Today, June 30, 2010, Michael Tyson turned age 44. Tempis does fugit, doesn’t it?
I wrote this piece for my old site, fightnightnews.com and also for ESPN, four years back and thought it was due for a reprise now.
I made a sentimental journey to Tyson’s old homestead on the No. 3 subway train, all the way to Saratoga Street, Wednesday but more on that later.
Simply put, Tyson was the most thrilling fighter I ever saw. He burned out like a Roman candle, yeah, but he burned bright if not long.
–MICHAEL MARLEY
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Your name is Michael Gerard Tyson. You grew up on Amboy Street in a piece of hell on earth known as Brownsvlle. The ‘Ville, where the street motto remains: “Brownsville. Never ran and never will.”
It’s adjacent to Bed-Stuy (“do or die”).
Your name is Mike Tyson. Before you gave a decrepit Larry Holmes a beat-down in Atlantic City, he was drinking too many beers in his Easton, Pa., saloon.
Mike Tyson, left, and Larry Holmes AP Photo/Paul BurnettTyson, left, dispatched Larry Holmes in four rounds in a Jan. 22, 1988, title defense in Atlantic City.
The press, especially Marley of the New York Post, was barred from Holmes’ workout at the local YMCA. But, like the tabloid vulture he was, Marley hung out at the bar knowing Sir Lawrence would show up,. start sipping and then verbally slipping.
Your name is Mike Tyson. After a bitter Holmes finished his harangue, Marley raced to a pay phone. He dictated his column and it ran in the next morning’s fish-wrapper.
Your name is Mike Tyson. The headline screamed something like “HOLMES PREDICTS TYSON DEAD OR IN JAIL IN FIVE YEARS.” Payback was a bitch in that AC ring but Holmes survived.
Your name is Mike Tyson and Holmes is batting .500 on that one. From rags to riches and back to rags again, you made it to this landmark birthday, Michael. All the best and many more. You’re Samuel Johnson and Marley is your very own Boswell. And I don’t mean Cedric Boswell.
Here’s 40 memory jabs before you blow out the candles as quickly as you blew out poor Marvis Frazier.
1. Boots Lewie. Michael Spinks’ manager-promoter Butch Lewis has plenty of cash, a mansion in Delaware and he hangs out with billionaire Bob (Carolina NBA Bobcats) Johnson and film star Denzel Washington. But you made Butch sound more like a lamb than a wolf when you mistakenly referred to him as Boots Lewie.
2. Rufus “Hurricane” Hadley. Your sparring partner and personal punching bag, yes, but he could’ve cut you anytime he chose because he doubled as your training-camp barber. Hadley had a business card which said his corporate name was GET PAID, INC. I miss the ‘Cane. I doubt he is doing graduate work at Stanford but he was a funny fellow.
3. Alligator Steve Fitch. He hated it when I called him a gator. He is, after all, a Croc.This cocodrilo (crocodile in Spanish) copied all of Panama Lewis’ lines (“bullets and gunsmoke” and yada yada yada) and became your camp clown. A poor man’s Bundini Brown, if you will, without the spiritual influence. Bundini always referred to the Supreme Being as “Shorty” and would yell out, “They didn’t know Jesus,” about 50 times per day. Seeing Crocodile with Zab Judah just ain’t the same.
4. John Halpin. The not-so-hip hypnotist who Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Cayton hired for you. I could be mistaken but, excluding one trip to Japan which did not turn out well, weren’t you undefeated under Halpin’s hypnotic spell? If Halpin is still alive, he should contact Zab and Yoel Judah immediately.
5. September’s. The bar in Albany, N.Y., where you learned to booze it up with boyhood buddies John Horne and Rory Holloway. I think the proprietor’s name was Sal. Boss fight scribes got every second drink free with the generous Sal. This bar had a tough door policy: No one under 12 allowed to drink on the premises.
