By Al Francis: Without question one of the most controversial figures in sporting history as well as one of the most naturally gifted fighters of the past hundred years, Mike Tyson is an enigma to many. In his prime, his performances in the ring blew people away and he was as famous as any man in his lifetime, yet for many boxing critics he’s still not what he could have been. His rise was meteoric and his fall was catastrophic!

As quick and seemingly easy as it was for him to become the most mesmerizing athlete in the world, it was just as quick that it was all thrown away, or taken from him, whichever way you like to look at it. This makes me think what if things were different? What if Cus D’amato hadn’t died or was younger when he took Mike in? What if he had never gotten involved with Robin Givens? And what if he wasn’t convicted of rape? Would he have lived up to his immense potential?

Tyson learned his trade under the wise tutelage of long time trainer and boxing historian Cus D’amato. There is no doubt that D’amato was the most influential figure in Tyson’s life in terms of his fighting roots, training him day in day out since ‘iron’ Mike was a young teen and took him from a New York juvenile centre to live in his home after seeing the youngster sparring. He taught Tyson not only how he should fight, but about the history of the game, the two would spend evenings watching old black and white reels of the former greats plying their trade. Although Tyson was an amateur until he ditched his vest for the pro’s at age 18, Cus wasn’t training him as an amateur, the goal from the very start was to turn this powerful young kid into the heavyweight champion. Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at age 20 in 1986, one year after Cus D’amato died at age 77. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Tyson would not have been champion if it weren’t for Cus. Words scribed on Cus’ gravestone are symbolic of his young protege : “A boy come’s to me with a spark of interest, I feed the spark till it becomes a flame, I feed the flame till it becomes a fire, I feed the fire till it becomes a roaring blaze.” Roaring blaze! Sound like a prime Tyson?

Mike had a respect for the old man that he never had for anyone else and always held him in the absolute highest regard. For every year that’s past since Cus died, and every year Tyson became more independent in his lifestyle, he lost a part of himself in terms of his fighting ability. By the late eighties and early nineties he was already past his peak at the age of 25. Would he have been past his best at that young age if he still followed D’amato’s guidance? I would doubt it very much.

There were an abundance of outside factors which contributed to Tyson’s downfall; Womanizing, an ill-fated marriage, a hectic lifestyle, leaches, money grabbers, depression, attempted suicides, you name it. The manic depressive and self destructive side of Tyson’s personality may well have helped in becoming the type of ruthless fighter he was, but let’s just say it didn’t. Let’s just say he was a supremely level headed individual with peace of mind. There is no way he would ever have lost to Buster Douglas in 1990 if a) He was still under Cus D’amato’s guidance and b) He didn’t have these outside factors playing on his mind, leaving him clear to focus on training like a champion.

Had he beaten Douglas he would have been on course to face Evander Holyfield. When Holyfield beat Tyson in 1996, Tyson had already faded and spent 3 and a half years in jail serving a rape conviction, and Holyfield was a much bigger, fuller and more natural heavyweight than he was in 1990. Tyson would have been strongly favoured to win, and with Cus’ guidance and, for the sake of this article, his make believe peace of mind, i’d have backed him too. That would leave a fat Riddick Bowe and a skinny Lennox Lewis, both of which in 1991 would be deemed not ready for a title shot against a prime Mike Tyson, but seen as there wasn’t anyone else I’m sure the fights would have materialized. Bowe was always a lazy fighter and Lewis came on leaps and bounds in the mid to late nineties under Manny Steward, but in the early nineties, he was tall and skinny with awkward footwork. Again, Tyson would be favoured.

Let’s come back to reality now. Boxing enthusiasts love nothing more than to compile lists, rankings of this and that, top ten’s in various weights, current time or all time, or pound for pound, but the fact is as things stand most critics wouldn’t put Tyson in their top 5 heavyweights of all time. That’s because there is at least 5 that achieved far more, but if you were to rank purely on potential, surely Tyson must be in there. When he was champion in the eighties he was being groomed to break Rocky Marciano’s unbeaten run and take almost every other record in the book. At that point in time, the perception was that he could potentially be the greatest of all time, perhaps even better than Muhammad Ali himself. Ali had a lot of potential when he was coming through, but at the end of the day, he wasn’t favoured to win the title against Sonny Liston or George Foreman. Therefore Ali exceeded his own potential, whereas Tyson WAS expected to win the title and WAS expected to reign for as long as he wanted but he didn’t live up to his own potential. Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis were the very best they could be and Tyson wasn’t.

What this article was meant to show was just an overview of what Tyson’s immense potential might have looked like had he lived up to it, and we may well have varying opinions on how far he could have gone if ‘x’ didn’t happen or ‘y’ did happen. I don’t think it was out of his reach to retire undefeated in about 94 or 95 having beaten all top contenders throughout that period. When people ask me who would win out of Tyson and Ali, I answer Ali, but I question myself. Maybe it’s because a prime Tyson was never involved in a difficult fight that it’s hard to imagine how he would fare against a fellow great, whereas Ali has shown me countless times exactly how he fares. And maybe, if Mike Tyson had lived up to the great expectations and potential bestowed upon him he would have shown the same qualities Ali did in fighting against the odds. And maybe, just maybe if Tyson did that, he’d be the greatest heavyweight of all time. But sadly, we’ll never ever know…..