Baddest Man: The making of Mike Tyson

by Mark Kriegel

On a defining evening of the 1980s, Donald Trump hosted celebrities and high rollers in a Jersey Shore town to witness 21-year-old Mike Tyson knock out Michael Spinks in just 91 seconds, earning more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics combined.

Only eight years earlier, Tyson, a troubled child from Brooklyn, was taken under the wing of boxing legend Cus D’Amato in upstate New York. Their story of mutual redemption captivated novelists, screenwriters, and the emerging cable TV industry. Tyson became HBO’s leading man long before Tony Soprano.

Despite the immense success, Tyson's story was more complex and darker than it appeared. Over the decades, he has been villainized, lionized, and fetishized—but never fully humanized until now. Acclaimed biographer Mark Kriegel, who first encountered Tyson as a young reporter, explores Tyson's life through what he survived rather than whom he knocked out.

Tyson, often compared to Jack Dempsey, was more akin to Sonny Liston—Black, feared, and expected to die young. What made Liston a pariah made Tyson a touchstone for a generation influenced by hip hop and gunfire. Kriegel captures not just Tyson’s rise but his profound impact on the American psyche.

Genres: Sports, Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, New York, History

431 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 5, 2025

Reviews

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The swath of my GR friends who are interested in this book is bound to be narrow. I would like to point out, though, that while Iron Mike certainly appears in these pages, the book is less about him than an attempt to place him in the context of the sleazy business of sports celebrities, and before that, the world of the poor in Brooklyn, New York. The longed-for karma does not occur – the nasty people surrounding Tyson in his heyday, not excluding Donald Trump, continued to reap rewards far in excess of their contribution, while the people doing the early-morning workouts and getting their faces pounded to pudding were continuously screwed out of their earnings.

Kriegel was an excellent man to take on this assignment. He’s been a sportswriter covering boxing for 30 years and knows the sport inside and out, and also knows how to write to his audience. Trevor Berwick, in the second round of a heavyweight championship fight

survived until, with forty-five seconds remaining in the round, Tyson began his signature combination, sinking a right hand behind Berwick’s left elbow into the kidney. The uppercut missed this time. But the third punch, an impossibly short hook to the temple, did not.

Berwick seemed to wait a moment before toppling backward.

He tried to raise himself immediately again, but found himself tumbling into the ropes on the other side of the ring. He bounced off the bottom rope, which sent him reeling back, cartoon-like, to the spot where he had first fallen. He dropped again. And rose again, a moment that seemed to call for animated tweeting birds.

Tyson’s prize money for beating Michael Spinks was greater than “the combined payrolls of the two highest-salary NBA teams that year.” He became world champion at age 20, and women, to put this delicately, responded warmly to his success. I don’t think many people would want to swap lives with him, though.

John Barthes’ Giles Goat-Boy, a big hit among 1960’s intellectuals, featured a black athlete brought to campus to help the school earn money. This athlete spent the rest of the book beating the shit out of anyone who crossed his path, violating women at will and, due to his status, being immune from the normal rules. For many people, Tyson embodies this Big Scary Black Guy. The truth is more nuanced and definitely more complicated.

Kriegel’s book will be considered a classic, I believe.

[Philip Girvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One questions the need of yet another book about Mike Tyson. Nonetheless this expertly researched origin story illuminates and horrifies.

The author explicitly describes the brutality of the projects, the devastating force of a Mike Tyson hook, the dreams of dying men, the hype machine, the corrupting influence of money, and the abundance of large personalities that enter the orbit of the young heavyweight champion.

One comes away with an appreciation of Tyson’s mettle and resilience. It’s a helluva read

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of reading and listening. This book was incredibly well researched and I learned a lot. I’m not a big boxing guy but Mike Tyson is bigger than that, so I enjoyed reading about him.

[Kaleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! There’s so many thoughts going through my mind as I’m typing this out. This book makes me very angry knowing more about these fighting sports such as boxing and MMA. My overall summary of this book is that this dude wanted nothing more than people such as parental figures who could give him that unconditional love that all of us want. INSTEAD, this dude from around 13 years old on got people who seen the potential for his future successes/fame and did whatever they could to get a cut of what Mike was bringing to the table. The majority of the people in this book are despicable to me. I’m struggling trying to figure out who from this story that I actually like. Mike Tyson, very problematic in his own right. The fact that he’s still alive to me is insane. The sports ball originally drew me into this story and I enjoyed the hell out of the boxing highlights. This is best read with the YouTube Time Machine ready to go, with his highlights and interviews able to be relived at a moment’s notice. Filled with stories from many different people that made me say, what the fuck... I liked this book a lot and I would be interested in a second part of the Mike Tyson life story as this book ends with him fighting Michael Spinks. GREAT BOOK!

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

..Taisons ir viens tāds vecis, no kura 90-tajos nevarēja nebaidīties. arī grāmatā ir par viņa varenību, bet arī to sirsnīgo cilvēku aiz visa tā.

