MIKE TYSON was so afraid of losing his friends that he would have to have sex moments before fighting to get 'the edge'.
Tyson's emotional energy was so high that he would even cry before entering the ring to kill his opponents.
All who met Tyson in the boxing arena
were afraid of him.
This is Tyson's insight from one his closest friends. It recalls Tyson’s talent and mindset on the 35th anniversary he became the youngest heavyweight champion in the history.
Rudy Gonzalez, Tyson's ex-bodyguard and chauffeur, revealed that his dark side was combined with his raw talent and elite training under Cus D'Amato as a boxing legend made him unstoppable during the mid 80s.
Gonzalez, then twenty-years-old, watched Trevor Berbick channel grief, anger and inner psychological torment in round two. This was to make history in the fight for the title on November 22, 1986.
Gonzalex stated that Mike had to have sex in his dressing room before he could fight.
"I would need to find a girl with whom I could get along, no matter who it was. He would say, "If I don't get laid, I will kill that guy right now."
"Mike needed to get laid in order to release some of his strength. I made sure that the girls were safely tucked away in changing rooms and bathrooms.
"Sometimes, he'd go into with them for a moment, bang the **** out of them and snap his neck to say: 'Okay, this guy is going live tonight.'
"His greatest fear was that he would get killed by someone wearing that ring. He was confident he could do it.
"Some of the men he fought are still there. I saw these men screaming, their bones breaking or their blood flying everywhere as I stood at the ringside.
Mike was like a train hitting those guys, and it's not an exaggeration. He used sex to disengage that power and relax a little.
Gonzalez, whose book, The Inner Ring, is about Tyson's experiences, said: "Someone once asked why Mike needs four armed guards. I replied, 'We aren’t here to protect Mike, we are here to defend him from you. '"
Gonzalez was Tyson's friend from the middle 80s, seeing him rise through the amateur ranks undefeated in 27 fights, and with a record of 12-0 in 1986 alone.
Cus D'Amato was a legendary trainer who guided Tyson from being a street fighter to becoming a power punching boxing star.
D'Amato, however, died a year prior to the Berbick history-making Berbick showdown.
Gonzalez stated that Mike used to cry before fighting. His anxiety was a problem that caused him to feel unworthy or not good enough.
"He never recovered Cus's loss, because he found someone special that believed in him and saved him from the pits of hell.
"He used every emotion he could for as long as possible - that is why he walked in the ring with all of that and beat Berbick."
D'Amato, an aging manager, trained Tyson in the morning, pushing him to get fitter and making him study boxing history in his Catskill, New York, attic.
It was a love story. Mike feared that if he did not do the right thing, he would be back in his neighborhood or locked up.
He trusted only Cus. Mike would bow his head respectfully and reply, "yes sir, no sir."
"And he gave Cus an excuse to wake up every day - Mike made him feel like someone who could live for a thousand more years."
Tyson, a juvenile criminal, grew up in Brownsville with an addicted mother.
Bobby Stewart, an ex-boxer and guard, was serving his time at Tryon School for Boys. This now-closed juvenile facility had been closed down. He then turned his energy to boxing and introduced Tyson D'Amato.
Tyson's "first real experience with home and family" was when D'Amato's wife Camille Ewald moved Tyson into their 14-bedroom mansion.
Mike felt that having keys to his house was a big deal because he had never experienced such security.
"Camille would cook dinner for him, and we'd all have a meal together. It was his first taste of normalcy. It was something we took for granted. But, how he raised his family was his greatest enemy.
He said that he could not believe that white people are like him. He had been constructed in one way: rob chains, beat up, live under the most brutal conditions, and start over.
"For the first times, he felt love from Cus & Camille. It was an incredible experience to witness him emerge from that shell.
Tyson returned to his home often after D'Amato's death, even though he had moved.
"We would go back to the house, where Mike would sit in Cus’ chair and transform into Mike. He loved to sleep in that attic. Gonzalez stated that Gonzalez held onto his love for him for as long as possible.
Cus's death was many years ago. He asked me to drive him to his house, and I parked in the driveway. He would cry for hours in the back.
Gonzalez's book, "The Time with Tyson", has been a major news story in the past. He witnessed Tyson's fall from being the reigning champion to being convicted of rape.
Rudy made a series of accusations against Don King who was Tyson's top promoter and aide.
He asked about Tyson's six-year sentence in prison for raping Desiree Washington, a beauty-pageant contestant in Indianapolis, in 2004.
Tyson collapsed before he realized that his entire fortune had been lost when he signed over large amounts to companies that he didn't own - considering he couldn't read well.
Gonzalez asserts King 'psychologically broken him' and adds: "Mike’s story would have had an entirely different ending if Cus lived longer. Denise, his sister, always promised to keep Mike from Don. She called him a clown.
He claimed that Tyson was the victim of 'deceit and betrayal'.
The Inner Ring (Premium Edition: The Set-Up Of Mike Tyson and The Uncrowning Of Don King Paperback are now available for purchase.
https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Ring-Premium-Set-Up-Uncrowning/dp/0692046321
