01x04 - Episode 4

[bunniefuu]

[Tyson] I really thought
a lot about myself.

The greatest fighter to ever live.

Do you ever say somebody's
the greatest fighter ever lived?

But my ego was always the forerunner.

It's my low self-esteem.

But cocaine and liquor…

[distorted tinkling]

…it gives you that courage and confidence.

It feels incredible when it's working,
when you first start using.

[distorted tinkling continues]

You can't do no wrong.

And then it starts to get ugly.

[high-pitched trill]

You never know that you're addicted
to drugs until it's too late.

[dramatic musical sting]

[music fades]

[man] My name is Seano.

I specialize in addictions.

I've been Mike's therapist
for about 19 years now.

When we first met,
he was depressed, he was suicidal.

He was not in a good place.

[Tyson] I'm not saying
"I'm not afraid to die."

I'm saying I wasn't clinging
to life back then.

I felt bad that I felt like that.
I felt greedy.

[McFarland] In order for you to be
as good as you were,

you had to turn the darkness on.

[Tyson] I'm very chaotic.
All my life exists off controlled chaos.

You know, when the camera comes on,
they come on.

If I wanted to accomplish
something in life,

those demons will appear.

[dramatic music playing]

[breathing sharply]

We tried to fight somebody
prior to the second Holyfield fight.

But Mike said, "No, I want Holyfield."

[King] This has been a long-time grudge.

It's about who remained
the baddest man on the planet standing.

But he wants revenge.

[reporter] There's been a thousand
"boxing matches of the century."

This one may be it.

We got back to camp fast.
Mike was hyper-focused.

Mike's dedicated, Mike's going to the gym,
Mike's sparring.

I'm up with Mike at 4:30 in the morning,
and Mike's running.

When he's training and locked in,
he don't want nobody around him.

You can't even bring
no kind of girls around.

That's when he's like…
That's when you know he's ready.

I'm just looking forward to winning.

And I think, um, if I win,
it will be a knockout.

First fight,
the headbutts affected Mike greatly.

And he knew he had to overcome that.

[Gray] He had a goal again.

He wanted to disprove
that Holyfield was better.

I'm more focused now than I've ever been.

Coming into this fight,

I realized I've got to bring
more than I brought last time.

The advent of cable television
was into everybody's homes,

and so the hype and the media behind this
captured everybody's attention worldwide.

[Tyson] I was a volcano
waiting to explode.

[commentator 1] The rematch is here.

[dramatic music playing]

Tyson predicting a sensational victory.

They just don't want the fighting to end.

[commentator 1] Here we go.
Fight two, round one.

A straight right by Mike Tyson,
shrugged off by Evander Holyfield.

Bad intentions on the punches
from both fighters.

First couple of rounds, Mike is smooth.

[commentator 1]
And a lot of movement by Tyson.

He's moving good.
He's ready. He's on point.

[commentator 2] Nice right hand by Mike.
He is trying to get that right hand home.

And lo and behold,
there's a huge headbutt.

[commentator 1] There's a cut,
just like in the first fight.

Tyson looks over
for help from the referee.

Holyfield clinches, headbutt, gashed eye.

[commentator 1]
Here we go for round three.

[commentator 3] You just wonder
what mental scars

have been left in Tyson's mind
from the first battle.

I was getting pretty angry
at this moment, yeah.

[commentator 1]
The cut over the right eye is fairly deep.

You could see the headbutts.
You could see he's frustrated.

[Holyfield grunting]

[commentator 1] What happened here?

And then we saw Holyfield jump

like a little kid
when they have a tantrum.

[commentator 1] Evander Holyfield…
Look out!

…is pushed right here above us, by Tyson.

Ringside, you're like, there's confusion.
"What's going on? I don't know."

[commentator 1] Oh, my goodness,
he's got a bloody right ear.

I look up at the screen.
I said, "Did he just bite him?"

[commentator 2]
I can't believe what I'm seeing.

"I think he f*cking bit him."

[commentator 1] Holyfield's bit
by a dirty Mike Tyson.

What the…? Like, what just happened?

Did he really just do that?

He… Mike bit him.

Mike bit his ear off.

I'd never seen anything
that remotely resembled it.

He just lost it.

Everybody's trying to figure out,
"Is we fighting? Is we not? Is it over?"

There's gonna be a two-point deduction.
The fight will go on.

And this is to Evander's credit.

He said, "Give me my mouthpiece.
Let's go back. Let's go."

[commentator 1]
A very angry Evander Holyfield now.

-[commentator 2] It's…
-He did it again.

-Oh f*ck.
-[commentator 1] He did it again!

Mike Tyson has bitten Evander Holyfield
for the second time.

The second bite was obvious
'cause he was… [grunts]

He was in there like my dog on a bone.

[commentator 1] You can see it.

I was in total shock because no one had
ever been in this situation before.

[commentator 1] It's over. For I think
they've just about had enough.

It was pandemonium.
Members of both camps got into the ring.

[commentator 1] Fighting in the ring
after the end of the fight.

Tyson's trying to get
at Holyfield again, I believe.

I didn't feel safe in there.

I didn't know what the crowd was gonna do.

[commentator 1] It is complete bedlam,

and Tyson is just taking swipes
at anybody in front of him.

[Lathan] When I was watching it,
I could not believe that it was happening.

Your whole concept
of an athlete or a thing

is changing right in front of you.

It was the most unprofessional thing
I'd ever seen in the sport of boxing.

[commentator 1] Mike Tyson
has apparently lost his reason.

[Pitts] Mike was going crazy,
and I'm trying to hold Mike back.

Like, "Mike, let's get out of here.
Come on, let's go."

And we left out the ring.

[crowd cheering]

[commentator 1] Tyson's bodyguard
fighting with the security.

People throwing water and cups
and all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, it was crazy.

[commentator 1] Pandemonium breaking out
here as Mike Tyson is leaving the ring.

People getting knocked over.
Our camera goes down.

Get off him! Calm down!

[people clamoring]

So I went back to the locker room.

I guess when a guy feels

that he's pleading with the referee
to give him some consideration

and he don't get the consideration,
then he just goes beyond reason.

And one thing about Don King.

Don knows that he had an audience
that he had to satisfy.

