The anticipated limited series MIKE is here. The unauthorized account of boxing legend Mike Tyson has drawn intrigue from many wanting to gain more insight into how he evolved into such a game changer in sports and pop culture. However, one person who isn’t excited about the show and has been quite vocal about his disapproval of the project is Mike Tyson himself, as reported by CBS Sports.
With Tyson's harsh criticism, we wanted to figure out what was fact and what was fiction when it comes to MIKE. As the series airs weekly episodes, we’ll go on a fact-finding mission to determine what was truthful in regards to some of the most memorable moments.
With that said, here’s what we found out about MIKE.
Was Mike Tyson bullied growing up?
The Fiction: In the series premiere of MIKE, viewers see a young Mike Tyson being repeatedly bullied by the other kids in his Brooklyn neighborhood. They call him out for his speech impediment, his weight and his docile mannerisms, all while physically beating him to the ground. The bullying got so bad that Tyson stopped going to school after only the second grade.
The future boxer continued to be bullied until one day he snapped at a neighborhood kid who killed his "pet" pigeon. After that incident, he was no longer the easy target for his peers to pick on (physically at least).
Adult Tyson (Trevante Rhodes) noted the initial bullying and the feeling of standing up for himself swayed him into a willingness to fight anyone. This newfound attitude also led him down a path of crime, which saw him arrested quite frequently as a child.
The Fact: Tyson spoke with New York Magazine about being bullied as a kid.
"I was going to public school and that was a nightmare. I was a pudgy kid, very shy, almost effeminate-shy and I spoke with a lisp. Sometimes my mother would be passed out from drinking the night before and wouldn’t walk me to school. It was then that the kids would always hit me and kick me."
Now as far as what led him to drop out of school, Tyson said what pushed him over the edge involved a bully trying to steal meatballs from him on his way home. As the story goes, the assailant hit Tyson in the head, snatched Tyson’s glasses off his face and put them in the gas tank of a truck before Tyson was able to escape. While he was able to maintain possession of his meatballs, after that, Tyson decided at age 7 not to go to school any longer.
After leaving school, Tyson made a habit of involving himself in criminal activity. According to the Bleacher Report, by 13 he had already been arrested roughly 38 times.
How old was Mike Tyson when he started boxing?
The Fiction: Toward the end of episode 1, Tyson (B.J. Minor) arrived at a juvenile detention facility in upstate New York. As he’s talking to two of his roommates, they mentioned being in a little pain due to sparring with a trainer at the facility named Mr. Bobby. Feeling confident in his ability to take on Mr. Bobby, Tyson went to spar against him, only to be embarrassed. That humbling experience led Tyson to ask Mr. Bobby to train him to be a boxer, which the latter eventually agreed to do after Tyson cleaned up his act.
Mr. Bobby officially becomes Tyson’s first boxing trainer while Tyson is all of 13 years old. Mr. Bobby trains him until he decides Tyson is ready for someone with a little more experience in the sport to take over. Enter Cus D'Amato (Harvey Keitel).
After D’Amato takes over Tyson’s training, D’Amato’s assistant Teddy Atlas (Ethan Dubin) is seen taking Tyson to his first smoker fight (non-sanctioned exhibition match) at 14 years old (although Atlas told organizers that Tyson was 18). So, was Tyson really training to become a boxer at 13 and was his first match at 14?
The Fact: Bleacher Report detailed that the real Mr. Bobby, or Bobby Stewart, met a 13-year-old Tyson while he was a resident of Tryon School for Boys (a juvenile facility for criminal offenders). Stewart was a counselor at the facility who didn’t mind sparring with the residents. After Tyson cleaned up some of his poor behavior, Stewart eventually started training the then-teenager. Shortly thereafter, Stewart talked to Mike about training with Cus D’Amato.
In terms of Tyson’s first amateur fight, Talk Sport quoted Teddy Atlas as saying that Tyson was fighting in his first exhibition match at age 13, not 14. Additionally, Atlas noted Tyson "was probably up to 195lbs/200lbs" at the time and he questioned how he would could find someone in the same heavyweight class and age group of Tyson. Furthermore, according to Atlas, "Everybody would lie and try to get an edge in these places."
