Mike Tyson

             At the tender age of twelve years old, most African-American children in the suburbs of urbanized cities kick up their heels at the wonders of playgrounds, caged basketball courts, and jump rope. "Iron" Mike Tyson saw things differently. By that age, Tyson was primed for mugging elderly women and converting inner childhood struggles into socially unacceptable crime. Times have changed, Tyson hasn't. Somewhere along the lines of delinquency, professional boxing trainer Cus D'Amato (the man who guided Floyd Patterson to a heavyweight title some years before) found Tyson in a boyish skirmish outside Catskill School for Boys in New York. Tyson was expelled from school for the altercation. At that point D"Amato took Tyson in, becoming his legal guardian; from then on Tyson was bred like a thoroughbred horse, strictly for fighting purposes. D'Amato saw the fighter in Tyson, he saw the aggression in Tyson, but he didn't see the lunacy, or schizophrenic fits in Tyson. Mike Tyson didn't see these qualities in himself, and he still doesn't, but some of the boxing world would disagree prudently with him.
             At the immature age of 18, "Iron" Mike became the most dominant force in the professional boxing world since Muhammad Ali. In his professional debut, Tyson demolished Hector Mercedes in one round; Mercedes was knocked out cold by a freakishly strong right hook in less than two minutes. Six months after Mike's first bout, Cus D"Amato passed away, leaving Tyson without any mentor in a cold, strange sport. However, it seemed that nobody could touch Tyson, even after the tragedy. He was a man among boys in the ring, even though that was the furthest thing from the truth. At the age of 20, "Iron" Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in the sport's long history. In the title bout he absolutely obliterated Trevor Berbick, sending him somewhere into la-la land shortly into the second round.