So he made it his mission to go inside,
and he brought Mike back out.

[reporter] You bit him.
Was that a retaliation for the eye?

Regardless of what I did,
he been butting me for two fights.

[reporter] You gotta address it, Mike.

No, I did address it!
I addressed it in the ring.

Mike went in survival mode
and did what he had to do,

just like if he was on the street.

I can't continue getting butted like that.
I got children to raise.

This guy keeps butting me,
trying to cut me, get me stopped on cut.

I got to retaliate.

I'm sorry, and you know what?

If you're getting headbutted,
knock the other guy out or butt him back.

[Pitts] Mike would say,

"You do what you got to do to win,
and apologize later."

That's just a philosophy.

He spit the mouthpiece out.

Evander had kept his cool.

And part of it was

because Evander had done
the exact same thing as an amateur.

He had bit an opponent's ear.

You know, I truly believe
that fear itself causes people

to do the easiest thing,
the quickest thing to get out.

[reporter] What are you gonna do now
in terms of your career, Mike?

-[King] He must get respect, brother.
-[reporter] Okay.

[Tyson] It just happened.

It's my fault.

[somber music playing]

I can't blame no one for that.

I'm really a spoiled brat, you know?

Especially a spoiled brat in boxing,
so I was being a brat.

[Floyd Russ] Why do you think
you lost control?

It was just at the moment.

He was headbutting me.
He was kicking my a*s too.

But I just lost my head. I just lost it.

[somber music continues]

[reporter 1] Now the question is,
will boxing shut down Mike Tyson?

[reporter 2] If he has any credibility,
he's got to apologize for what he did.

-[reporter 3] I don't feel sorry.
-[reporter 4] He should be banned.

[reporter 5] He doesn't deserve to box
under the rules of boxing.

Oh, they k*lled me.

The press did a number on me.

Tyson acts like a thug.

I think he should be barred
from boxing forever as a punishment.

Even Bill Clinton felt a certain way
about it when he saw what happened.

[reporter] Your personal reaction
to what happened in that Tyson fight

on Saturday night?

I was horrified.

Wow, really? Look who's talking, huh?

So now, you know,
he's Hannibal Lecter as well.

[slurping]

[man] Mr. Tyson needs some mental help.

I think he's really having a problem.
He's struggling.

Why do you think you did what you did?
I know you lost it.

I mean, everyone loses it
in some ways. We…

For the first time
in my professional career of boxing,

I think I got personal. I got mad.

I was wrong…

[shutters clicking]

…and I expect to pay the price.

[Holloway] We knew there were consequences
of his actions.

We were trying to minimize them.

But we knew the boxing commission,
they had to do what they had to do.

This is a very serious matter.

Not only the biting incident
but the fighting afterwards and all that.

It is not going to be put up with
in the state of Nevada.

[reporter] The commission
revoked his license.

Tyson cannot fight, nor even train.

He was fined the max,
and he was suspended.

Nobody's been penalized
the millions of dollars

that Mike was financially penalized.

[Tyson] I had pretty much believed
I was going to be banned forever.

It was really bad when I got suspended.

[Holloway] Mike was isolated.

He wasn't fighting.

I think Mike became bitter,

and you got a million people
coming after Mike.

Well, the IRS has hit
former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson

with a knockout punch.

They placed a huge lien on his mansion
in Connecticut, $6.3 million.

[Tyson] How did this happen to me?
I didn't know.

When the IRS came after me,
that's when we did an audit.

And we found out where the money went.

We told Mike, "Don is ripping you off."

"You're not getting
an accurate accounting."

Got some papers and showed him
he was being ripped off.

Shelly came in and really exposed
a lot where Mike's money been going.

My lawyers had told me Don was stealing.

He was taking a great share of my money,
almost equal as I was taking.

We're talking tens of millions of dollars.

[Holloway] I don't know
if Don stole from Mike.

I didn't hear none of the records,
see none of the records.

What I do know, and I can testify to,

that with Don King as a promoter,
Team Tyson made more money

than any boxing team
or any sports figure in history.

[Tompkins] I asked Don King one time,

"You don't steal from your fighters,
do you?"

He said, "Of course, I do!"

He said, "They're still gonna make
more money from me

than from anybody else."

I know that he was furious
with Don for it.

And he also said to me,

"People don't understand
why I'm so angry."

He says, "It's not the money.
That doesn't matter to me as much."

"It's that I loved this guy.
I trusted him."

I felt very betrayed
because they kept the truth from me.

[reporter] Boxer Mike Tyson has filed suit
against his former promoter Don King

for $100 million.

Everybody has a price in life.
Everybody has a price.

[Holloway] The lawsuits and stuff
came down. Things got ugly.

[King] This is a lawsuit
that totally has no merit at all.

And I think the evidence
will back up and support that.

It saddens me that Mike Tyson
would let himself be used as a pawn.

[Holloway] Listen, you get these guys,
Shelly Finkels,

these are guys who manipulated Mike.

I think they're vultures.

[Floyd Russ] Do you think Shelly
kinda weaseled his way in?

That's exactly what happened.

-[Russ] That's the way it is?
-It's just the way it is.

[Finkel] I truly cared about Mike.

Mike and I always had a good relationship.

And I was interested in him as the person

as opposed to a cash machine.

All those fighters Don had,

they're ruined.

They're homeless. They're wrecked.
He broke their spirit.

You know what I mean?

He thought he would do that to me.

He thought I'd be
in some insane asylum or some prison.

And that was the first time I realized
that he got the power through me.

Who's he without me?

[dramatic operatic music playing]

I'm the power.

[music fades]

I found out… I was fired

and Team Tyson dismantled

watching ESPN like everybody else.

[tense music playing]

[reporter] Tyson is taking a break

from co-managers
John Horne and Rory Holloway

in which he sheds the image of a man-child
who's coddled and controlled by others.

[Floyd Russ] Why did you part ways
with Rory? He was your friend.

Yeah, but it was better.
I wanted to start on my own.

-We never had a conversation.
-[Floyd Russ] To this day?

To this day.

It's been over 20 years.

[Floyd Russ] Do you feel like you guys
were a good team for a while?

Yes.

[Floyd Russ] Why?