Was Mike Tyson adopted by Cus D’Amato and his wife?
The Fiction: After Tyson’s release from the juvenile detention facility and with his biological mother’s permission, he winds up going to stay with his trainer Cus D’Amato and his wife Camille (Grace Zabriskie). While MIKE showed some initial discomfort for Tyson in trying to integrate into the family his trainer and his wife had built, he eventually is seen as a member of the D’Amato family. Then, only a few short years later, Tyson’s mother dies of cancer and he’s officially adopted by the D’Amatos.
The Fact: Tyson shared in an interview on the show Hotboxin’ that his biological mother did eventually sign over legal guardianship of Tyson to the D’Amatos, but it wasn’t immediately upon his release from the detention center as the series reflects.
He says he was probably 15 or 16 years old when his mother signed the guardianship paperwork, which was a few years after Tyson started training with Cus. Then, as reported in USA Today, Tyson's mother died when he was 16 and he was eventually adopted by the D’Amato family once she passed.
What happened with Mike Tyson and Robin Givens in Russia?
The Fiction: episode 3 of MIKE captures the entirety of Mike Tyson and Robin Given’s brief toxic marriage in roughly 30 minutes, including Givens (Laura Harrier) and her mother Ruth Roper (Leslie Silva) taking advantage of what seemed to be a naive and admittedly under the influence Tyson. Tyson says to Givens in the series "you don’t care about me, all you care is spending my money."
However, the show doesn’t hide Tyson’s faults either. In one particular moment, Tyson talks about a Russian incident he says was "totally overblown." In the scene, Roper jumps on Tyson’s back and beats him in an effort to prevent him from going after her daughter. He then tosses Roper off of him and throws a TV at Roper and Givens as they run away. Tyson also captions the events by saying, "this is what Robin and Ruth said happened, but hey, I was on Lithium, coke and weed at the time, so who the f**k knows."
The series doesn’t go into detail about what happened in Russia, but operates under the assumption viewers already know.
Was there an altercation between Tyson and Givens that took place in that country? If so, what happened?
The Fact: According to the news site UPI, in 1988, Tyson traveled to Moscow to "get away from the press and the controversy" of his marriage and a then-recent car accident. Coincidentally, Givens happened to be there filming for the series Head of the Class, so the pair eventually made their time there a mini-getaway.
Towards the end of the couple’s time together in Russia, The New York Times reports that Tyson had been experiencing “mood swings” and on September 20, 1988, he allegedly chased Givens, Roper and press aide Phyllis Polaner down to the lobby of the hotel where they were all staying. Furthermore, the outlet states that sources claim Tyson “kicked Polaner” and “for a while, he held the women in a hotel elevator and rode up and down with them.”
Givens later sat down in an infamous interview with Barbara Walters and briefly made remarks about their Moscow trip, seemingly confirming what was alleged in the news outlets was true. She stated, "For instance, in Russia, I was afraid. My mom and I are in the lobby of a hotel and I said 'what are we doing?'... He was out of control." In that same interview, she alleged, “Michael is a manic depressive" and alluded to him being in a manic state at the time of the incident.
Walters then asked, "So you run out of the room and he runs after you?" Givens replied, "Right." As the interview takes place between Givens and Walters, Tyson was sitting next to his wife at the time relatively silent. Take a look for yourself.
Now in a 2008 interview, Tyson claimed Givens told “lies” about him during that sitdown with Walters.
In terms of Tyson being "manic depressive," in October of 1988, The New York Times reported that both the alleged diagnosing physician Dr. Henry McCurtis and another physician brought in for a second opinion, Dr. Abraham L. Halpern, asserted that Tyson did not suffer from manic depression. Dr. Halpern stated, "Certainly there's no sign of a manic-depressive condition or psychosis."
With that said, Tyson did mention in a 2018 radio interview that he was diagnosed with bipolar.
Did Don King go to prison for murder?
