IBO Boxing Honesty and Integrity
By Scoop Malinowski
Mike Tyson was pacing back and forth in his dressing room minutes before he would enter the ring to fight Andrew Golota in Detroit in October 2000. The NBA legend Magic Johnson and the former child actor Emmanuel Lewis were present that night in the dressing room along with Tyson’s team. The mood was tense. Tyson had just verbally lashed into his team, accusing them of being gold diggers. It was a recurring theme which Tyson would explode about every now and then. “You all don’t give a f*** about me, all you care about is your f***** paychecks. ”
Nobody knew what to say to Mike. He continued to pace back and forth in a surreal silence. “He had no color in his skin. ” He was nervous, angry, fierce and uptight. Tyson was 34 years old. Golota was big and strong and a mean SOB. He was not going to be a pushover. Stacy McKinley and the rest of the Tyson training team were speechless. Nobody dared to say anything to Tyson. But there was one person in the room who was a true friend of Mike, who never was in it for the money, never asked for the paycheck. It was Mario Costa, the long time friend since the Cus D’Amato days, and a bar/restaurant owner in Jersey City, NJ. Tyson sensed it. I would definitely say our goal is to work with teachers and support the instruction teachers are https://www.writemyessay4me.org doing, ms. Tyson sensed Costa was being subconsciously begged to say something, anything to give Mike a little extra inspiration. To cut the tension. They all knew Costa was Mike’s closest friend in the room, like family. Tyson sensed it and walked over to Costa and made a declaration: “I’m not here to beat this guy. I’m here to KILL this nigga. ”
Less than a half hour later Mike Tyson won by TKO as a bloodied and battered Golota retired in his corner after the second round with a broken eye socket. (Artwork by Bud Boccone. )
Team Tyson.