Because it was. Why? I don't know.

Yes, it was. You're trying to ask…
See, that's where it gets f*cked up.

You ask me why, because they're my team.
I put them together.

You want an explanation?
I can't give you an explanation.

-[Floyd Russ] No?
-No.

[Floyd Russ] I mean, you felt like
you guys were training,

winning fights,
everything was working okay.

I don't understand what you're talking…
You're making this difficult for me now.

Why are you doing that? This is my team.
I picked the team. That's it.

[Pitts] Mike has a big ego.
They have big egos.

Once you tear something apart,
it's hard to put it back together.

It hit me hard. It hit me hard.
I'm not going to lie to you.

I don't want to be known as no victim,
because I made a lot of money with Mike.

I just… I just thought
I deserved a conversation.

But Don, one day point-blank said it.

"You cats better have a B plan."

And essentially,
"You better save your money,

because Mike going to leave y'all."

He was right.

[Tyson] I just wanted
to get my life back together.

Did some soul searching.

Going back to my roots and stuff.

There they go.

[gentle music playing]

[wings flapping]

They wanted to get
a dog-walking video of us.

We could literally walk that way
and walk right back.

[Tyson] I don't want to walk the dog.

Well, you're not walking him.
We'll just walk. They just need a B-roll.

[Tyson] This is a B-roll right here.

Okay, we got our B-roll. Boom.

We've been married for 16 years.

We've been together for so long,
there's a trust that comes with that.

Trust is a big thing with Mike.

[wings flapping]

[Kiki Tyson] And once he loses that trust,

I don't think
you ever really gain it back with him.

He can forgive, but it's done.

I'm sure he was hurt,

especially because of his relationship
with Rory and Don.

That's very tough,

constantly having someone
come into your life

and say they're the answer,

or having to trust somebody to handle
something and being disappointed.

But that is the American story, right?

People love to see you
get knocked down and come back.

[knocking]

-I ain't going out there, man.
-You got nothing to worry.

What you mean,
"I ain't got nothing to worry"?

I was a hero for it in the streets,
believe it or not,

for biting Evander's ear.

A lot of people thought
that was entertainment.

But Tyson's still my dawg.
He's still my dawg. I'm down with him.

And I was saying to myself,
"Now that's really barbaric."

We still love you, Mike.

Even though I did it, you know,
for somebody to tell me that it was cool?

You know, you think
they're a rational person.

Really, Holyfield brought that
onto himself.

I think all's fair in love and w*r.
He was headbutting him, so he bit him.

I was like, "Whoa, this is crazy."

Looks like bite marks. That'll work.

And for the people that say
it's not in good taste,

I say, "Yeah, but it tastes good."

[Tyson] I felt like I f*cked up.

They made it glorious.

And I was seeing what people really were.

-[man 1] Turn away.
-[man 2] Mike.

[man 3] Look, we're going to ask.
Bloody get in, son.

[Tyson] But I understood it.
It's animalistic sh*t.

[indistinct chatter]

That's what people want.

[commentator] More fighting in the ring
after the fight!

They're all animals, man.

[shouting and cheering]

That's my fuel. That's the fire kicking.

[reporter] Mike Tyson says he's ready
to come back to boxing.

Boxing now decides
if it's ready for Mike Tyson.

Now I'll just let people know
in the Las Vegas Commission

I'm very sorry, I'm extremely sorry.

-How you doing, my young man?
-Hi!

All right. And I'm really a good guy.

-Bye, guys.
-[reporter laughs]

[Finkel] I welcomed him with open arms,

and we started to work together then.

I said, "Look, we gotta figure out
how to get you re-licensed,

because that's the big key now."

"Without your license, you can't fight,

and you can redeem yourself in the ring."

[reporter] Today, almost in tears,
Iron Mike pleaded

with the athletic control board
for a chance to fight again.

So Mike has this opportunity
to get back in the sport,

and athletes have a closing window.

I'm sorry for what I did.

And I wish it never happened.

It'll haunt me for the rest of my life.

I felt like I was in court.
I did a crime. I was the bad guy.

We have four yes and one no.
Motion carries.

[people clapping and cheering]

[Lathan] They suspended Mike for a year.

They're like, "Ah, it's okay. Next fight."

[Finkel] Everyone wanted him back

because he still was
the biggest draw in the sport.

[Matthews] Is Las Vegas gonna turn down
a guy who could generate

a hundred million dollars in a weekend?

Of course not.

Give him back his license.
When are you telling him?

"As you were, Mike." Right?

It all worked. Keep going.

[people clamoring]

[soft music playing]

Mike Tyson. There is a gladiator.

How could it be surprising
that men who do that

have a streak of violence?

And there's something
in our innate nature as human beings

that attracts us to that.

[crowd screaming]

[Steve Wynn] It's maybe the most
unattractive part of our human nature.

But there it is.

These big fights reached
its most intense form…

[dramatic music intensifies]

…in Las Vegas.

[bell rings]

[announcer] It's showtime!

-[commentator 1] A screaming right hand!
-[commentator 2] Down goes Botha.

[bell rings]

[commentator 2]
That's all it took. One shot.

[Floyd Russ] Are you trying
to get the title back?

Just being Mike Tyson's the motivation.

And that alone.

Being me, that's what I do.

What nobody else would do.

Bring those guys. They can keep
their title. I don't want that.

I want to strip them
of their f*cking health.

[bell ringing]

All right, break!

[commentator] Oh, and he hits him
after the bell, and Norris goes down.

And here we go again!

[Floyd Russ] But it fades, doesn't it?
The motivation.

Yeah, but I don't.

I last forever.

Everything else fades but me.

You take into the ring a lot of rage.

Does that work for you,
or does it work against you at times?

Well, **** it. It's a fight,
so whatever happens, happens.

[Gray] It got to the point
where he'd already been vilified,

and he just wasn't going to play the game.

So, when you don't care,
you have no filter.

Mike, why do you have to talk like that?

Well, I'm talking to you
the way I want to talk to you.

If you have a problem,
turn off your station.

You know what? I think we'll end
the discussion right now.

**** off.

There's a twisted charisma
that exists there.

But you can't turn away.

You think I give a damn
about y'all in there?

