Quote:
Originally Posted by Bored5000
David, have you read Tyson's autobiography from a 4-5 years ago? It is an amazing read; he is brutally honest and reflective. One of the anecdotes he tells in the book is a story of walking down the street a few years ago and hearing a young girl tell her father, "Hey, there's Mike Tyson, the actor from 'The Hangover.'" It was at that moment that it dawned on Tyson that an entire generation does not have any idea that he was once the undisputed heavyweight champion.
Tyson talks about every major fight he had and the back story behind each fight. Tyson talked about the pre-fight staredown in the middle of the ring before a fight and that if a guy did not look him in the eye, Tyson knew the guy was scared. One guy Tyson mentions in particular as being scared was Frank Bruno, who Tyson said drew a cross on his chest with his finger numerous times before their first fight.
If I am not mistake, don't you work as a financial adviser? If so, you will probably appreciate this story. Tyson talked about pissing away hundreds of millions of dollars and having a forensic accountant examine his finances. One of the things the accountant found was a long forgotten IRA that Cus D'Amato had set up for Tyson shortly before D'Amato died.
The IRA had grown to $250,000 by the time Tyson's accountant found it. Upon being informed that D'Amato had set up this IRA for him, Tyson sat and cried because D'Amato was the only guy who wasn't trying to rip him off financially.
Tyson is brutally honest in the book when talking about his low self-esteem, depression, self-hatred.
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Great post.
I do have the book but haven't made it very far with it. It is a tough read early on when talking about his childhood. Your post already convinced me I need to pick it back up.
Yes I am a financial advisor and it is amazing what money can do if left untouched. It is easier said than done with the 24 hour news cycle.
Just to out of curiosity I watched some Foreman clips and he fought a bunch of out of shape guys too.
What is interesting to me about the collectability of Tyson is when I first started posting on card message boards it was because I was researching the Tyson sticker and found a post on CU talking about the little bidding war I got into with another collector in 2010 and signed up to comment. I won the sticker for $82 and immediately went and cleaned out Martin Bradford who was the only person with stickers for sale. I bought 4 more of the Panini for $15 to $25 a pop and three of the 88 ones for something similar. I started posting about it and most thought because of Tyson's personal history they had no chance to rise. Thankfully a seller from Cyprus had a hoard of the 86 Panini and I loaded up on pack fresh copies. Myself and another guy from the CU board sent in copies to PSA at the same time and his popped first and was a UK back and mine second which was the first Italian back to be graded. I was thrilled when they ran up initially and shocked when they doubled basically overnight and while they have backed off a little I still think they are under priced relative to other major rookies. Time will tell. I sold off a good number over the years and now have a 10 which I bought, 5 9's, an 8 and a UK 8 and a beater. I am waiting to buy a UK 10 because it isn't the rookie and overtime the market is more broadly realizing it. I get emails from random people asking to buy one of my copies but they are staying in my collection.