Co-written with Larry Sloman, author of Antony Keidis's best-selling memoir Scar Tissue, this is a visceral, and unpause-able story of a man born and raised to brutality, who reached the heights of stardom before falling to crime, substance abuse and infamy.

Full of all the controversy and complexity that you would expect from a man who delighted as much as he shocked, this is a book that will surprise people and reveal a fascinating character beneath the exterior of violence.

If you think you know all about Mike Tyson, listen to this book and think again.

Listening Length

20 hours and 7 minutes
Author

Mike Tyson
Narrator

Joshua Henry
Audible release date

January 16, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers Limited
ASIN

B00HWIBI36
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	20 hours and 7 minutes
Author	Mike Tyson
Narrator	Joshua Henry
Audible.com Release Date	January 16, 2014
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00HWIBI36
Best Sellers Rank	#27,824 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2,335 in Biographies & Memoirs (Audible Books & Originals) #7,687 in Biographies (Books)

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

7,070 global ratings

5 star		77%
4 star		15%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Iggy

Real. Mike. Tyson.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

In this autobiography Mike Tyson takes the reader on the grand tour of his life. The book is a good read, and I think I got lucky with it, since this is my 1st boxer's autobiography. I was choosing between Mike's and Jack Johnson's biography and chose Mike's because his name resonates in my own lifetime. There was time that there wasn't a boxer more feared and more glorious than this guy. However, it seems like his own glory and success took a toll on him, and as a result he couldn't cope with the intensity of all that came together with glory.

I was happy to find out things about Mike's early life, that it was hard, sometimes grotesquely hard, as there wasn't any food on the table, and no one except Mike himself to get it.

It was very interesting to find out more about Cus D'Amato and the kind of influence that he exerted on Mike's early training carrier. He compares his mentor to an Ancient Roman, someone like Julius Caesar or Pompeus perhaps someone with an unbending will for victory, and boundlessly wise, but also very paranoid to the point where he is ready to jump anyone coming into close contact with him. For good or for bad, but it is possible that Mike have copied some of these traits and made them his own He was born at a wrong time, where completely overwhelming your adversary for the virtue of glory is considered to say the least "unethical". But they were times, when it was a preferred thing for a gentleman to do, and practice as a life style. The philosophy of overwhelming your opponent on all fronts is synonymous to the all out warfare of the "Art of War" of Sun Tzu, and Miyamoto Musashi's "Five Rings". We also hear the echos of A.V. Suvorov, the greatest of the Russian military commanders. I see Cus (may he rest in peace) as a Condottieri of sort. A general who is all about strategy and all about taking trophies in any form. No trophies - no point to fight.

Mike has had a lot of money in his carrier. He speaks of millions like it is a normal thing, which is hard to understand for many of us who never had even one. He could spend 10's if not 100's of millions like pocket change, just because he had them. Nevertheless, I have to say that he handled a slide into a middle class, and even borderline poverty pretty well, notwithstanding the fact that he was battling his own demons consistently during all of that time, and sometimes the demons were winning...

His relationship with women is full of drama, and according to his own opinion, "I am not a pimp, but a trick", which I think means that he is an open guy and someone who genuinely needs care, but who wanted to play a pimp, like it is his stage persona, as this was the thing to do. Mike is creating an image of a Casanova type who has had dozens upon dozens of women from all walks of life, though he makes a point of not being a good communicator and emphasizing the fact that many women, including his first wife were attracted not to him, but to his accomplishments in the art of boxing, and on stage, perhaps even the amount of money that he possessed at the time and his spending power.

He spent a lot of time in rehabs for his drug addictions, but thankfully to his guardian spirits that he has some really good friends, and some close knit family who stood by him in those very tough times, and helped him to recuperate and go on with his life.

Mr. Tyson's transformation is amazing. I don't watch TV, but I have seen some of his interviews on the Youtube, and it is truly amazing how one can change as a result of his life's experiences plus faith. I salute him, and say "namaste" to the divinity in him.

