Undisputed Truth

The day this book was released, I read an excerpt posted somewhere or another wherein Tyson strangles Don King from the back seat of a limousine that King is driving. That sold me - I thought I was going to read a couple hundred pages of Mike Tyson telling insane stories. What I got was immeasurably better.This book is Mike Tyson's life story, in Mike Tyson's words, as told to a writer. It might not be the undisputed truth, but it is his truth, and it's his entire truth. It is brutally, unforgivingly honest, and while he has few kind words for the likes of King, Robin Givens, and Desiree Washington, no one fares worse in these pages than Tyson himself.Whatever you may think of Tyson, he is without a doubt one of the most fascinating sports figures of the past hundred years. He's a study in contradictions: a terrifying boxer with a temper that one could charitably describe as "mercurial" and yet he speaks softly, almost effeminately, with a lisp. The man said he was going to eat Lennox Lewis' children and praised Allah in the same sentence. He was paid tens of millions of dollars for fights that often lasted less than one round, and was bankrupt within ten years. Of course this guy's story is going to be great.But the two episodes in his life that he's most known for, his tumultuous (and allegedly abusive) marriage to Robin Givens, and his rape trial after a night with pageant contestant Desiree Washington gone horribly, irreversibly wrong, aren't glossed over. At all. If anything, he talks about them - the trial in particular - in detail that's simply uncomfortable. And it has to be. If he's to have any absolution, any redemption in the public's eye, he has to be able to tell his side of the story for those who want to hear it, those that wonder if perhaps his in-ring persona was unfairly turned against him.Undisputed Truth spends many, many chapters on how that persona developed, from both his cruel childhood on the streets of Brooklyn, to his being taught by Cus, the only father figure he'd ever known. Tyson's relationship with Cus is a well-known and oft-romanticized slice of boxing history, and the realization that everything that he learned from his childhood and from Cus that made him the tremendous fighter that he was being precisely what ensured his time at the top was so short and why he was so ill-prepared for life as Iron Mike had to have been painful to come to and write about.Whether you find Tyson as fascinating as I do, or want to learn more about the man behind the glove (and there's much, much more to him than I expected), or just want to know what in the world he was thinking with that tattoo, you absolutely must read this book. Don't expect 500+ pages of back-patting. All too often, memoirs are just a remembrance of happy times, rough patches smoothed over or omitted entirely. It's refreshing to read someone so well-known write something so unflinchingly honest about himself. This dives headfirst into the realm of absolute self-loathing. However much you might despise Mike Tyson for some of the things he's done in his life, he despises himself so much more for them.I want to think that this is the time he gets it right. That this is the time he has another chance and doesn't throw it away. That he's able to wipe away a little of the stain from his legacy, to be able to provide for his family, to find some peace. After reading his story, I'm not sure, but I'm rooting for him. Just like the old days.

People who consider Mike Tyson to be a villain have never truly studied him, and have probably never encountered true villainy. Those who consider him to be a hero have never studied the real nature of heroism. And those who consider him to be an illiterate brute simply don't know what they're talking about. In my sixth decade, after a lifetime of reading, I think that "Undisputed Truth" is the most honest autobiography I've ever encountered. An official of the New York Public Library has likened it to Augustine's "Confessions," but perhaps a more apt comparison would be to "The Education of Henry Adams."Although I'm a boxing fan, I never liked Tyson when he was fighting. I believed, and still believe, that his boxing skills were vastly overrated. He was certainly not an ornament to the sport when he wore the heavyweight championship belt. But who, including Cus D'Amato, ever thought of this infinitely complicated man as merely "a boxer?" They thought of him as a wrecking machine, a savage, "the baddest man on the planet." He certainly did bad things, and was an utterly abysmal "role model" (something he never aspired to be), but he was more than that. Most people who know his story know of his beginnings in life, which were not merely humble, but squalid and unimaginable to most of us. (Charles Dickens would have understood.) And Tyson himself has never stopped talking about those beginnings, or about the heartaches and cruelties that molded him; but his recollections of a troubled youth and a scandalous young manhood have never taken the form of a whimper or a cry for sympathy. When cursing out virtually the entire human race at times, his outbursts have been genuine, inimitable howls of rage. But there's more to the man than the rage, and that's what this book is all about.Whether recounting his most scandalous missteps, or calmly reflecting on kindness, love, and his own lifelong search for such things, Tyson has always been, just perhaps,one of the most honest men on the planet. There are plenty of other candidates for the title "baddest."He is also a genuine intellectual: not necessarily someone gifted with a high I.Q., but a man to whom ideas matter: a man of vast reading and vast contemplation. In describing his adoration of his wife Kiki and his youngest children, he quotes a long love letter from Napoleon Bonaparte to his Josephine. He has not merely read such writers as Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, but has internalized and incorporated many of their ideas into his own life. Their books may gather dust on his shelves, but their ideas come to his lips as readily as a profanity or a sigh. It is typical of life's ironies that this "thug," this man who won the world's acclaim by battering others with his fists, is in fact a man of ideas. This book tells very little of the history of boxing, but it is stunning and unexpected in its honesty. The title is perfect.Note: Tyson's stage show of the same name, and its adaptation by Spike Lee, bears virtually no relationship to the book. In the show, Tyson is a wisecracking entertainer; in the book, he is a naked soul, and as complex as a soul can be. It is unclear from the heart-rending epilogue whether or not Tyson has yet attained happiness. If not, one cannot read this book without hoping that he does so.

