bemoans how he's the real victim.
25:13I believe everyone that's involved in my life, one day or another, will betray me.
25:17I believe that. I just totally believe that.
25:20Mike Tyson is still very much someone that can operate within the system.
25:24That's seen as valuable.
25:25Especially to boxing promoter Don King.
25:28As a former convict, King not only believes Tyson can bounce back from going to prison, he's banking on it.
25:34Don King has remained in Mike's corner. He's remained his promoter.
25:39That allows Don to go out and negotiate contracts on Mike's behalf, even while Mike is still in prison.
25:47Tyson certainly needs the money.
25:49He's a heavyweight spender. He loves his Dom Perignon. He loves his Bentleys. He loves his jewelry.
25:54Mike Tyson is a black man who grew up in poverty, who was incarcerated as a youth.
26:01And 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?
26:11Apparently, you spend it. Well, you spend what you keep after giving Don King 30%.
26:17That hefty cut helps explain why King is there on March 26, 1995.
26:22When Iron Mike exits the Iron Bars after serving only half of his six-year sentence.
26:28So Mike Tyson, a rapist, convicted felon, he gets out of prison.
26:33And the day he gets out of prison, he's handed a check, an advance from Showtime, for $30 million.
26:40Tyson spends over $100,000 of that on three pet tigers.
26:44Most of my friends think I'm nuts. They don't come around my house.
26:48They don't come around.
26:51Man, my heart was just beating in my mouth.
26:53That Showtime money means Tyson needs to put on a show.
26:56King gets his human ATM training for what is being billed, Tyson 2.0.
27:02The former world champion of the world, Mike Tyson.
27:06This new Tyson is all Mr. Hyde with almost no Dr. Jekyll.
27:11We're looking to see Tyson as a spectacle, as an animal, as a gangster.
27:18And so the image switches from this good young man who became heavyweight champion in the world
27:24to this almost menace of society.
27:27And that's Mike Tyson 2.0.
27:30At the weigh-in for Tyson's fight against Evander Holyfield, labeled Finally,
27:35the media revels in pointing out how different the ill-tempered Tyson is from his more good-humored opponent.
27:41There is no expression at all except intimidation on the face of Mike Tyson.
27:47Evander Holyfield broke into a big smile.
27:50Mike and Evander didn't really hang out in the same circles.
27:54Evander had this religious reputation as being a God-fearing Christian.
27:59The good versus evil matchup is set in this marquee mega event between Tyson and Holyfield.
28:08And it does 1.5 million pay-per-view units.
28:11The world was ready.
28:14Holyfield, who was misdiagnosed with a heart condition, is coming back from a forced retirement
28:19and is what they call ring rusty.
28:22Nobody gave him much of a chance to defeat Mike in the first fight.
28:25But they forgot to tell Evander.
28:28Tyson gets dropped in the sixth round.
28:30Mike Tyson is down!
28:32He gets dropped again.
28:34Tyson is in trouble!
28:36And in the 11th round, it's just too much.
28:38And the referee intervenes, stops the fight.
28:41Unbelievable!
28:43It's over!
28:45Evander Holyfield had just defeated Mike Tyson.
28:50And of course, in the boxing world, that means we need a rematch.
28:53That's our way of getting resolution.
28:55Seven months later, they weigh in for the rematch promoted as The Sound and The Fury.
29:01Don't miss the event Saturday night!
29:04This time, Tyson's fury will be met with the sounds of gasps and screams.
29:12It's June 28, 1997, and ESPN is tracking Mike Tyson's every move.
29:19I can tell you, we've just come from inside the arena.
29:22The electricity is indeed palpable.
29:25Holyfield-Tyson 2 is billed as the biggest grudge match in boxing history.
29:30Here we go! Fight 2, round 1!
29:35A fight is a fight, but a marquee boxing event is different
29:40because there's a story behind the matchup.
29:44Without the story, you don't have an event.
29:47And so, you see Holyfield as a man of Christ,
29:50and you see Mike Tyson as a gangster.
29:54But in round 2, Tyson calls out holier-than-thou Holyfield
29:58to referee Mills Lane.
30:00Tyson's eyes cut open and his face streaked with blood.
30:03Evander Holyfield, he know he was doing dirty stuff to Mike.
30:07The alleged head-butting inflames Tyson,
30:10who now sees in Holyfield that Brooklyn bully
30:13who murdered young Mike's pigeon all those years ago.