Other than that, Mike is a Brooklyn guy to the marrow, and places value on the personal conduct and how it relates to his "street" values which include directness, certain brutal honesty about other people's negative traits as well as respect for things material and their accumulation. He is very open-minded about any nationality and any religious affiliation, and has some good things to say about any with which he came into contact during his tumultuous carrier. He is a practicing Muslim, but has close friends who are Catholic, Southern Baptist and Jewish. I was happy that he relates so well to the Eastern Europeans of who I am one. I thought it was funny when he said that "Russia doesn't have the word for balance, it is all about extremes"...It's true.

The book has a lot of good stuff in it and is written with the reverence to the Higher, and it is amazing that one can be so open as to let the others into that complicated world of the Self, a labyrinth that we ALL enter, but far from many of us reach and kill the Minotaur with the help of the Ariadne's thread. But if such a well known public figure can do it, I am sure that we the readers can, too.

6 people found this helpful

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Eddie Smith

Raw and very R-rated, but completely fascinating

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2014

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I was a child of the 1980s and grew up during Tyson's tenure as a phenomenon larger than his sport. Anyone who did not live through that era simply cannot imagine how unbeatable Tyson was thought to be, and the total shock of him losing to Buster Douglas. I picked up Mike's autobiography during Amazon's Black Friday sale, and it may just be the best autobiography I have ever read.

The book is very dark and r-rated. Tyson tells some some happy stories from his life, but he also goes into great detail about the brutality, depression and self-hatred that overshadow everything else in his life. I couldn't put the book down and finished the 580 pages in a little over a week. The whole book is riveting, but the epilogue is especially sad -- Mike lamenting that his entire life has been a waste; all he has done with his life is fight, ****, get high and make babies.

Tyson does not try to sugar-coat who he was, or who he remains, at all. He writes several times that he was an "arrogant *****" during his time as heavyweight champion. The book extensively recounts Mike's violent crimes, his addictions to everything from sex and drugs to spending money. I had no idea that Tyson's drug habit was so bad that he washed out of rehab many, many times and he ballooned to 380 pounds shortly before his appearance in "The Hangover."

There are many shocking stories in the book, but the story that really touched me was Tyson talking about his accountant finding an IRA in his name worth $250,000 that Cus D'Amato has set up for him at the very start of Mike's career. Even with all the terrible things Tyson has done in his life, it is hard not to feel at least some sympathy for him when writes that he sits and cries to this day when he thinks about that IRA because Cus was the only person in boxing who cared about anything other than how much money Mike could make for him.

It's hard not to imagine how different Tyson's career would have turned out if D'Amato woud have been 10 years younger.and Don King never got involved. The stories Tyson told about living with Cus in Catskill, N.Y., are just fascinating. Who knew that D'Amato was a hardcore socialist who shouted "Liar, Liar, Liar" every time Ronald Reagan would appear on a television screen and that Cus declared bankruptcy because he refused to pay taxes to a right-wing administration? Who knew a guy raised in the "sewage" and violence of Brownsville, Brooklyn, as Mike often writes, was also the same guy who visited Cus' grave after winning the WBA title from Trevor Berbick to "show" the title to Cus and pour a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne on D'Amato's grave?

Tyson also details how over the top the stealing by Don King was. King stole tens of millions of dollars from Tyson, but two small examples really seem to stand out, IMO. King charged Tyson a yearly salary for King's daughter to oversee a Mike Tyson Fan Club that never met and did not even reply to fan letters. King also billed Tyson a title sanctioning fee for a bout against Razor Ruddock that was not even a title bout.

The many, many stories about sex and drug use in the book do tend to blur together after a while. Tyson does not try to make himself out to be a "good guy" and graphically details many horrible things he has done in his life. But it is hard not to feel a bit sad to read Tyson writing that when he dies, perhaps his grave will simply have a marker with the phrase "Now, I'm at Peace" and that perhaps fight fans of future generations will seek out his grave just like he did with his heroes.

I wasn't much expecting much when I saw that Tyson was going to be releasing an autobiography. But for anyone who remembers how huge Tyson was in the 1980s, this book is a must read. You won't find many autobiographies as brutally revealing as this one.

