A con man and a coward?
Despite Tyson’s size, his speed and his talent, Mike was always afraid. I’ve seen videotapes from Tyson’s early days where he refused to come out of the locker room. He was crying how scared he was, that he was going to lose. Cus D’Amato thought he could build up Tyson’s confidence by matching him against easy wins. That’s not unusual in boxing, but at a certain point, a real fighter starts to be evenly matched. That never happened with Tyson. They kept feeding him guys who were no match for him, and Tyson got used to fighting nobodies. Cus protected him, shielded him from reality, and Tyson got this reputation for being a real bad-ass. Only Teddy [Atlas, Tyson’s former trainer], me and a few others really knew how scared Tyson really was. It’s very strange and tragic. Tyson had enormous talent, enormous power, but no self-confidence and therefore no will. And in boxing, will power is as important as physical conditioning. The consensus in the media is that Tyson will be back because h