I don't care about living or dying.

I'm not no…
I'm a dysfunctional m*therf*cker.

Everybody's talking about it.

You want to be the only one
without an opinion on Mike Tyson?

If I'm not Mike Tyson,
the baddest man on the planet,

how you gonna make money off me?

[crowd cheering and chanting]

[commentator] And down goes Nielsen.

That became who I was, you know?
I was addicted to chaos.

Controlled chaos.
That's just who I became.

[Floyd Russ] What does it mean
to be addicted to chaos?

Everybody has to look at me.

[photographers shouting indistinctly]

[Lathan] You don't know
if he's actually that out of control,

because he has moments where he's lucid.

I don't know. I'm probably just mad at me.
I don't know what I--

-[reporter] You're not mad anymore?
-No, at least I don't appear to be. No.

But then he says things
that are just so f*cked up

that you're like,
"What the hell is going on?"

[interviewer] …are you, Mike,
that you can win this fight?

-[Tyson] Are you talking out of turn?
-No, I think we're all talking together.

I normally don't do interviews with women
unless I fornicate with them.

Maybe he just did things
that were so outlandish

because he was trying to top himself.

And so he got lost in it
and couldn't reel it in.

I wish one of you guys had children
so I could kick them in their f*cking head

or stomp on their testicles,
so you could feel my pain,

because that's the pain I have,
waking up every day.

I think that's when
I started doing my drugs a little.

I felt like I could do anything
in and out of the ring,

because everybody told me I could.

[Floyd Russ] How did you pass
your drug tests?

Oh, f*ck.

[laughing]

[Floyd Russ] What is the "Whizzinator"?
Do you remember using that?

-[Tyson] Yeah.
-[Floyd Russ] What is it? Like a--

[Tyson] A fake p*nis.
That's how I beat the drug tests.

[commentator] Here we go then, round one.

[narrator] Using the syringe,
fill the Whizzinator

with your urine sample.

Now provide the Whizzinator
with a heat source

so your urine stays warm.

-[commentator] Oh! There is the…
-[Tyson] Drug tests? No.

I didn't get no f*cking drug tests.

When I fight, the rules change.

[commentator] Referee's trying
to stop the fight. Tyson's still…

He's got the referee down!

This is mayhem.

[Tyson] What? They wanna stop
this money to come in the city?

[commentator] Tyson didn't even comprehend
the referee's instructions.

[Tyson] They won't give that money up
because I'm getting high.

Lennox Lewis, I'm coming for you.

Lennox is a conqueror?
No, I'm Alexander. He's no Alexander.

I'm the best ever.
There's never been anybody as vicious.

I'm Sonny Liston. I'm Jack Dempsey.
There's no one like me.

I'm from their cloth.
There's no one that can match me.

My style is impetuous.
My defense is impregnable.

I'm just ferocious. I want your heart.
I want to eat his children.

[Lewis] When he said
he wanted to eat my children,

my mom was horrified.

Like, "What does he mean
he's gonna eat your children?"

And I'm like, "Mom, don't worry about it.
It's just jail talk."

I didn't want that era to end

without people knowing
who the best fighter in that era was.

Finally, Mike got the fight
that the world was waiting for.

[reporter] One of the biggest
announcements in sports history.

Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis,

for the heavyweight championship
of the world.

They were bitter rivals.

I'm a tyrannical titan.
There's no way he can beat me.

He's a cartoon character to me.

I'm gonna teach him a lesson.
I'm gonna discipline him.

I've worked my way up

winning the heavyweight championship
of the world,

and he's coming to try and get it.

I'm not gonna allow that.

[Finkel] I think that Mike
never could finish his career

without fighting Lennox Lewis.

[Pitts] We were training,
and he was digging in.

The press conference was about to come.

I'm like, "Yo,
we do not need to break camp

to go to this press conference."

"Ain't no telling what's gonna happen
if we go to New York."

[announcer] Introducing the challenger,

the WBC number-one-rated
heavyweight in the world,

the former undisputed
heavyweight champion of the world,

Iron Mike Tyson!

[crowd cheering]

[Barnes] I was there.

[chuckles] Oh, man,
that was an interesting day.

I don't think he was in the greatest mood.

[announcer] And now, ladies and gentlemen,
the defending champion,

he is the heavyweight champion
of the world,

Lennox Lewis!

[Lewis] The next thing I know,

I seen him take off his hat
and throw it on the ground.

To me, I've seen that before.
That's like a declaration of w*r.

[indistinct shouting]

I made sure
that I got my punches in first.

Boom, boom, boom.

I tried to take Lennox's head off.

I mean, I just missed him.

[people clamoring]

I start feeling some pain on my leg.

And I was pushing against the pain

and I could see him
looking at me like this…

And I was like, "Yo, he's biting my leg.
He's biting my leg."

I was a f*cking nut back then, huh?

Everybody said, "He bit you?"
I'm saying, "Yeah, he bit me."

Lennox Lewis produced
this bleeding hole in his leg.

You know, this…
We're fighters. Why do you bite?

It's not a biting match.
It's a fighting match.

I didn't know Mike bit him,
but he told me.

"I bit that m*therf*cker's leg." [laughs]

[Floyd Russ laughs]

I'm sorry.

[Floyd Russ] Why'd you bite him?

I don't know. Just being a d*ck, you know?
I'm a d*ck sometimes.

[Fagan] I was there
at the press conference.

They're all scared to grab him.

When I jumped on the stage, I said, "Mike,

we could turn this m*therf*cker out,
or chill the f*ck out."

"What you want to do?"
And he's like, "Just get off me."

The last time me and him met,

we shook hands and we said
we'll see each other down the line.

I thought he was a nice kid.

Seeing this Mike, I don't know that Mike.

Why is he so mad at me?

And then Tyson did something even weirder.

[man] Get him a straightjacket!

Put your mother in a straightjacket,
you punk-a*s white boy!

Come here and tell me that.
I'll f*ck you in your a*s, punk white boy!

You f*gg*t. You can't touch me.
You're not man enough.

I'll eat your as*h*le alive.

Mike's facing the audience
and I'm sideways,

and I'm looking like this,
but I'm talking to Mike as I'm looking.