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

WorcesterBlue

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book started really well but unfortunately spent far too much time disrespecting women and going into far too much detail during the 600 pages. The early part which describes a young Tyson and his thirst for Boxing was fascinating but then turned to sex, drugs and crime. If the stories are to be believed then Mike Tyson was one bad man. In 1992, Tyson was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison, he was released on parole after serving three years. Once out of jail there were a string of claims of assault and sexual harassment. Tyson brags of the women he demanded and his ambition of filling everyone of his 19 bedrooms with women. His tales of violence, drugs and sex became repetitive and paint a very sad picture of this married man with children. The book was not worthy of 600 pages and a very good edit would have made a lot of sense.
Mike Tyson was a great boxer and certainly one of the best fighters the sport has ever seen but as a man he is well down the list. A man who has spent his life mixing with trouble and shows no class or respect for anyone.

10 people found this helpful

E Griffith

Long and tedious

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

I used to enjoy watching boxing and enjoy autobiographies so gave this a go. Tyson always portrayed himself as a nasty piece of work and this confirms it. Born into rough poverty he is brutal from the beginning, a criminal who steals, robs, burgles and intimidates his way through life ending up in prison. He blames most of this on his parents. When he gets his big chance and ends up as world champion he doesn’t change. He is above the law and has money to do what he wants. This includes being a drug addict, treating women like dirt and raping them, and generally being a rich bully. He, of course, blames his imprisonment on his women friends.....and his eventual failure on poor management and being ripped off by his friends.
I struggled to read it to the end as it becomes repetitious. An animal of a man with no concept of getting on with his fellow man and who blames his downfall on anybody except him. He wasn’t even a sporting boxer, cheating drugs tests and biting ears off etc. In the final chapters he (tediously) tries to pretend he is now poor, religious, and looking after his umpteen kids. Didn’t believe it for a minute. His sort don’t change.
An overlong book about a life of a drug addict and serial abuser of women who could also hit people. A most unpleasant man with no redeeming features. I didn’t enjoy it at all.

3 people found this helpful

Ozzy

NOT A REVIEW just a note on the extra chapter.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

The paperback with the "INCLUDES BRAND NEW CHAPTER" label doesn't seem to have an equivalent hardback version. In other words the available hardback version of the book doesn't have this new chapter in it. This isn't really a problem as the "new chapter" in the "new" paperback version of the book is entitled "AFTERWORD" and only runs from page 558 to page 572 and details various reactions to the original publication of the book. Personally I would buy a copy of the hardback that doesn't contain the afterword chapter than the small paperback with the new afterword chapter. The hardback is a large, beautiful looking book with large text, which is perfect for old fogies like myself with dodgy eyesight, and after all if you're interested in what is said in the small extra chapter you could stand, or sit, and read it in a book shop in 20 minutes.

8 people found this helpful

Jack

Conflicted but compelling.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

An honest, at times vulgar insight into a man who excelled at everything: boxing, dedication, misogyony, drugs, alcohol & wealth. His dramatic rise to fame & world adoration was only dwarfed by his descent into the darkest of places. I wanted to pity him more as he writes with such heart breaking honesty but his treatment of women & his brutal disregard for anyone but himself made me feel more hostile towards him than empathy. His ego shines through this but so does his vulnerability. Like the man himself, this is a conflicting read. But I still binged it in 2 days.

5 people found this helpful

Ranvir S. Panesar

Brutally Honest

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is a shocking book, Tyson has lived a life as dramatic as any debauched and decadent rock star, if not worse. As others have mentioned it is full of profanity but this is how Tyson talks in real life so it makes sense for him to speak like this in his autobiography. There is no holding back in this book,

Tyson is brutally honest about the sordid activities he got up to in his childhood, during his boxing career and after his retirement. I commend him for his honesty as not many athletes would be so open. For example I have read Diego Maradona's autobiography and he hardly mentions any of his controversies off the pitch, Tyson is the complete opposite, he tells it like it is. You also get to see another side of Tyson - the Tyson who is an avid reader and pigeon collector.

My only negative would be about how he describes his losses to Hoyfield and Douglas, he seems to make a lot of excuses some of which are not completely valid.

It's a must read for any Mike Tyson or boxing fan.

6 people found this helpful

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