6. Ruth Roper or the Mother In Law From Fourth Circle Of Hell. Who can forget Ruthless Roper as I labeled her? She was what is known today, I hear, as a “cougar.” Her embarrassing relationship with baseball star Dave Winfield camouflaged the plan she had to deliver you to a new promotion company with a different Donald. Out would have gone the surging King, in would have been Mr. Trump. I still don’t believe those rumors about the Trumpster doing the wild thang with your gorgeous wife, Rockin’ Robin Givens.
7. Bobby Stewart. He discovered you in reform school. How come he never got paid by the old Jacobs-Cayton team? He should have at least got a finder’s fee.
8. Dave Raffo. Journalist. Someone introduced you to the easy-going Rafster and you thought they said he was from UPS, not UPI. You gave him the death-ray stare and said, “UPS … one of your trucks ran over and killed my dog.” Raffo kept on trucking in boxing and set a new Boxing Writer’s record by being 86ed twice in one night from the same after-hours bar in Margate, N.J., near Atlantic City. Despite a change of clothes, the proprietor refused to believe Danny Raffo was the twin brother of evil Dave Raffo. Nice try though, at dawn’s early light, no less.
9. Steve Lott. Jimmy Jacobs’ assistant. If a writer asked Lott what time you did roadwork on a particular day, he zipped his lips. “Secrets of a champion,” Lott would mumble, “secrets of a champion.” President Bush needs nontalkers like Lott. Lott gave out name and rank but not serial number.
10. Francois Botha. I gave him his nickname “White Buffalo” or so he always says. I don’t recall that but I do recall his last get-rich scheme when Sterling McPherson was managing his fading career. He had cheaply made champagne glasses which, when you twisted the stem, would light up. Geez, get me six dozen asap, will you FB? Last I heard Botha was getting his stem twisted in Ultimate Fighting bouts. Botha’s ring-entrance music could’ve been that old Don Ho classic, “Tiny Bubbles.” Come to think of it, photographer Teddy “Poolside” Blackburn claims “Tiny Bubbles” was a pole dancer at the Crazy Horse II, a place Ced Kushner always called “a fine establishment.”
11. Matt Barranski. The original cut man. Who knows? Tyson was never cut when he was around. As I recall, Barranski was a mailman around Troy, N.Y., or thereabouts. Someone said Barranski did not want to travel with the Tyson circus. Was he competent? He should’ve worked the corner of Barry Funches, the heavyweight mailman. Funches was usually referred to as “I Take Punches In Bunches” or as a guy who could not lick a stamp.
12. Isadore Bolton. First Tyson’s driver, and now Don King’s driver/valet/Man Friday and six other days of the week. Bolton got an out-of-court settlement when Tyson broke his jaw a couple of years ago. Asked why he quit the Tyson gig to work for DK, the then-35ish Bolton said: “Because Mike liked to roll out at any hour of the day or night. Mr. King goes to sleep once in a while. There came a time when I couldn’t hack Mike’s schedule.”
13. Rudy Gonzalez. Tyson driver for about four minutes. Wrote a less-than-semi-literate book that was filled with falsehoods about his position and what Tyson did. Best made-up story had Tyson knocking out actor Wesley Snipes in a men’s room in Hollywood. This “book” was selling for 99 cents about two days after it was self-published by the Rudester and some lawyer. According to Rudy, King is the devil incarnate and, in a masterpiece of manipulation, “framed” Tyson so that his meal ticket could do prison time in Indiana for rape. I think somebody, probably King, put some secret syrup in Rudy’s waffles at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in L.A.
14. Tom Patti. Tyson hanger-on and Vanilla Ice lookalike. Was in the whacked-out D’Amato house in Catskill, N.Y. for some time as a teenager. Last seen being interviewed on Secretive Steve Lott’s “Talking Tyson” Web site. Hurry up, gang, before Lott moves all those $26.99 Talking Tyson hooded sweatshirts. Patti tried for a Hollywood career but seems to return to Tyson orbit every eight years or so. Did some driving and some jiving but never a full-time entourage member. Not to be confused with bodyguard “White Mike,” so named because of his pigmentation.