I'm like, "Yo, man, come on,
let's get the f*ck out of here."

Come on, you little b*tch.

You're scared. You're a coward.

You're not man enough to f*ck with me.

[shouting indistinctly]

[Matthews] This guy was having
a mental breakdown

on the stage at this theater.

I didn't know
whether to chastise him in print,

to feel sorry for him,
to call for an ambulance.

I didn't know what the f*ck to do

because this is the most bizarre thing
I have ever seen in my life.

You're scared of me.

I'll f*ck you till you love me, f*gg*t.

[Tyson echoing]

I don't know what happened, though.

-[McFarland] What do you think happened?
-I don't know.

No, that's not true, brother.
Why did you do it?

I don't judge my emotions.

I don't think I'm weak when I cry.
I don't…

It's just, I don't judge them.
It just happens.

This camera, to me,
is a narcotic, this camera.

I'm so overwhelmed and overpowered
by this narcotic,

I make a fool out of myself.

It's just that addicting.

If I have to say something,
I say it. Boom.

Even when I get in trouble.
Oh, all the time.

[laughing]

All the time. f*ck.

I'll f*ck you till you love me, f*gg*t.

"I'll f*ck you till you love me."
I will overwhelm you with pain

until you give in to me.

Who are you to judge me?

Boxing, just done normally,
is unpredictable.

Then you throw Tyson in the mix,
you forget about the fight.

I mean, he may k*ll somebody
on the way to the ring.

You know, and if he does,
you want to be there to see it.

"Don't worry. Let's fight." He bit me.
I'm gonna get him back in the ring.

[dramatic music playing]

They charged $2,500 a ticket,
and it sold out instantly.

I thought it was a big opportunity for me.

I can't wait to make some money.

Lennox Lewis is a very vulnerable guy.

He'd been knocked out

by Tyson's sparring partner,
Oliver McCall.

He's been knocked out by Hasim Rahman.

And he's a slow starter.

I decide Tyson's gonna blitz him
in the first round and knock him out.

There's a line of security
inside the ring.

[commentator] Look at the security.
I have never seen this.

It's a human partition
to keep these guys apart.

We're older now. We're not kids anymore.

[announcer] Here we go
with the main event of the evening.

Now I'm a complete fighter.

[commentator] So we're set to go.

[bell rings]

[commentator] Decked out in black is Mike.
Lennox Lewis in white.

Lewis with the right hand.

Lennox comes with the uppercut,
and this ties him up.

Throws a shot at Mike.

He tries to hit Mike with the uppercut.
He catches him, then hangs on.

If you look at the fight,
Lennox was nervous about engaging him.

[commentator] I expected Lennox
to be more on the offense, and he's not.

It's Mike Tyson purely on the attack.

He threw a hook,
and it just missed Lennox.

Wild with the left hand!

[Finkel] If that hook had landed,
he would have done damage.

Okay? Just relax yourself, baby.
That was a good round.

You won the first round, okay?

[Lewis] He was trying to back me up,

and I was like, "Yeah?
You're gonna meet these uppercuts."

To show him,
"Yo, this is what you're gonna get."

[commentator] There's the uppercut inside
that catches Mike coming in.

My hands were a little swolled after,

and that was the first time ever
my hands got swolled,

so I was hitting him pretty hard.

[commentator] There's a bit of a cut
by the right eye of Mike Tyson, I see.

Mentally, as a boxer,
when you see somebody cut,

it kind of eggs you on,
like, "Yo, all right."

[bell ringing]

[Tyson] Bad.

I remember getting my a*s kicked.

[trainer] For God's sake,
you have two hands. You understand?

-No, I--
-[trainer] Just let your hands go!

[dramatic string music playing]

The next round I came out
to get rid of him.

[bell rings]

[commentator] Here comes Lennox Lewis in.

He waits, jabs. There's the uppercut.
He got him with the right hand.

Mike has shown an inability
to do much of anything.

I seen he was open for the right hand
the round before.

[commentator] Mike is puffy
by the left eye, fading with the right…

It catches him! And down he goes!

-[referee] Three, two…
-[commentator] He tries to get up.

It looks like Tokyo all over, and it is.

-Lennox Lewis knocks out Mike Tyson.
-[bell ringing]

It's over.

Lennox Lewis cements his legacy

as one of the best heavyweight champions
of this era.

[somber music playing]

[Tyson] He was just a great fighter.

He did a hell of a job.

I felt that, you know,
even the fact that Mike lost,

he showed me true respect

by coming in
and wiping the blood off my face.

That's how he was
when I was with him the first time,

when we were younger.

I would say I love
and respect him too much

to do anything disrespectful to him.

He was, to me, like a big kid
in that sense.

You know, a kid that's bad,
and he's ruthless,

and then all of a sudden, his mom comes
and slaps him and go, boom, boom.

And then that kind of wakes him up
and says, "Okay, I'll behave now."

You know, I've been through a lot
with Don King and these guys,

and it just really transformed
my behavior.

I think it was,
"I had to do this fight, I did it,

and now I'll see where I'm going."

About a week
before the Lennox Lewis fight,

Mike invited me to come down
and be a guest.

[Tyson] It was the night of the fight.

And she came over. My face was swollen.
She put the ice on my face all night.

And I think we came back
to New York together.

I was like taking care of him.

He moved into my apartment,

and he had so much charisma
and, like, a shyness.

I've never before had
that experience in a relationship,

where I adored my partner,

but I knew he was off at the time.

I'm not gonna say I was naive.
Like, I knew he had a reputation.

But a girl can hope.

I was living a double life.

Never coming home.

Always cheating,
having girlfriends all over the place.

He was cheating on me, but having
a real relationship with someone else,

and I was so heartbroken.

[Tyson] I didn't care.

Getting caught up with partying too much.

Cocaine keeps people up,
and that feeds my personality.

It was always my ego talking to me.
It's my biggest fan.

When he got his tattoo,
it was just crazy times.

[Tyson] I wanted to tattoo my face.
I didn't like the way it looked.

I just wanted to change it.

It's one of my rebel acts in life.

[Kiki] Nobody was really walking around
with a face tattoo

except if they were a complete lunatic.