30:16I'm pretty sure people have heard Mike Tyson was bullied when he was young,
30:21and that inflamed him even more.
30:25Mike Tyson was bullied when he was young,
30:28and that inflamed him to fight back.
30:33You have someone who comes from the hood, from the barrio, from the ghetto,
30:41and he's fearless to authority.
30:43He doesn't care that Mills Lane is right there, he's gonna do what he wants.
30:46And what Tyson wants is a pound of flesh.
30:52Oh, he bit him!
30:53His frustrations got to a point
30:55where all of a sudden at the end of the third round,
30:58you see Mike bite Evander on the ear.
31:02It's so unprecedented, the referee confers with
31:05the chairman of Nevada's athletic commission, Mark Ratner,
31:08who seems equally befuddled as to what's happening.
31:11Mark Ratner thought he got hit in the balls.
31:13People didn't know what was going on.
31:15At that moment, it's chaotic.
31:17Tyson wants to keep fighting, he's clearly still frustrated.
31:21Mills Lane deducts two points from Tyson and gives him a warning.
31:25But if you do it again, I'm gonna disqualify you.
31:28It takes about 15 seconds and Mike bites him again.
31:31He bit him again!
31:35And we never see the fourth round,
31:37because in between the third and the fourth,
31:39they disqualify Mike Tyson and the fight's over.
31:43But the brawl has just begun.
31:45All of a sudden, Mike goes berserk.
31:48Everybody piled into the ring.
31:50Law enforcement, trainers,
31:53and then Mike went nuts and started swinging anybody.
31:56Mike Tyson, who kicked off the 90s as a hero and champion
32:00in and out of the ring, has been reduced to a madman.
32:04It was all downhill after that.
32:06Mike Tyson was never the same fighter.
32:09Never the same fighter.
32:14Holyfield, meanwhile, is on his way to the hospital.
32:18Later, Tyson offers up some kind of explanation
32:21in an interview with ABC Sports.
32:24I take my beatings like a man.
32:26It's just the fact I taste blood.
32:28I tripped and I just kept... I was just in a zone.
32:31I was in that real serious frantic zone.
32:35Tyson has turned boxing on its ear.
32:38It was boxing going into the area of the bazaar.
32:42Was this resorting to WWE tactics?
32:46Was it the sweet science?
32:48There's nothing sweet about that.
32:50It took a long time for people to trust boxing again,
32:55to believe in their fighters again.
32:57Don King starts panicking about his lucrative sponsorship deals.
33:01You have millions and millions of dollars at stake.
33:04So first thing Don King did was to hire a publicist
33:08who crafted a long apology speech.
33:11For an athlete in the heat of battle to suddenly lose it,
33:15it's not new, but it's not right.
33:17I take responsibility for my own actions, yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda.
33:21Unlike when he was convicted of rape,
33:23this time no one is looking to cut him a break.
33:26Is he supposed to be a role model?
33:28He's not a role model's reaction to anything.
33:31You don't bite off a person's ear.
33:33Tyson's fined $3 million.
33:35One in favor, say aye. Aye.
33:37And his boxing license is revoked.
33:40His own lawyer suggests he's mentally incompetent
33:42to answer for his actions.
33:44He wouldn't be able to do it, with all due respect to him.
33:48And so thinking about the fact that a rape conviction
33:51is a thing that one can come back from,
33:54but the bite is the downfall.
33:56That's where we say, enough.
33:59Unable to box and with endorsements gone,
34:01Tyson's money issues become dire.
34:04Mike Tyson did make a lot of money,
34:06but he was also taken advantage of
34:08by a lot of people that didn't have his best interests.
34:11Like Don King.
34:14In 1998, Mike Tyson files a $100 million lawsuit against King,
34:18alleging he swindled him out of money for years.
34:22Tyson's lawsuit against King,
34:24filed here in New York federal court,
34:26is really an attempt by the 31-year-old boxer
34:28to seize control of his career.
34:30That's something that Tyson,
34:32once considered the baddest man on the planet,
34:34has seemed neither interested in nor capable of in the past.
34:37Mike felt alone.
34:39He felt a little bit abandoned.
34:41All of a sudden, the people that he thought loved him
34:44and cared for him and would be there for him were gone.
