Undisputed Truth Paperback – October 28, 2014

I was a child of the 1980s and grew up during Tyson's tenure as a phenomenon larger than his sport. Anyone who did not live through that era simply cannot imagine how unbeatable Tyson was thought to be, and the total shock of him losing to Buster Douglas. I picked up Mike's autobiography during Amazon's Black Friday sale, and it may just be the best autobiography I have ever read.The book is very dark and r-rated. Tyson tells some some happy stories from his life, but he also goes into great detail about the brutality, depression and self-hatred that overshadow everything else in his life. I couldn't put the book down and finished the 580 pages in a little over a week. The whole book is riveting, but the epilogue is especially sad -- Mike lamenting that his entire life has been a waste; all he has done with his life is fight, ****, get high and make babies.Tyson does not try to sugar-coat who he was, or who he remains, at all. He writes several times that he was an "arrogant *****" during his time as heavyweight champion. The book extensively recounts Mike's violent crimes, his addictions to everything from sex and drugs to spending money. I had no idea that Tyson's drug habit was so bad that he washed out of rehab many, many times and he ballooned to 380 pounds shortly before his appearance in "The Hangover."There are many shocking stories in the book, but the story that really touched me was Tyson talking about his accountant finding an IRA in his name worth $250,000 that Cus D'Amato has set up for him at the very start of Mike's career. Even with all the terrible things Tyson has done in his life, it is hard not to feel at least some sympathy for him when writes that he sits and cries to this day when he thinks about that IRA because Cus was the only person in boxing who cared about anything other than how much money Mike could make for him.It's hard not to imagine how different Tyson's career would have turned out if D'Amato woud have been 10 years younger.and Don King never got involved. The stories Tyson told about living with Cus in Catskill, N.Y., are just fascinating. Who knew that D'Amato was a hardcore socialist who shouted "Liar, Liar, Liar" every time Ronald Reagan would appear on a television screen and that Cus declared bankruptcy because he refused to pay taxes to a right-wing administration? Who knew a guy raised in the "sewage" and violence of Brownsville, Brooklyn, as Mike often writes, was also the same guy who visited Cus' grave after winning the WBA title from Trevor Berbick to "show" the title to Cus and pour a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne on D'Amato's grave?Tyson also details how over the top the stealing by Don King was. King stole tens of millions of dollars from Tyson, but two small examples really seem to stand out, IMO. King charged Tyson a yearly salary for King's daughter to oversee a Mike Tyson Fan Club that never met and did not even reply to fan letters. King also billed Tyson a title sanctioning fee for a bout against Razor Ruddock that was not even a title bout.The many, many stories about sex and drug use in the book do tend to blur together after a while. Tyson does not try to make himself out to be a "good guy" and graphically details many horrible things he has done in his life. But it is hard not to feel a bit sad to read Tyson writing that when he dies, perhaps his grave will simply have a marker with the phrase "Now, I'm at Peace" and that perhaps fight fans of future generations will seek out his grave just like he did with his heroes.I wasn't much expecting much when I saw that Tyson was going to be releasing an autobiography. But for anyone who remembers how huge Tyson was in the 1980s, this book is a must read. You won't find many autobiographies as brutally revealing as this one.

One of the best books I've read in years. Truthful and from the heart. Whi!e reading the book I kept on asking myself how is he still alive? I highly recommended it.

In this autobiography Mike Tyson takes the reader on the grand tour of his life. The book is a good read, and I think I got lucky with it, since this is my 1st boxer's autobiography. I was choosing between Mike's and Jack Johnson's biography and chose Mike's because his name resonates in my own lifetime. There was time that there wasn't a boxer more feared and more glorious than this guy. However, it seems like his own glory and success took a toll on him, and as a result he couldn't cope with the intensity of all that came together with glory.I was happy to find out things about Mike's early life, that it was hard, sometimes grotesquely hard, as there wasn't any food on the table, and no one except Mike himself to get it.It was very interesting to find out more about Cus D'Amato and the kind of influence that he exerted on Mike's early training carrier. He compares his mentor to an Ancient Roman, someone like Julius Caesar or Pompeus perhaps someone with an unbending will for victory, and boundlessly wise, but also very paranoid to the point where he is ready to jump anyone coming into close contact with him. For good or for bad, but it is possible that Mike have copied some of these traits and made them his own He was born at a wrong time, where completely overwhelming your adversary for the virtue of glory is considered to say the least "unethical". But they were times, when it was a preferred thing for a gentleman to do, and practice as a life style. The philosophy of overwhelming your opponent on all fronts is synonymous to the all out warfare of the "Art of War" of Sun Tzu, and Miyamoto Musashi's "Five Rings". We also hear the echos of A.V. Suvorov, the greatest of the Russian military commanders. I see Cus (may he rest in peace) as a Condottieri of sort. A general who is all about strategy and all about taking trophies in any form. No trophies - no point to fight.Mike has had a lot of money in his carrier. He speaks of millions like it is a normal thing, which is hard to understand for many of us who never had even one. He could spend 10's if not 100's of millions like pocket change, just because he had them. Nevertheless, I have to say that he handled a slide into a middle class, and even borderline poverty pretty well, notwithstanding the fact that he was battling his own demons consistently during all of that time, and sometimes the demons were winning...His relationship with women is full of drama, and according to his own opinion, "I am not a pimp, but a trick", which I think means that he is an open guy and someone who genuinely needs care, but who wanted to play a pimp, like it is his stage persona, as this was the thing to do. Mike is creating an image of a Casanova type who has had dozens upon dozens of women from all walks of life, though he makes a point of not being a good communicator and emphasizing the fact that many women, including his first wife were attracted not to him, but to his accomplishments in the art of boxing, and on stage, perhaps even the amount of money that he possessed at the time and his spending power.He spent a lot of time in rehabs for his drug addictions, but thankfully to his guardian spirits that he has some really good friends, and some close knit family who stood by him in those very tough times, and helped him to recuperate and go on with his life.Mr. Tyson's transformation is amazing. I don't watch TV, but I have seen some of his interviews on the Youtube, and it is truly amazing how one can change as a result of his life's experiences plus faith. I salute him, and say "namaste" to the divinity in him.Other than that, Mike is a Brooklyn guy to the marrow, and places value on the personal conduct and how it relates to his "street" values which include directness, certain brutal honesty about other people's negative traits as well as respect for things material and their accumulation. He is very open-minded about any nationality and any religious affiliation, and has some good things to say about any with which he came into contact during his tumultuous carrier. He is a practicing Muslim, but has close friends who are Catholic, Southern Baptist and Jewish. I was happy that he relates so well to the Eastern Europeans of who I am one. I thought it was funny when he said that "Russia doesn't have the word for balance, it is all about extremes"...It's true.The book has a lot of good stuff in it and is written with the reverence to the Higher, and it is amazing that one can be so open as to let the others into that complicated world of the Self, a labyrinth that we ALL enter, but far from many of us reach and kill the Minotaur with the help of the Ariadne's thread. But if such a well known public figure can do it, I am sure that we the readers can, too.