SONAHR: January 13, 2014 – At first sight of the title of Mike Tyson?s recently published autobiography, Undisputed Truth (written with Larry Sloman), people of a certain age will remember an R&B song from the early 1970s called ?Smiling Faces Sometimes,? sung by a trio called ? The Undisputed Truth:
?Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes They don?t tell the truth, Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies, And I?ve got proof ??
The face that stares out from the dust jacket of Tyson?s book sure as hell ain?t smiling. Hard-eyed, shaven-headed, stubble-jawed, with a slight sneer on his closed lips ? Iron Mike?s cover portrait looks like a mug shot, which is hardly inappropriate considering the number of stints he?s spent in the slammer since he was 12 years old.
More books have been written about the two-time heavyweight champion of the world than any boxer other than Muhammad Ali. Now, Tyson tells his own story in his own way.
?Smiling faces? dominated Tyson?s life, starting with the grins on the grilles of the bullies who tormented him when he was a timid child on the dangerous streets of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in New York City.
Cus D?Amato, the venerable trainer who spotted and honed young Mike?s boxing skills after the bullied child turned into a vicious thug; Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Cayton, who were his managers during his meteoric rise to heavyweight championship at the age of 20; Robin Givens, his first wife; Don King, his promoter ? each, in his or her own way, a ?smiling face? who made him and betrayed him.
D?Amato betrayed him by failing to instill solid character traits to back up his phenomenal ring prowess. And Cayton, Jacobs, Givens and King betrayed him by treating him like a human debit card. ?Smiling faces,? one and all.
And then there?s the ?smiling face? reflected in Tyson?s own mirror ? the face of a young man who made millions of dollars with his fists, then threw it all away on alcohol, drugs, women, and conspicuous consumerism. It?s also the face of a man who squandered the talent that could have made him one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time ? right up there with his idols, Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Jack Johnson.
Tyson is far from unaware of the role he has played in the drama of his calamities. He calls himself a ?smuck? (his intentional misspelling of the word ?schmuck?) more times than Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis ever hit him during the beatdowns they laid on him.
Even with the candor, though, Tyson still seeks self-justification in some matters. He attributes his shocking February 1990 loss to Douglas to lack of training, and insists that the referee gave Douglas a long count when Tyson floored him in the eighth round, giving the 42-1 underdog a chance to turn the tables on the champion in the tenth. He swears up and down that Holyfield caught him with more headbutts than punches in their two battles. His feelings about Robin Givens and her mother, Ruth Roper, most likely mirror Barack Obama?s level of regard for Rush Limbaugh.
Tyson reserves the most bitter of his vitriol for Desiree Washington, the beauty-pageant contestant whose accusations of rape got him convicted and sentenced to prison in the early 1990s. He will go to his grave convinced that he was the victim of false allegations, a biased judge and jury, and incompetent defense counsel. Plenty of people agree with him. And plenty of others don?t.
There are no major revelations in Undisputed Truth ? just more of the same Tyson excesses that have hit the headlines ever since Iron Mike?s life began to fall apart while he was still at his fistic peak. For my part, I had to keep putting the book down because I just could not read one more paragraph about how many bowls of cocaine Tyson snorted, or how many women he had at one time in a hotel room, or how many times he?s fallen off the sobriety wagon. If even half of the memories and mayhem recounted in Undisputed Truth?s 580 pages are undisputed, rather than exaggerated, truth, it?s a wonder Tyson is still alive today. And it?s a wonder he doesn?t look way older than his 47 years.
Then again, maybe in some ways he is older ? a lot older.
And maybe he?s more mature as well. Maybe he?s finally acquired some grounding and wisdom, without which he admits he felt ?hollow? even when he was the king of the boxing world.
And maybe now the ?smiling face? he sees in the mirror is, indeed, the face of the ?undisputed truth.?
Charles R. Saunders is the author of several books including Sweat and Soul: The Saga of Black Boxers in the Maritimes from the Halifax Forum to Caesars Palace, as well as the Imaro series of fantasy/adventure novels. Considered by many to be one of the leading authorities on boxing in Canada, he is the current Vice-President of Boxing for the Society of North American Sports Historians and Researchers. His award-winning novel, Damballa, which centers around a fictional heavyweight title bout, is available at Amazon.com.