Mike was gonna do here, here, here.
He was gonna cover his whole face,

and go live in the woods,
eat off the berries.

Um, luckily, we talked him out of that.

[Gray] I knew that everything after this
would only be for money

and would only be as a road show.

I just want to get my sh*t together.
I'm so messed up, man.

I need to get my life together, brother.

I feel like the tattoo was indicative
of what Mike was at that time.

Was just a cultural sideshow.

Mike, were you really sick this week?
What was the problem?

I broke my back.

[breathes deeply]

-[Gray] What do you mean by that?
-My back is broken.

-What, a vertebrae? Or what portion?
-Well, spinal.

That probably should have been
the end of his career,

but he didn't go into oblivion.

He came back.

[commentator] Just a target for McBride.

[Floyd Russ] So why do you keep fighting?

I don't even know. I can't even tell you.

I'm watching the fight,
and Mike got beat up by a big white boy.

[commentator] Kevin McBride, a journeyman,
is making Mike Tyson

look like a third-tier heavyweight.

It was oddly how you expected
the story to end at that point.

[commentator] Not a knockdown,
McBride just pushing Tyson down.

[high-pitched ringing]

[ringing fades]

[Tyson] I just wanted to stop that moment.

[commentator] Mike Tyson
quits on his stool.

He's not coming out
for the seventh round. It's all over.

[D'Amato] If he does everything
that he's capable of doing,

he may go down as one of
the greatest fighters of all time.

I don't have that ferocity.
I'm not an animal anymore.

[reporter] Does that mean
we won't see you fight again?

Most likely I'm not gonna fight again.

It's just a dark moment in time.

I didn't care no more.

[Gray] And I was concerned.

What will he do with himself?
What kind of a life will he lead?

[reporter] Mike, a lot of people wonder
what you'll do now with your life

if boxing has been your whole life.

Well, I'm sure I'll find something to do.

[Barnes] And from then,
he just kind of starts spiraling down.

He stayed in Phoenix
with his son's mom at the time.

[ethereal music playing]

And that's when he was really…

at his lowest point.

[Tyson] Everybody loves him right away.

Brothers, sisters, stepmothers.

My buddy.

[Miguel Tyson] My mom
was a dancer at a club in Phoenix.

My dad did a lot of training in Arizona,
so that's when he met her.

And, you know, she said
that he closed down the strip club,

because he thought she was
the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.

[Floyd Russ] Did you
fall in love with her?

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

[Miguel] Man, I must have been
like six, seven, around that age.

We used to have this home in Phoenix.

It was me, my mother,

and then they had my sister, Exodus.

I grew up in a family with a lot of love,

but, um… also other extremes.

I remember my dad
coming off his retirement

and, yeah, just kind of going

into this depressed type
of lull in his life.

He had his episodes.

Become irrational.

A lot of screaming,
a lot of yelling, a lot of hiding.

I was really disastrous
as a father at first.

Going on these rampages where he's
throwing furniture across the house

and screaming at my mom
and locking her in her room

while my dad's doing his drugs and orgies,
then he would leave.

I wouldn't see him
for four or five months at a time,

and it would just be me,
my mother, and my sister.

I get a little foggy on the timeline
of my dad's relationships

because there's a lot of overlap
with different girls.

But this was a time
where he was probably also with Kiki.

[Kiki] Mike called me out of the blue,

and he wanted me
to come visit him in Vegas.

I started visiting him in November 2007.

I was always waiting to get over him.

He was just the person I never got over.

And then we were exclusive.

I'd never been around, like, an addict.

I had no idea
what I was getting myself into.

[Tyson] You know, um…

cocaine is a drug
that wants to get you alone.

It keeps me alone.

Coke Mike is the worst.

He just doesn't give a sh*t.

[Tyson] Yeah, I did really
a lot of stupid stuff here.

I used to get high and walk to the gym
then walk to the barbershop

then walk back to the strip
and walk back home.

That'd be, like, 40 miles that day.

[Kiki] It's like watching
just a soulless person

just… infiltrating your space.

It's…

I've never seen anything like it.

Oh, it just turns you insane.

Turns you insane.

He had spent all his money, and the…

I mean, honestly,
it was a blessing, though.

I'm really glad he didn't have
"f*ck you" money to throw at the problem.

We really had to communicate
because there was no "f*ck you" money.

[man] Mike Tyson is coming!

[Miguel] I started to realize
he was kind of just living off his fame

to do all the things he was doing.

Yeah, I was in need of a buck or two.

[announcer] Iron Mike Tyson!

[crowd cheering]

I did exhibitions
in the hotel lobby for money.

[announcer] How was that, huh?
What do you think, huh?

[crowd cheering]

Give it up for Mike Tyson, folks.
Come on, give it up. Let's go.

[Tyson] Thank you very much.

I'm truly humbled.
Thank you very much for coming out.

[interviewer] There's a lot of energy
coming from the crowd.

What does that do for you?

I think these guys are looking to see
somebody that don't longer exist anymore.

[Kiki] I think for that time
in Mike's life…

[woman] One more!

…he's fighting, probably,
different versions of himself.

They want me to curse them out,
they want me to grab my crotch,

and they want me to be
that… that tough guy.

I say to myself, all that hard work,

all that stuff, the fights,
all the ego-talking sh*t and tough…

Why is that so important?
You know, really?

That's just, um… It's so ironic.

I don't know. I want to change.
I want to run away from that guy,

but everybody always pulls
that guy back out of me.

Why I got to be
the baddest m*therf*cker though?

Why does somebody have to be that person?

Why does that person have to exist?

[crowd cheering]

I don't know if I'm making sense,
'cause it doesn't make sense to me. It's…

I'm just trying to get
some kind of insight.

Why was that so important?

I don't know. I just…
I don't know anything.

That's one thing I do know,
that I don't know anything.

I just don't know anything.

[Kiki] At that time,
there weren't consistency in gigs

because of Mike's past.

There was no money anymore.

And then everything shifted

because he had the fluke
with The Hangover.

[shushes]

Mike Tyson?

This is my favorite part
coming up right now.

[drum solo
from "In The Air Tonight" plays]

[grunting]

He's still got it.

He had no idea that was about to happen.

[bleeping] sh*t.