The Fiction: In an episode titled "Meal Ticket," much of what viewers see is the growing influence Don King (Russell Hornsby) has in Tyson’s life. Following the failed marriage to Robin Givens and the disastrous interview with Barbara Walters, Tyson finds comfort in King, who by then has become his promoter, his father figure and defacto money handler. While King claims to be the only one looking out for the boxer, the promoter does nothing to sway Tyson from his lavish spending and his party lifestyle.
The series has only hinted at the full extent of King’s treacherous ways with Tyson so far, but it did show a glimpse of King’s unsavory past pre-Tyson. Specifically, King’s beating a man to death in Cleveland in 1966 and him subsequently being hauled off to prison for murder.
Did Don King really go to prison for this crime?
The Fact: Before we answer that, let’s briefly talk about his first documented murder in Cleveland in 1954. According to Complex, King, known as "Donald the Kid" at the time, shot and killed Hillary Brown with a Russian revolver after he caught Brown trying to steal from his illegal gambling house. King claimed his actions were self-defense and the court sided with him, ruling the incident to be a "justifiable homicide."
Fast forward to April 20, 1966, King caught up with a former employee, Sam Garrett, who owed him $600. King brutally pistol-whipped and stomped him to death. According to Complex, Garrett’s last words were "I’ll get you the money Don."
After being arrested, ESPN reports that King was later convicted of second degree murder. However, under circumstances that many find controversial and mysterious, King’s conviction of second degree murder was reduced to manslaughter and he was released from prison having served only three years and 11 months in the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio.
Perhaps the most shocking thing of all as it pertains to King’s murder conviction is the fact that in 1983, after King served his time and was no longer on parole, Governor James A. Rhodes of Ohio issued him a pardon. According to The New York Post, Rhodes received letters of support for King from Rev. Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, the then executive director of the National Publishers Association, Mayor George Voinovich of Cleveland, the then president of the Cleveland Browns and the then president of the Cleveland Indians.
Why did Mike Tyson bite Evander Holyfield’s ears?
The Fiction: after patiently waiting for almost the entire length of the limited series, viewers finally see the infamous ear bite. In an episode titled, “Cannibal,” Tyson is in the ring with Evander Holyfield (Johnny Alexander) during their first fight. However, the episode never shows how the fight ends, but instead cuts to Tyson in the locker room talking to a member of his team. That individual then informs Tyson that he lost the fight. As the two talk back and forth, Tyson realizes he “blacked out” after Evander Holyfield headbutted him.
Fast forward to their second bout, where Holyfield precedes to headbutt Tyson again. Tyson looks to the referee to issue a warning to his opponent, but the referee says nothing. Seeing the cheapshots as intentional, a fed-up Tyson resorts to biting Holyfield’s ear. The referee then delays the fight, before informing Tyson he was deducting two points from his score for the incident. It wasn’t long before Tyson bit Holyfield on the ear a second time and the fight was halted for good.
Was Tyson biting Holyfield payback for the headbutts?
The Fact: As reported on ESPN, after their first fight, Tyson did complain about Holyfield’s consistent use of headbutts during their bout. By the time their second fight rolled around, Tyson had already nailed down what he thought was a pattern of his opponent.
Once the two met in the ring for their second face-off, Tyson again called out Holyfield for headbutting, but this time he did so during the fight. While referee Mills Lane did bear witness to one of the alleged cheap shots, he was quick to assert that it was accidental.
When the fight continued, Tyson alleged in a subsequent interview with Vlad TV that Holyfield repeatedly headbutted some more. However, what is not mentioned in the series is that Tyson was also headbutting Holyfield. When asked directly if Tyson was biting Holyfield in retaliation for the headbutting, Tyson stated:
“Well, I just wanted to hurt him more than he hurt me because I was headbutting him too. I guess I wasn’t hurting him enough because he was headbutting me back. So, I just took to biting on his ear… I wish I didn’t do that, but I did.”
There you have it. Check out the Vlad TV interview below.
MIKE episodes are currently streaming on Hulu.