34:47With no one in his corner and desperate for cash,
34:50Tyson turns the perception he's out of control
34:53into a WWF storyline,
34:55playing the enforcer at WrestleMania 14.
34:58Whoa!
35:00Here we go! Here we go!
35:02Luckily for Tyson, boxing is quick to forget
35:05when there's a quick buck in doing so.
35:07The business is trying to maximize
35:10and fatten their pockets at the expense
35:13and through the utilization of the labor
35:16and the work of a boxer like Mike Tyson.
35:18Just over a year after the Bite Fight,
35:21the state of Nevada reinstates Tyson's boxing license.
35:24ESPN airs his weigh-in with opponent Francis Botha
35:28and wonders if Tyson's mentally stable enough to make a comeback.
35:32You know, Custom Model prepared Tyson
35:34to deal with all kinds of pressure when he was a young fighter.
35:37Tyson has fallen down on some of those lessons.
35:39And Cust would likely have disapproved of the disrespectful way
35:42Tyson speaks to reporter Russ Salzberg about his upcoming fight.
35:46You take into the ring a lot of rage.
35:49Does that work for you or does it work against you at times?
35:53Well, f*** it. It's a fight, so whatever happens, happens.
35:57Mike, why do you have to talk like that?
35:59Well, I'm talking to you the way I want to talk to you.
36:02You have a problem, turn off your station.
36:05You know what? I think we'll end the discussion right now.
36:08I think we could.
36:09F***, you got it. Have a nice fight, Mike.
36:12F*** off.
36:14It's not a nice fight.
36:16While Tyson doesn't gnaw on his opponent,
36:18he seems to try and break his arm after the bell.
36:21Tyson's corner rushes in to stop him.
36:24So you start to see this sort of chaos and calamity
36:30surrounding Mike Tyson fights.
36:32But Tyson's next clash will send him back to jail
36:36for being guilty of assault during a road rage incident.
36:39For many, it confirmed that Mike Tyson was out of control,
36:43that Mike Tyson was a monster, that Mike Tyson was a savage.
36:46This time, there's no TV prison specials or celebs lining up to visit.
36:51By that time, his reputation had taken a really serious hit.
36:56There was just a stain to him at that particular time.
37:00When he came out to prison, you know,
37:03the tool of the dungeon is to break somebody's spirit.
37:07People are never the same once they go to jail and they come out.
37:11And Mike's no different.
37:13His interviews are so unhinged, they come with trigger warnings.
37:17You guys try to label me. You label me a schizoid.
37:20You label me a manic depression.
37:22You label me a crazy motherf***er.
37:24I'm probably more schizoid than I'm anything,
37:26but you label me so many things, you drive a motherf***ing thing.
37:30From my viewpoint, Mike Tyson looked at it upon the media and stuff for bullying him.
37:36And Mike Tyson started lashing back at him.
37:40And then at the press conference for his upcoming fight with Lennox Lewis,
37:44Mike doesn't use his words at all.
37:46Mike physically attacks Lennox.
37:49There's this big brawl at the press conference,
37:51and Mike winds up biting him on the leg.
37:54Ring Magazine rewards Tyson's bad behavior
37:57by naming the brawl Event of the Year in 2002.
38:01And Tyson is not done yet.
38:03I wish one of your guys had children
38:05before I could kick them in the head and stomp on their testicles
38:08before you could feel my pain, because that's the pain I have, waking up every day.
38:16Boxing fans are holding on tight
38:18when Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis kicks off on June 8, 2002.
38:23And thanks to Tyson's crazed shit-talking,
38:26they even have extra safety precautions in place.
38:29There's this line of security between the two fighters.
38:32It's a first for boxing.
38:34He was the boogeyman.
38:36He was the spectacle that people were afraid of, but also intrigued by.
38:42But it turns out Tyson can't walk the walk.
38:49I think he just talked a good game to build up the fight,
38:52and then he went in there and tried to knock out Lewis in the first couple of rounds,
38:56and when that didn't happen, he was done.
39:03Lewis scores a knockout, but Tyson thinks he's the big winner.
39:07He earned $17.5 million, and listening to the post-fight interview,
39:11that might be all he cares about.
39:13I'm happy for him to give me a fight.
39:15The payday was wonderful. I really appreciate it.
39:18You could tell that he was done with fighting.
39:21He was only showing up to get a payday.