15. Tarzan In Tokyo. Unpublicized incident in fancy Tokyo hotel before Tyson was upset by Buster Douglas. Bodyguard Anthony Pitts and other Tysonites were racially insulted on a disco dance floor in the Roppongi entertainment district. A few inebriated American servicemen were turned into disco floor mops by the Tyson team. As one guy was carrying his bloody buddy up the stairs to the street, I was walking in. “Hey, you’re white,” the moron said. “You with us or with them?” I thought for a second, saw AP and his pals and clocked the guy right on the chin. He did a disco dance I’d never seen before. Mr. Isadore Bolton summed it up best: “Mike was the only one of us who lost a fight in Tokyo,” Bolton said.
16. William Hosea. Speaking of birthdays, Hosea put Mike in a lousy mood before their fight. Tyson was about to turn 20 and I was the publicist for the show. As Hosea and his handler, Stacey McKinley, looked on, I informed the moody Tyson that his opponent had bought him a birthday card. Tyson seemed genuinely touched and I asked him to open up the card at the podium. The cover’s sentiments were sweet but Tyson did not like the inside where I had signed Hosea’s name and written something subtle. Something along the lines of “I will whip your ass, you punk.” Tyson threw an impressive tantrum and, cursing Hosea over his shoulder, stormed out of the Holiday Inn. Tyson tortured Hosea for almost a round and looked like an elephant smashing a fly. McKinley wound up working for Tyson later regardless.
17. Don King. We were doing some Chavez fight at the MGM Grand. Phone rings in the media center. I was King’s Minister of Propaganda. “Media center,” I said. “Collect call from Mike Tyson,” the operator says. I accept the charges. King in on the phone, shilling the event and yelling, ‘Call your local cable operator.’ So I scribble a note, writing in large block letters that it is Confined Client Tyson on the horn. Tyson tells he must speak to King immediately. Tyson said, “These guards are starting to piss me off.” Just before the line goes dead, I can hear cursing and what sounds like plastic furniture bouncing about. Wish I had Phone-O-Vision then. Later, I tell King he missed Mike’s urgent call. All about business, DK says, “Don’t worry about that mother tucker. He will call tomorrow from the same location. We got to sell this Chavez show. He can’t help us.” Talk about business focus!
18. John “The Baptist” LoFranco. He was a heavyweight journeyman but also East Coast head of the Hell’s Angels. Missed out on being part of history. Was supposed to be on March 6, 1985, card when Tyson made pro debut with KO 1 over Hector Mercedes. So don’t blame LoFranco for spreading any gospel to Tyson or having any connection to Tyson’s later Baptist baptism in Cleveland by a Don King-sanctioned minister. Tyson later became a Muslim of sorts although Las Vegas seemed to be his Mecca.
19. Carl King. Carlito. Fighters managed or co-managed by DK’s stepson had to follow Carlito’s Way. We were doing a Tyson show at the MGM and security told me someone was at the back door of the arena claiming to be DK’s son. Thinking it might the seldom-seen Eric King, I went to the security gate. There was a young man there who told me that he DK was his father. OK, I asked, what’s your Mom’s name? “Mrs. King,” the freeloader said. (The magic name was “Henrietta.”) He might’ve seen the fight on the screen but he wasn’t on the scene, at least not on the free roll.
20. J. Lash. With the Flash. Tyson and pals found the photog from Inglewood trolling the beaches of L.A. Claiming to shoot for Jet, Playboy, whatever, Lash had an uncanny ability to get nubile lovelies to strip nude for his “artistic photography project.” Went to work for King, who often fired him four or five times per week. Arsenio Hall once falsely accused the diminutive Lash of doing Magic Johnson dirty. To his credit, and in King’s presence, Lash got chesty with Arsenio and asked the TV host if he wished to step into the studio parking lot. Hall did not want to go alfresco to catch a beating .”My man, Lash,” King cackled. “Ready to fight in a flash!”