This is a 596 page book that I was not able to put down, but I had to since I couldn't read that much in one sitting or I would have. It is a great book. An intelligent book and makes for fascinating reading. I was able to identify with Mike so many times, and for that reason the book helped me understand some of the problems that I have been working out in my personal life. One of the reviewers of the book (LA Times) said that Tyson's book was a "masterpiece of confessional honesty," and for me the reader's perception of the honesty embedded in the narrative has great deal to do with the fact that I found it so difficult to put down. The book bleeds. What a story! So many people trying to take advantage of him throughout his life. So much greed and selfishness on the part of those surrounding him. So many struggles on his part with various kinds of addictions. It's all here with no holds barred. "...like watching a Charles Dickens street urchin grow up to join Hunter S. Thompson on a narcotic-filled road trip." (LA Times again) This is a spellbinding memoir, one of the most frank and heartfelt of our times. I think that it is the lucidity of the narration of all the good and bad in his life that captures the reader so much. A difficult but rewarding book. A glimpse into a great man's soul.

This book started really well but unfortunately spent far too much time disrespecting women and going into far too much detail during the 600 pages. The early part which describes a young Tyson and his thirst for Boxing was fascinating but then turned to sex, drugs and crime. If the stories are to be believed then Mike Tyson was one bad man. In 1992, Tyson was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison, he was released on parole after serving three years. Once out of jail there were a string of claims of assault and sexual harassment. Tyson brags of the women he demanded and his ambition of filling everyone of his 19 bedrooms with women. His tales of violence, drugs and sex became repetitive and paint a very sad picture of this married man with children. The book was not worthy of 600 pages and a very good edit would have made a lot of sense.Mike Tyson was a great boxer and certainly one of the best fighters the sport has ever seen but as a man he is well down the list. A man who has spent his life mixing with trouble and shows no class or respect for anyone.

The paperback with the "INCLUDES BRAND NEW CHAPTER" label doesn't seem to have an equivalent hardback version. In other words the available hardback version of the book doesn't have this new chapter in it. This isn't really a problem as the "new chapter" in the "new" paperback version of the book is entitled "AFTERWORD" and only runs from page 558 to page 572 and details various reactions to the original publication of the book. Personally I would buy a copy of the hardback that doesn't contain the afterword chapter than the small paperback with the new afterword chapter. The hardback is a large, beautiful looking book with large text, which is perfect for old fogies like myself with dodgy eyesight, and after all if you're interested in what is said in the small extra chapter you could stand, or sit, and read it in a book shop in 20 minutes.

Almost as engaging to read as Mike Tyson was to watch, this book really laid bare the way an individual as complex as Mike Tyson thinks. Having watched him in various interviews, I found myself imagining Tyson's voice reading this book to me as I went; the way the sentences are structured, the language used, and the open and candid nature of the descriptions of the numerous experiences he had throughout his career and personal life, all contribute to an intriguing - and brutally honest - account of the life and lifestyle of the most famous Heavyweight Champion of the World. Highly recommended.

This is a shocking book, Tyson has lived a life as dramatic as any debauched and decadent rock star, if not worse. As others have mentioned it is full of profanity but this is how Tyson talks in real life so it makes sense for him to speak like this in his autobiography. There is no holding back in this book, Tyson is brutally honest about the sordid activities he got up to in his childhood, during his boxing career and after his retirement. I commend him for his honesty as not many athletes would be so open. For example I have read Diego Maradona's autobiography and he hardly mentions any of his controversies off the pitch, Tyson is the complete opposite, he tells it like it is. You also get to see another side of Tyson - the Tyson who is an avid reader and pigeon collector.My only negative would be about how he describes his losses to Hoyfield and Douglas, he seems to make a lot of excuses some of which are not completely valid.It's a must read for any Mike Tyson or boxing fan.

I chose this book because I was a big fan of Mike Tyson when he was Heavyweight Champion Boxer. I also enjoy 'boxercising' myself. I was interested to learn about the good times and hardships of someone this famous and learned a lot I didn't know before reading his book.It starts when he was growing up in 'the hood' with family and friends. Especially mentioning 'Cus' his trainer who trained Mike from the start but tragically died leaving Mike to find new ways of pursuing his boxing career.This autobiography tells the complete life story from boy to grown man including many facts about Mike's journey through life up to the present day.This book was also a good price and I enjoyed it.