Mike Tyson was 13 years old – going on 19 – when he fought in a ring for the first time.
The troubled kid from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, who was no stranger to street fights, ended up in the custody of trainer Cus D’Amato as a teenager. His assistants were Teddy Atlas and Kevin Rooney.
Tyson learned the basics of boxing and then was deemed ready for his first amateur fight. The problem was that he weighed as much as 200 pounds at 13. Who was he going to fight?
Atlas told the story on his “The Fight” podast.
“I take him down to the Bronx smokers when the time came for him to finally be ready to fight,” Atlas said. “When I finally thought he was ready to fight I’ve gotta pick the opponent. By this time he was probably up to 195, 200 pounds. He was 13 years old, I think. How am I gonna find a heavyweight [his age to fight him]?
“I had to put him in with a 17-year-old. Everybody would lie and try to get an edge in these places. [An official] said, ‘OK, Teddy, put down his age.’ So I put down 13. And [he] said, ‘Teddy, come on, now you’re going too far.’ I said, ‘OK, you want me to make you happy? I’ll put down that he’s 18.’”
Atlas went on: “So I put him in this ‘exhibition’, it was called an exhibition, bigger gloves, bigger headgear. We agreed, ‘OK, we’re gonna box and we’re not trying to kill each other.’ But I knew I had to look out for Mike. I knew this other guy was older, I knew this other guy would not keep his word.
“So I just said, ‘Mike, be alert, see what he does.’ … The other guy’s looking to knock him out. So, within a minute, Mike made him miss and it’s over. He knocks this 17-year-old kid out. … Bang, bang, bang, hitting him with combinations, three-punch combinations.
“All of a sudden he pins him on the ropes. He hurts the guy, the guy goes against the ropes. Then he comes in, bang, he hits him with a left hook. The guy’s head goes like this (twists backward), his body goes like this (limp) and he falls outside the ring.”
“I mean, you talk about Hollywood. His mouthpiece goes flying, probably about 20 feet back and winds up in somebody’s lap. The legend of Mike Tyson was starting. But there was a problem right away, because now his trainer jumped in the ring to go after Mike.
“I went immediately after him. I was his father, big brother, whatever you wanna call it. Even though Cus D’Amato is the patriach of the whole thing, I was the guy there with him. I jump in the ring and go right after the trainer and we’ve got each other by the throat.
“He’s going right after Mike so I go right after him and I intercede. We got each other and I tell him, ‘I’ll freaking break your jaw.’ I push him off and he backs up. Mike says, ‘What’s gonna happen?’ He was still a kid. I said, ‘Nothing. Nothing’s gonna happen to you.’”
Seven years later, Tyson was heavyweight champion of the world.