CUS RESCUES TYSON FROM EARLY DEMISE
San Francisco, CA– Having done a ton of research in my time, Mike Tyson was probably one of the easiest subjects to write an expose on. When I first met Mike he was 17-years old, a former ghetto urchin who had been rescued when Cus D’Amato, a trainer who became prominent when he signed Floyd Patterson after the future two-time heavyweight champion had won the 1952 Olympics at 165 lbs. D’Amato is alleged to have stood up against the Mafia and refused to fight fighters connected to Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo.
Frankie “Mr. Gray” Carbo
MOB & MADISON SQUARE GARDEN RAN BOXING
Palermo and Carbo ran boxing with an iron fist from the 1940s until US Attorney General Robert Kennedy shut their operation down in the early 1960s. Carbo, a member of the Lucchese crime family, was charged with eight murders, which resulted only in only one conviction for Manslaughter after snuffing out a cab driver who refused to pay “protection money” in 1931. For that, Frankie got less than two years in the slam.
CUS WOULD NOT DEAL WITH MR. GRAY
When fighters or their managers got a call from Carbo, he used the alias “Mr. Gray.” Frankie would tell them how their upcoming fight(s) would end. If they did not comply with Mr. Gray’s directive, they would either end up maimed or in some instances dead.
MARCIANO’S PEOPLE AVOIDED MOB AS WELL
Knowing that Al Weill, the manager of Patterson’s heavyweight champion predecessor Rocky Marciano had kept his fighter from Mob control, Cus said that’s what he was doing when he fed Patterson a number of non-entities as top contenders like Eddie Machen and Zora Foley, fighters not Mobbed up, were flat out ducked. The ever-so feared Sonny Liston, who would eventually beat Patterson twice with one round knockouts, was a Mob controlled fighter that D’Amato avoided until public ridicule compelled Patterson to go against Cus and fight Liston.
CUS HAD LAST SHOT WITH TYSON
D’Amato, realizing he had a potential heavyweight champion when Tyson was just a teenager kept his name out of the police blotters even though he is said to have committed heinous acts that included an attempted sexual move on the sister of then trainer and now ESPN 2 analyst Teddy Atlas. Cus was an old man willing to pay people off in order to recapture the glory just one more time. When he passed in November 1985 at 77, Cus’ dream of seeing Tyson win the title died with him as Mike wouldn’t win the WBC title from Trevor Berbick until November 1986.
STORY HAS EVOLVED INTO MAYBE SIX SEGMENTS
Originally, I expected Part III to take us from the loss to Buster Douglas in 1990 to his wrongful (in my opinion) conviction of raping Desiree Washington in 1992. But after realizing that I needed to go deeper into Tyson mentor Cus D’Amato, the next installment with take us from 1990 to 1992.
PART 4 TOMORROW
Before you check out this video with an incredibly young looking Mike Tyson and Cus D’Amato, don’t forget to come back Wednesday for “The Mike Tyson Story Part 4.”
Mike Tyson Story PART 2 Mike Tyson Story Part 2
Mike Tyson Story PART 1 Mike Tyson Story Part 1
VERY YOUNG TYSON & CUS D’AMATO
Pedro Fernandez