21. Desiree Washington. One day, Don King, perhaps hit by a lightning bolt of truth or just tired of dealing with Tyson’s temperament, admitted that “only two people really know” if Tyson actually raped the beauty pageant contestant from Rhode Island in that Indianapolis hotel room. I recall being at the National Black Expo when Minister Louis Farrakhan took the podium and chided King and Tyson’s other handlers for even letting Tyson go to the Miss Black America event. “Y’all let the fox go into the chicken coop,” Farrakhan said, “and now y’all are crying because the fox ate one of the chickens. What were y’all thinking about when you let the champ go to that event?” Remember Ms. Washington telling Baba Wawa on TV that she wanted no money for her troubles? She took down a cool million shekels.
22. Tommy “The Fluke” Morrison. Bill Cayton made up some nonsense about “The Duke” being distantly related to John Wayne. Well, pilgrim, the first time I saw Morrison in public he was sitting in an Atlantic City disco smoking like a chimney and tossing down cocktails. They didn’t call him “Monastic” Morrison. After terrorizing Tyrell Biggs, Tyson gave me an interview and he kept mentioning Morrison. He told me he knew Morrison personally. From where, I asked, trying to figure out where Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Oklahoma boys could’ve met up.”I knew him in reform school,” Tyson said. “I used to have him blow-dry my underwear.” As I recall, The Post found that line more than fit to print.
Mike Tyson AP Photo/Douglas C. PizacTyson took out Berbick in head-spinning fashion in ’86.
23. Trevor Berbick. Goofball plus, even by boxing standards. In Tokyo, for the Tony Tubbs vs. Tyson bout, Berbick walked around wearing a cowboy hat and purplish moon boots. To this day he calls me Bob Marley but he was the Buffaloed Soldier when Tyson made him do that moonwalk in their 1986 WBC title bout. Johnny Bos makes a solid case for Tyson as the hardest puncher in boxing history. Earnie Shavers never made anybody spin like a gyroscope like Tyson did to Berbick that night. Berbick’s later unpleasantries included a conviction for raping — get this — a babysitter and Larry Holmes trying to stomp his head into the pavement in Fort Lauderdale. Berbick was deported twice but Canada kept begging the U.S. to take him back. Bos also wonders if Trevor was brain-damaged after murderous puncher Bernardo Mercado iced him in one round. That was before he did his dance of pain against “Kid Dynamite.”
24. Got Lime? No Corona, no chaser, mad sponsor. I think it was the postfight press conference after the Hurricane Peter McNeeley debacle. King and the makers of his favorite beverage, that liquid crack known as St. Ides, had parted ways. Now the promoter was courting Corona, the colored water beverage from Mexico. So we had Corona banners all over the p.c. dais and walls and I lined up ice-cold Coronas directly in front of each seat. Tyson, in his Muslim period and wearing his kufi, appeared as Corona executives stood lapping up the scene in the back of the room. Tyson told King to ixnay the alcohol., King turns on me said, “What’s wrong with you, Mike Marley? Get all that beer off the table. You know Mike Tyson don’t play that.” I snatched the frosty Coronas up in a quick sweep and hid them away. Then I had to laugh out loud. In the back of the room, the Corona brass looked so sad. We drank them after Team Tyson departed, surely to rush off to the nearest mosque or Death Row Records postfight party.
