Posted on 03/13/2015 4:04:29 PM PDT by EveningStar
"Mark Twain said boxing is the only sport where a slave, if he's successful, can rub shoulders with royalty," says former heavyweight Mike Tyson, who once knocked out 19 opponents in a row. "Can you imagine that? Just by fighting another human being, he can meet a king, a prince, a queen, eat at the same table with them, be invited to the castle." Or in modern times, make $30 million in one fight, build your own castle, stock it with tigers, and still wake up every morning the pawn of powerful men who make money off your sweat.
When Tyson was a fighter, he studied tapes of old brawls to learn what made men win or fail. He was an encyclopedia of the past. After retirement, after the bankruptcies and prison sentence, after the public shame, he widened his interest to learn about the history of fighting, going all the way back to the gladiators. He wanted to figure out what had happened to him.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocweekly.com ...
Bwahahahaha!
“I didn’t understand me 15 years ago. I got old too soon and smart too late.” “Iron” Mike Tyson
(Tyson) sighs. “I didn’t understand me 15 years ago. I got old too soon and smart too late.”
“Did he really use the word “didactical”?”
Don’t know if he used it quite right, but he sure did.
‘More often, he reads. “I may read about Caligula, I may read about Moses, I may read about the history of African-Americans in America, I may read about the history of New York,” says Tyson in a gush. “I’m just a history-buff-time guy more than anything.
“During the height of the gladiators, they were celebrities as well. The nobility thought the gladiators were barbarians. But they weren’t barbarians; they were just people with their own culture,” exclaims Tyson. “Listen, this is what I’ve learned in life: The nightmares of thousands of generations live on the heads of the living now. Everything is from the past. The fighters are from the past. All our beefs is from the past. We can never let the past die.”’
What he wished he would have known then? How about don’t get a stupid looking tattoo on you face!
New historical discoveries now tell us that gladiators were indeed superstars of their day but overall were closer to modern WWE wrestlers than the always fight to the death types that Hollywood shows us.
Seen “Mike Tyson Mysteries” yet? Show is hilarious. Tyson is good at it and Norm McDonald’s character is awesome. All episodes here;
http://www.adultswim.com/videos/mike-tyson-mysteries/?sr=mike_tyson_mysteries_norm_macdonald
I agree.. Mike Tyson may be a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them. He overcame a speech impediment, a really rough childhood where his boxing skills were on display from the age of 13. He has an interesting story to say the least.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.