I went there and…
Still on my cocaine binge.

I'm like 300 pounds.

It kind of put me back in that situation.

I wasn't ready. I'm still getting high.

And now I'm back
to getting this sh*t again.

High five.

Oh! [laughs]

We were in a phase of just doing
what we had to do to get by.

Then all of a sudden,
people are recognizing him for that.

And the phone was ringing
a little bit more.

[Miguel] And once he starts to get
the fame and the money again,

his insecurities start coming up.

And I think the cocaine and all that stuff
just fuels that emotion.

Like a time b*mb, you just didn't want
to be around when it went off.

[Floyd Russ] So many people
don't get to live

half of one year
of your life, Mike. You know?

[Tyson] That's good for them. They don't
have to spend the pain of my life.

Maybe it's not too much pain,

but the pain I survived
would k*ll somebody else.

From that perspective.

It's really not too hard.

Some people are just built
to endure pain and suffering, you know?

Some people are built for it.

We were renting this town house,
and Exodus's mother called.

A friend picked up the phone and said,
"Mike, we have to go to Phoenix."

"Exodus hurt herself."

It's one of the first memories
I actually have.

I was seven. She was four.

That day, me and Exodus, we got up early.

We were hanging out together, drawing.

We turn on SpongeBob in the other room,
just to have some background noise.

Time to bring it around town.

And focus on my drawing.

[SpongeBob] …around town.

[Miguel] And I said, "Just go

play in the other room,"
or something like that.

Usually she would always come back.

She'd bother you
as little sisters do with older brothers.

But my mom gets up
maybe an hour later or so.

And she asked me, you know,
"Go get Exodus for her breakfast."

So I just walk into the room
right next door. Right?

And I walk, and I look to my right,

and I just see the treadmill cord
and my sister just hanging from it.

Uh… Neck electrocuted, and blood.

And I just walk calmly to the next room

and just tell my mom,
"Mom, Exodus is dead."

[somber music playing]

I don't… [clears throat]

-I need a handkerchief.
-[Floyd Russ] Yeah.

Can we get that for him?

Here.

[Tyson sniffles]

[Floyd Russ] How did you
keep going after that?

After you lose a daughter?

[Tyson inhales sharply]

[inhales deeply]

[exhales]

Well, I don't know.

sh*t. I don't know. I don't know.

[sniffles]

[somber music playing]

I don't know.

We're still working on that.

You know, it's… Like,
grief is a weird thing, especially, um…

[inhales deeply] You know,
a parent losing a child, it's…

He'd have some okay days
and he'd have some really sad days,

and some days,
he'd just have days he'd just cry.

[McFarland] When I first met him,
he had to really be in extraordinary pain.

And I also knew
that was fueling his addiction as well.

He was close to checking out of life.
He really was despondent.

He was in a really, severely…
just disabled place.

[Kiki] He started
going to therapy with Seano.

It was really tough
because he was just so intrusive.

[McFarland] I had to see
if he was serious or not.

I didn't know because he's a junkie,
he's a street guy,

he's a hustler, he's a grifter.

Is it… I gotta figure out
what's real or not.

Is he serious about getting better?

And so he lived here on and off
for about two or three months at a time.

This is not a big, fancy place.

It's where you try to get sober.

[Tyson] When I was in rehab,
you start to discover who you are,

and you find out
if you like yourself or not.

I felt like I was in the army.

Gotta clean this room.

[McFarland] You know, it was bumpy.

But the more he got sober,

the more, I think, shame,
the more embarrassment he had

about some of the different things he did.

And he relapsed numerous times.

He relapses, and he walks into my room
and he just sits on the bed,

and just puts his head on my shoulder
and starts crying, right?

Just apologizing for everything.

You gotta think about how this stuff
may affect your children.

You know, most people like me,
their children don't wind up too good.

You know?

[Kiki] He would have a relapse,
and he would be missing a couple of days.

And then, of course, no one can sleep.
We're all looking for him.

Back then, every time I watched TMZ,
I know I'm gonna see Mike Tyson.

"We found Mike Tyson dead."

Good morning, Arizona. Okay.

He's gonna be one of them tragedies, man.
Like, "Mike Tyson overdose."

I mean, I remember one time,

I was even just trying to google
and find out where he was.

And then the next day,
he walks in the house like nothing,

and I just laid it into him.

My wife, my babies,
they can't stop me from doing that.

I have to want to stop.

Nobody… There's no reason
that could stop me

from k*lling myself or hurting myself
if I don't want it to stop.

No one can stop me. It's just…

That's just how my brain works.

We've been in many rehabs together.

You're gonna be an addict all your life.

You already know that.

Um… It's too late for you to say,
you know, you'll never do it again.

[Kiki] The last relapse that he had,

he had like a mega-relapse.

[Tyson] Thought about a low point,
I think about this.

Just… OD'ing.

And I'm bleeding and…

my nose is bleeding and I'm hysterical.
I'm sweating.

I OD'd. I've done it plenty of times,

but this one was, you know,
a little bit more extreme than the others.

[Kiki] I literally…
I thought he was gonna die.

So we were all just trying to think
how we can get Mike to get better.

At the time, we had this friend.

He knew a shaman

who does this thing called 5-MeO-DMT.

It comes from the Bufo alvarius toad.

They call it the God Molecule.

And when you take it,

whatever kind of addictions or things
that you're going through,

it helps level them in your mind.

We did an intervention
with some toad, you know? DMT.

And it blew my mind.

I've done it over a hundred times.

Anytime I have to make a big decision
about anything, I take the toad.

[Floyd Russ] But it worked?

I haven't used cocaine or drink since.

[Floyd Russ] What's it like, though?

Why don't you do it with me?

[Floyd Russ] I don't know if I can.

You can. Do it with me.

[Floyd Russ] Maybe.

I'm serious.

[singing bowl chiming]

[Kiki] It's an ego death.

[kisses] I love you.

For someone that's lived such a life
that was based on his ego,

it's very therapeutic for Mike
to be able to let all that go.

[birds chirping]

[Tyson] You're not going…
You're with me, remember.

[Floyd Russ] Right here?

[distorted musical sting]

[Tyson] It packs my demons right away.

It confronts you with your fears too.

