His mother had passed away when he was five, and his father, who raised him with strict discipline and severe beatings, died when Cus was still a young man.

As a child he had been mercilessly bullied and beaten up by other kids on the streets of the notorious Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, and had found no solace from the torment at home abandoned by his father, his single mother was an abusive alcoholic who dismissed her son as retarded and irredeemable.Ī pugnacious, hard-boiled boxing trainer, Cus had also grown up poor in a bad neighborhood of Brooklyn and been bullied by his peers. Despite his tough guy exterior, and his penchant for acting out, Tyson was incredibly shy, insecure, and emotionally wounded. Tyson was an adolescent black kid Cus was an old white Italian guy who’d already been around for seven decades.īut in many other ways, the two shared much in common.Īlready a seasoned criminal at 13, Tyson first met D’Amato on a visit from a state reformatory, where he was doing time for the 38th crime he’d committed since first being arrested for stealing at the age of ten. In some ways, the pair were a true odd couple. And the moment marked the beginning of arguably the greatest boxer/trainer combination in history.

The kid was Mike Tyson the manager Constantine Cus D’Amato. Yet after only ten minutes, the trainer watching him outside the ropes had made up his mind: That is the heavyweight champion of the world and possibly the universe. The kid had heart but he was short, chubby, and a rank beginner at boxing. On the face of it, the teenager sparring in the ring didn’t have much to recommend him.

My objective is to develop the person’s character so that they have the ability to transcend and succeed, no matter where they’ve come from or no matter how difficult the task. 'Not everybody becomes champion, but if you apply the same principles and techniques that I will teach you, you’ll become successful no matter what the endeavor. And he took a fat, frightened thirteen-year-old and made him into a guy who can’t walk the streets because I’m the most recognizable face on the planet. He touched the lives of so many people and helped them become a better version of themselves.

'Cus D’Amato was one of the most unique men ever to walk the planet.

My life with cus d amato