39:23But it's not the last time he'll need to get beat up to get paid.
39:27Mike Tyson's made a lot of news lately.
39:29None of it good. Now comes word he's broke.
39:32Iron Mike filed for bankruptcy here, claiming he's in mega-debt.
39:36Tyson, now sporting a face tattoo, agrees to get back in the ring to fight Kevin McBride.
39:43Despite McBride being 8 inches taller, almost 40 pounds heavier, and 6 years younger,
39:48Tyson's doing it for the $5.5 million payout.
39:53He really didn't care if he won or not.
39:55He would go in there, throw some hard punches in the first round,
39:59and if he did knock the guy out, he was done.
40:02At the end of the sixth round, Tyson says, no mas.
40:06He just gave up and quit on the stool.
40:09He didn't want to be there anymore.
40:11And so he announced his retirement.
40:13It's just not in my heart anymore.
40:15You know, it's hard for me to fight.
40:17You know, me starting out, you have to understand I'm from Brownsville, Brooklyn.
40:20I had nothing. You have to look, I have wealthy children.
40:23I'm broke, but my children are wealthy and they have a great life.
40:26It's just, it's very difficult to fight when you're in that kind of situation.
40:30And so it's very hard to see a boxer go out in that way.
40:34The romance story is that a boxer goes out in their farewell show.
40:39Win or lose, the crowd is cheering you on, sort of like Rocky does in Rocky Balboa.
40:47For Tyson, it was, it was the opposite.
40:52And it's brutal because it has everything to do with a man's dignity.
40:58And Tyson's dignity is at least for rent.
41:01Mike Tyson?
41:02He accepts $100,000 to appear in the hit movie, The Hangover.
41:08According to Mike, he's high for the entire shoot.
41:11He obviously had a lot of problems with drugs and doing a lot of cocaine.
41:15I don't think he was very happy at the time.
41:19Tyson's been dealing with a crushing blow.
41:22In 2009, his four-year-old daughter, Exodus,
41:25is accidentally strangled to death by the cord on a treadmill.
41:31Tyson tells HBO's Real Sports how he dealt with it
41:34in what will be called his strangest and most chilling interview.
41:38No, I did some cocaine for a week.
41:41I had to get high.
41:43I had to back then. I had to get high.
41:47I couldn't handle it at all.
41:53You have to go.
41:55You understand, right?
41:57Thank you.
41:58Thank you, buddy.
42:00Calling it one of the scariest moments of his life,
42:03reporter Bernie Goldberg and his crew do what Tyson asks and leaves.
42:09Mike Tyson hit rock bottom.
42:12And he stays there until 2013,
42:15when ESPN cameras catch Tyson making amends with Teddy Atlas.
42:20Teddy's the former trainer who pulled a gun on Tyson
42:23and accused him of being a sexual predator.
42:25But as Tyson tells the press, he's the one making amends.
42:29I'm a mother... I'm a bad guy sometimes.
42:32And I did a lot of bad things. I want to be forgiven.
42:36From vicious to vulnerable,
42:38Mike Tyson starts his healing journey
42:40surrounded by his remaining children and third wife, Kiki.
42:45He even makes up with Holyfield,
42:47who helps Tyson sell his ear-shaped cannabis gummies.
42:50What is this? I got you your ear.
42:52No, it's not. This ain't my ear.
42:54Yes, it is. Cherry pie punch feeling.
42:58He's also podcasting these days.
43:01And just watching him host his podcast,
43:04Pop Boxing with Mike Tyson and his new third act.
43:08It's on the podcast with Sugar Ray Leonard as his guest
43:11that Tyson reflects on the toxic grooming
43:14and the monster boxing turned him into.
43:17I'm working in the art of humbleness.
43:19That's the reason why I'm crying,
43:21because I'm not that person no more.
43:23He breaks down in tears.
43:25A grown black man wearing his emotions publicly like that is powerful.
43:30And I like to think of people as Russian dolls.
43:33There's the young Mike Tyson
43:35that's experienced all this childhood trauma.
43:37There's Iron Mike, the baddest man on the planet's in there.
43:40The guy that had to fall from grace,
43:42the guy that was in prison is in there.
43:44All these people are still there.
43:46They're just parts of this whole,
43:48this bigger person that he is today.
43:52Reminds me that we have to give people
43:54the capacity and space to grow.