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Who Was Cus D’Amato, and Why Did Mike Tyson Admire Him?
It took a long time to get to Mike Tyson. Cus D’Amato was able to accomplish this. Tyson grew up impoverished and had a difficult life that includes more than 30 arrests before the age of 13.
D’Amato was able to become Tyson’s father figure, mentor, and boxing trainer, assisting Tyson in becoming the world’s youngest heavyweight champion.
Cus D’Amato, who was he?
Mike Tyson’s Former Trainer was terrified when the boxer locked him in a cage with his tiger.
Constantine ‘Cus’ D’Amato began his career as an amateur boxer, but his career was cut short due to an eye injury sustained in a street fight.
Instead of boxing, he made a living by teaching others how to box.
D’Amato founded his first gym at the age of 22 and practically worked, lived, and slept there.
Rocky Graziano was one of the first boxers to fight under D’Amato’s guidance, but he later switched trainers.
D’Amato coached previous heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, who went on to become the sport’s youngest champion at the time.
He was 21. Cus was not just a trainer, but also a role model.
Anthony Patti used to box at D’Amato’s gym back in the day. When Patterson was around, he used to box.
“I got in the ring a couple of times — you know, backyard boxing,” Patti told recordnet.com in 2017.
He was never proud of anything. He was simply a kind person.
Cus had brought it up.”
Mike Tyson meets D’Amato
Mike Tyson had to be locked up in a juvenile correctional center before he met Cus D’Amato.
Tyson was imprisoned at the Tryon School for Boys, where he met Bobby Stewart, a counselor who taught some of the adolescents how to box.
Tyson wanted to be a part of his sparring with them.
Stewart let Tyson box after some excellent conduct.
Stewart notified D’Amato, who hired Tyson after seeing his talent.
“Cus’ gym was on top of the Catskill police station,” Tyson wrote in his book IRON AMBITION: My Life with Cus D’Amato.
It was aged and smelly inside, with a little ring.
On the wall, there were also a lot of weathered newspaper clippings.
There were a couple of elderly white men present, as well as a younger man named Teddy Atlas, who was assisting Cus.
I was introduced to Cus, and I could tell right away that he was in complete command of everything.
He simply sucked up all of the air in the room. He shook my hand without even a grin on his face. He was emotionless.”
Tyson demonstrated his abilities, impressing D’Amato and Teddy Atlas, a trainer who worked under D’Amato.
Tyson inquired about D’Amato’s opinion of him.
“He said I couldn’t return?” Tyson writes about it in the book.
“No, he answered, ‘Bobby, barring external distractions, that is the heavyweight champion of the globe, if not the universe.
” But only if you keep working the way you’ve been.”
Also, read Giancarlo Stanton, Matthew Christopher Schnell, John Daly’s Married Life:
Tyson’s friendship with D’Amato
Mike Tyson moved home with Cus D’Amato after being released from the Tryon School for Boys.
They formed a close friendship that extended beyond boxing.
After Tyson’s mother died, he became his legal guardian.
He was Tyson’s father figure.
D’Amato was the only one that frightened Tyson.
He was also the only one who could keep him in check – the only one who could constructively critique him.
Tyson claimed in his autobiography, “I was terrified when I was alone with him.”
“If he called and said, ‘Mike, I need to talk to you,’ I didn’t want to go over to him.”
That’s when he’d start criticizing my battles in great detail.
People watch the public celebrations for my spectacular knockouts, but they don’t hear Cus chatting to me after the fight.”
Tyson was 19 years old when D’Amato died.
Tyson had a professional record of 11-0.
They required one another. Tyson credited D’Amato with helping him turn his life around.
D’Amato once stated in the New York Times that being able to develop a young, skilled fighter like Tyson “makes me excited, makes me feel like a young fella.”