And I'm still scared of it.

[singing bowl chiming]

[screams, exhales sharply]

[screams] Stop!

Kiki, stop.

Kiki. [echoes]

-Kiki.
-[Kiki] Yes.

You sure?

Now just breathe.

No.

No, stop.

Let me get up.

[Kiki] Come on.

[Tyson] This is all bullshit.

Why did I do this?

Why do I want to be this person? Stop.

Why do I want to die? I can't understand.

This is what this is about.

I'm not going to… sit here and…

This is what you want.
Why do you want me to stop?

Why are you stopping me?

Don't you want me to die?

Kiki, I don't want to die
in front of all these people.

But it's beautiful. Oh, n*gga, f*ck!

[birdsong]

[breathing deeply]

[King] The most publicly demanded fighter
in our time.

[announcer] Iron Mike Tyson!

This is me. That's how Mike Tyson began.

I'll f*ck you till you love me.

Is that our ego
saying, "Immortal, I'm immortal"?

Or is that just… bullshit?

"You can still fight, Mike.
Why don't you fight this guy?"

Did it tell me that? Yes, it did.

He brainwashed me.
He cleaned a dirty mind.

I have to get to the core of a person.

[gasps deeply]

[Tyson] My mother,

my mentor,

the people who I wanted
the most to see the success

do not exist.

Fear is like fire.

[Tyson] Life is about loss.
Everything is about loss.

[Miki] My father is intimidating to me.

[Miguel] My father is a deadbeat.

[Tyson] I had to go through
this journey alone.

[distorted whirring]

[whirring stops]

[Tyson] I'm capable of being loved.

[birdsong]

[singing bowl chiming in distance]

[groans softly]

[birdsong continues]

[laughing]

[sobs] I had to.

-Kiki?
-Okay.

Actually, I'm just… I'm okay.
I'm just letting the memories go.

[Kiki] I know you're okay, baby.
All right.

Just take your time, baby.

Oh sh*t.

[chuckling]

Everyone knows. What are you hiding now?

We did this sh*t on television, huh?
The toad.

For worldwide, huh?

Expose all my secrets,

so anything I believe
that I'm trying to hide from, I expose,

it makes me feel
like the whole world knows.

It's all about giving up control, brother.

I swear to God, it was like…

I got Mike back.

Like, he literally… [snaps fingers]
…that fast.

[Tyson] Once I did the inside stuff,

everything that was negative
towards me, I gave up.

Drugs and liquor and all that stuff,
just gave it up.

Never thought Mike was cured.

I think he's gonna be okay.
He's gonna be good, you know?

But he's got some f*cking powerful demons.

[Tyson] I believe
I don't have long to live.

I'm close to 60 years old. I'm at…

Wow, that's…
My mother and my father didn't make, what?

They didn't make 55.

So I'm very grateful.

It's rewarding, actually, to see
my dad become a more involved father.

He accepts himself more
as a… normal person in a family.

But I don't think
he'll ever really have closure.

I think he's just so broken from his past

that he is probably beyond fixing.

But I know inside there,

there's a broken guy
just trying to be a good father.

I didn't have a family growing up,
so I wanted to try to break that cycle

in my life.

It sounds so mundane,

but I wanted to give my children
what I didn't have.

[children speaking indistinctly]

We have two kids together.

Our son, Morocco, and our daughter, Milan.

-[Tyson] Come on, Rocco, fight!
-Milan, take that!

[Tyson] Hey. Oh, one, two, get up!

[Kiki] To see Mike not just be
physically present with the kids,

but being present with them emotionally…

Good job!

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

…it's a real gift.

-Yours is on the floor.
-[Kiki] We love Daddy, right?

What kind of tennis dad is your dad?

-He claps his hands quietly.
-[men laugh]

-[Kiki] How's everyone feeling today?
-Awesome. Awesome.

It's funny. Like, Mike hasn't changed.
He's just evolved.

-[reporter 1] Tyson's taking to Broadway.
-[reporter 2] A confessional one-man show.

I'm domesticated now.

I think the fact that he can
reinvent himself speaks to his legacy.

-[reporter 1] A comeback of sorts.
-[reporter 3] Mike Tyson, film star.

Not bad for a washed-up,
facially tattooed--

[Jimmy Kimmel]
The impenetrable Mike Tyson!

Look at me now. I'm Iron Mike again.

For a man or any person to endure
all of them ups and downs,

and still stand with some kind of dignity,
man, you gotta respect it.

-[woman] Thank you.
-Thank you so much.

[Kiki] He has a way of reaching people.

He's able to laugh at himself
at this stage in his life

and not take it so serious.

[Milan Tyson] Daddy,
I don't want you to fall. Dad! Oh my…

Someone needs help solving a mystery.

[laughing loudly]

It's the people who make you
champion of the world.

They'll make you look like a legend,

they'll make you
whoever it is you are in life.

It's all about the people.

I think the fame is really what it is.

Like, every kid would dream
of being on top of the world.

He literally got there.

And like any drug,
you're just chasing that high.

I think even today,
it's hard to let that go.

[announcer] Mike Tyson!

[light bulbs flickering]

[floor boards softly creaking]

[Tyson] I had to be crazy to believe I was
the greatest fighter to ever live.

People want to believe in the impossible.

How could there ever be
the greatest fighter to ever live

when people have just generations
and generations of fighters?

That person doesn't exist.

But we want something
that just can't exist.

[gentle somber music building]

You know, as a kid like me, I just wanted
to look at and follow guys like me.

I just wanted to be somebody so bad.

[McFarland] Hmm.

[Floyd Russ] You had that as a young kid?

I've been rich and broke
more than anybody I know.

-[McFarland] Right.
-It's… Lose it. I never, ever get bored.

Always all of it or nothing. f*ck!

[sniffling]

[voice breaking] What happens to me
doesn't happen to people.

[softly] I know that I'm special.

I know I'm special.

I have no idea.
I think that I'm very special.

[somber music builds]

[wings fluttering]

[Tyson] I don't have to exist.

I don't have to exist.

Some reason,
something allowed me to exist.

And I give praise to that.

[somber music fades]

[dramatic string music playing]

[music fades]

[soft calming music playing]

[music fades]