25. Dapper Dan. Harlem’s Hippest Haberdasher. Dan, who is believed to be in either Atlanta or Outer Mongolia (try the Parts Unknown district), had to leave town when police and tax types started snooping around after Tyson went there in the wee hours one night only to run into Mitch “Blood” Green. Mitch begged for a bruising and Tyson beat him up like it was one of the bum-beating videos. They say the creme de la creme of the rap world shopped at Dapper Dan’s.You might see Salt, you might see Pepa and you might see Slick Rick inspecting the colorful merchandise. (Dapper D made me flash back to old-time ballplayer Leon “Big Daddy” Wagner, who sold fine vines as a sideline around LA. “Get your rags from Daddy Wags,” was the Angels outfielder’s tag line.)
26. My name is Tyrell and I’m an alcoholic. In the run-up, as the Brits call it, to Tyson-Biggs I went out to Newport Beach to visit the Olympic gold medalist. When he wasn’t training, Biggs was 12-stepping at AA. My firm policy is no AA because I am a drunk, not an alcoholic, and I don’t have time to go to meetings, particularly when the saloons are open. I went with Tyrell and the room was filled with washed-out surfers. I heard some moving testimony and was prepared to use only first names. Biggs told some guys I was from The Post and three of them asked me to mention their full names and their Brooklyn or Queens neighborhoods. So much for anonymity as they were pleading with me to put their full names in the paper. Ah, the price of fame.
27. Jay Bright. Another Everlast Einstein out of the D’Amato Fun House in Catskill. In case you ever run into Kevin Rooney and want to see him have a conniption, mention three names. First, mention Teddy Atlas. Then, mention Don King or Robin Givens. Then, for the clincher, ask Rooney what the Bright one knows about training boxers. Kevin will admit that Jay knows boxing from A to B. Was Jay ever Bright enough to come up with such pearls of puglistic wisdom as when the long-fired Rooney told a reporter his advice to Tyson training for a title bout with Lummox Lewis would include: “When you’re in training camp, you don’t hang around strip clubs?” Oh, after you mention Atlas, King, Givens and Bright, stand back and watch ouyt for the hot molten lava spewing from Rooney’s lips. Jay was a nice fellow but can you name a fighter other than Tyson who hired him?
28. Charles Dudley. Charley is an L.A. character with a good heart who appointed himself as King’s bodyguard. It gets him into the fights free, you see. Charley even has hats and shirts made up with the DKP crown logo on them. Charley likes to tell you how much money he’s got as in, “Only one got more paper than me is Bossman.” DK, if you haven’t guessed, is his mythical Bossman although I thought Eddie “Bossman” Jones, the rugged little heavyweight, had legally registered the name like Michael Buffer did to his “Let’s get ready to rumble!” call. One day in LA, Tyson was spewing venom after a press conference. He even blew off nice guy Nick Charles’ (CNN) interview request. Nick was a little irritated, having jetted in from Atlanta solely for that purpose. King had just given Charley a key assignment, telling him to go get the ribs and chicken. Charley was just waiting on DK to give him the green stamps when Tyson came in and said loudly, “Get him the bleep out of here!” A stunned Charley looked to Bossman for guidance and, not missing a beat, King said.”You heard the man, Charley D, get the bleep up out of here.” The chicken/rib run was thus delayed for at least an hour. DK is always, always flexible and versatile.
29. Evel Knievel. Did you know or care that it was Bob Arum who promoted Evel’s phony-baloney “jump” over the Snake River Canyon? I paid five bucks to watch that on closed-circuit when I was in college and was I shocked when Evel bailed out with a huge parachute attached to his bike. You owe me, Arum. A publicist for that event was a Hollywood schlockmeister named Shelly Saltman. Years later, Shelly and Evel had an argument over the root of all Evel and the daredevil did something not so daring. He clubbed Shelly with a Louisville Slugger while two thugs held the Shelster’s hands behind his back. If Evel had been a hockey player, he definitely would’ve been ineligible for the Lady Byng sportsmanship award that year. Anyway, a crippled and limping Knievel showed up at a Bruce Seldon workout in Vegas as Bruce was preparing to take his beating from Mr. Tyson. Can Seldon win, Evel asked me, just making conversation. Did you beat the water fountains in front of Caesars Palace, I asked the thrill-seeker. Evel wanted free tickets and I agreed if he would tell the writers he was forecasting a Seldon upset. Evel lived up to the bargain and so did I but Seldon folded like a cheap umbrella in a wind storm. (FYI, the Eveldoer got an assault conviction for the batting practice on publicist and served five months and 22 days among such delightful companions as Charles Manson. How does Evel regard Saltman years later? He’s consistent. “I should have killed the dirty little bastard. He is a flesh-user and a rattlesnake.”)
30. Mr. Daily Mail, Mr. Sun, Mr. News of the World. Frank Warren, a leading promoter who has survived bullets and being a King partner, comes up with some great lines. And I don’t mean the kind Michael Dokes used to “hoover” from his Bolivian Marching Powder supply. Seeing the nervous Bruno making the sign of the cross about 200 times as he approached the ring for his second beating from Tyson, Warren said Bruno “looked like The Pope on speed.” Bruno unfailingly referred to the British fight scribes by the name of their employers. My pal, Lord Jeff Powell, was addressed as “Mr. Daily Mail” even when they met unexpectedly in a fogged-up Hong Kong hotel steam bath.
31. Butchology. A new science as discovered by Donald King when he was trying to grease the grapevine to get rid of Cayton. (King, in an inspirational moment, once labeled Cayton “a despicable cad.”) The boss scribes were at a press conference in New York as King was foaming at the mouth about how Butch Lewis, repping Michael Spinks, had outwitted Cayton in terms of the purses for Tyson-Spinks. “You guys know about the new science of Butchology?” King shouted. Pray tell, Don, what be that? “It is amazing, extraordinary and truly SKD [something kinda different]. It’s when you got the fighter who got no heayweight title belts and you match him against the guy who got all three belts and the guy who got no belts gets $13.5 million dollars,” King said. “That is … amazing science. You must study it. I heard Harvard and MIT are studying it.”
32. Snake Handler. I went up to Catskill to see Tyson train although Looney Rooney tried to bar me. Ruthless Roper and Rockin’ Robin had abandoned the Bernardsville, N.J., mansion making some absurd claim that Mike went into a frenzy and — do you believe this — actually threw fireplace implements all around the house? The mother-daughter duo never lacked for imagination. One of Roper’s slick tricks, when she and Wife were trying to convince Mike and the public that he needed calming medications around the clock, was to have sidekick Rory Holloway pick up the prescriptions. Unbeknownst to Ruthless, pal Rory usually tossed the elephant tranquilizers down the sewer and told her Tyson had taken all his medicine. King, who hates to see a heavyweight champ or any champ as a vitual orphan, went into his Father Flanagan routine. It was a matter of time before he had Tyson in his clutches and I quizzed Tyson about how he would, ahem, “handle” the manipulator. “I know he is a snake,” Tyson said. “But I can handle a snake. You just got to keep the lights on in the room and watch the snake and control it.”
33. Monek Prager. That’s what they called him in Krakow. In London, he took the name of a Jimmy Cagney movie character and became Mickey Duff. Which is now, in rhyming Cockney slang, a code word for “puff” or mairjuana. But I digress. Duff was thisclose to Tyson co-manager Jimmy Jacobs. Duff handled numerous world champions including John “The Beast” Mugabi. King was trying to steal Mugabi from him one day and Duff said, “Keep talking, Don, the kid doesn’t understand one word of English.” King looked at Mugabi who them muttered “Oomgowah!” or something. Duff may be boxing’s best raconteur. One of his classic stories is, when he was 65ish, he ran into an old schoolmate on the street in London. Old schoolmate, same age, was with a buxom blonde about 40 years his junior. Duff and schoolmate exchanged phone numbers and Duff rang him up that night. “Very pretty, your friend,” Duff said, “but isn’t that a bit dangerous?” Old pal shot back: “Mickey, if she dies, she dies.”
34. Dapper Don. One hot afternoon at The Post, whackjob Mitch Green called me. He said he saw me shaking hands with John Gotti at the Michael Dokes-Razor Ruddock fight at the Garden. Your point, Mitch? The idiot savant had the germ of a great idea, having been beaten in the ring and on the street by Tyson. Mitch would retain the Teflon Don as his manager and never worry about losing another decision. Of course, I had no number and Mitch never sauntered into the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club so nothing happened. Sometime later, Green would blast “Don Queen, Michelle Tyson and Michelle Marley” on Channel 5. I think I told Mitch to lose my number.
35. Greens-eating man from Cleveland. Richie Giachetti, who adeptly handled Larry Holmes, threw a towel over his shoulder and tried to train an uninspired Tyson for a while. There was no chemistry. Giachetti, nicknamed “The Torch,” has an equally tough twin brother, Bobby, a.k.a. “The Flame.” Richie once took me to The Theatrical Lounge, a fine establishment in Cleveland, where the unofficial motto was “if you’re not invited, you’re not invited.” The place was so tough (to borrow Rodney Dangerfield’s line) the entree was, quite often, broken leg of lamb. Giachetti was getting the best of Delroy Ruddock, Razor’s skinny brother, in a postfight Tyson-Ruddock I ring brawl when Murad Muhammad used his gator-clad shoes to kick Richie in the face. Judges at ringside did give Murad the three points for the field goal.
36. Malaprop Murad. He could mangle the language better than most. He would say, “Correct me if I am right” or say that Smith “upset Jones’ apricot.” My column spelled his name as M-o-r-o-n and it took him about four years to tell me I misspelled “Murad.” You had to love his twin bodyguards better known as “The Bookends.” They all got started late in boxing late in the Ali Era when it was in fashion to follow Islam. Garden publicist Tom Kenville complained in that time period about every “Tom, Dick and Muhammad” in boxing bothering him for free fight tickets.
37. No robes, no socks no mercy. I coined that phrase for Tyson’s in the ring fashion look which stressed simplicity and brevity. No one saluted. I had better luck labeling Neon Leon Spinks. Commander ‘Vander Holyfield and I wished I had nicknamed prelim fighter Ronald “Lobster” Thermidor. I once boxed under the name of “Mike Malowitz” but that may still be under investigation, so …
38. Tyson vs. Hulk, Green gets bulk. Vince McMahon Jr.’s idea guys came up with a mixed match between Hulk Hogan and Tyson. One of them phoned me and asked if Tyson would do it for $4 million. I passed it on to the Kingfish. By the time, Tyson and his new wife, Dr. Monica Turner, heard about it, DK had generously gone 50-50, offering Mike $2 million. The offer disappeared and Tyson wound up getting far less as a WWF special referee.
39. Brothers and sisters. Let’s get this straight. Tyson has one brother, Rodney, who at last check was a physician’s assistant in L.A. He’s about seven years older than Mike and they never were close. I think Rodney joined the Navy and went to Japan many years ago. Tyson spent more time with his pigeons than with his brother. Mike’s sister, Denise, died from obesity and asthma at age 25. Mike was there to bury her and he used to take care of her children financially as well. Jackie Rowe is not Tyson’s “sister” and the lookalike fighter Cliff Couser is not any relation at all to Tyson.
40. Papa was a rolling stone … Yeah, yeah, wherever Jimmy Kirkpatrick laid his hat was his home and like that. I scoured several Brooklyn projects searching for Papa Tyson before myself and a Post photographer found him for a front-page tearjerker. No one knew who Kirkpatrick was but finally one lady who deduced that I was not another white cop snooping around, said through her door peephole, “Oh, you’re looking for Tyson’s daddy. He lives in 4B.”
Happy birthday, Iron Mike. If I could grant you one wish, it would be simple: Serenity now.
Michael Marley is executive editor of www.fightnightnews.com