[Steve McFarland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that is about so much more than Tyson, Don King was a real gangster that's interesting and so is how HBO used Tyson to build their cable network that man should own a percentage or two.

This book made me go back to watching boxing matches in the way I used to with my grandfather.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great bio, doesn’t try to be comprehensive of Tyson’s entire life, sticks to its angle and is successful because of this.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Tyson is probably the most talked about boxer in the history of the sport aside from Muhammad Ali. His life has taken so many twists and turns. Despite all that has been already said and written about him, this book by bestselling author Mark Kriegel is excellent in not only its portrayal of Tyson, but also in its ability to make even those readers who think they can’t read anything new about him will find something they didn’t before.


While the book is about his life from his childhood in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn to his 91-second knockout of Michael Spinks in 1988 to unify the heavyweight championship of boxing, the prologue will grab a reader right away. Kriegel writes about Tyson, the father who is watching his daughter at a tennis match. From just this passage, it will be clear to readers that this will not be a typical sports biography.


From there, Kriegel takes the reader on a journey that will not only reveal much about Tyson, but also provide in-depth looks at a variety of topics: poverty, crime, gang activity, the media’s love of celebrity issues, the crookedness of the boxing business and its characters, the greed of the 1980’s and so much more. None of these topics will be new to anyone, but the depth to which Kriegel writes about these topics, especially the business side of the sport, is excellent. It should be noted that Kriegel was a long time boxing writer for the New York Daily News, so his knowledge of this side of the sport is well-grounded.


While the fights Tyson had in the ring as an amateur, his failed attempt at making the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, and those as a professional are well covered (including the famous bout with Spinks), the work on Tyson’s life outside the ring is what makes this book so good. Kriegel writes about the myths on Tyson, especially in his days in Brownsville and those when he was taken in and mentored by Cus D’Amoto. Also noteworthy is Kriegel’s accounts of Tyson’s marriage to actress Robin Givens, his relationship with her mother Ruth Roper , his lack of business acumen when dealing with Jim Jacobs, Bill Clayton and especially Don King. If one remembers this time as a tangled, salacious time for what Tyson was doing, the reader will find out even more twists as Kriegel navigates then through all of the lies, deception, stories and craziness.


But one conclusion that one will make, no matter their view on Tyson as a person, is that it’s very clear that he was a person who lacked the love and support he wanted and would accept it from whomever would provide it. Nearly every person mentioned in the previous paragraph was doing that in some way and Tyson was always seeking it, no matter what it would do to him later.


Since this book only covers Tyson’s life up to that June 1988 night in Atlantic City and the anticipation that accompanied it, I am hoping Kriegel writes a sequel covering some of the other events that made Tyson such a compelling character. This book is highly recommended for any reader who wants to read about any aspect of Mike Tyson’s first 22 or so years of life.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Kriegel sticks to telling Tyson's story, this is an excellent biography. Kriegel has a knack for explaining the intricacies of the fight game--for example describing the mechanics of a Tyson left hook and why it was so devastating. He does a great job describing Tyson's early fights, short as many of them were. Also done well is detailing the less-than-savory elements at play as people Tyson trusted seemed more concerned with cashing in than with Tyson's actual well-being, including Mike's vaunted surrogate dad Cus D'Amato.

As solid as the portion dedicated to Tyson is, this book isn't the "masterpiece" Wright Thompson claims in the praise printed on the dust jacket. On top of the Tyson story, Kriegel also makes this book his ode to New York, newspapers, and old newspapermen. To honor this legacy, he tries to show off his literary chops. This results in allegories, long-winded back stories, and Kriegel inserting himself into the story. Some of it was insightful, but large parts of this homage were dreadfully boring. A couple portions were laughably inaccurate. A boxing journalist writes that Joe Frazier's title defense against George Foreman took place in 1972? Also, there was not a presidential election in 1985.

With a sharper focus, this book could have been excellent. Instead, it's just good.

[CHAD HADEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent read on a problematic person, I can't wait for the next volume

[Umar Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Kriegel didn't wanna write this book, and I didn't think I needed to read anything more about Mike Tyson. I'm glad Kriegel changed his mind, and I gave the book a read. This is a holistic look at Tyson's family, early life, and beginning of his professional boxing career. Is this the beginning of a Tyson trilogy?

[Brian Shott · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is there to write about Mike Tyson that hasn’t already been written? Plenty, it would seem from this absolutely brilliant and exhaustively researched work by Mark Kriegel.

I don’t ordinarily care for Kriegel’s work on television broadcasts, but I realize now that that is more a function of the medium rather than the messenger. Given the space that a book affords, Kriegel tells a story that’s been told before, in a new and profoundly distinct way that might not seem possible on first glance.

This book takes us from Tyson’s childhood through his 1988 fight with Michael Spinks, leaving us at a crossroads that suggests an obvious sequel which I eagerly anticipate.

One leaves this work feeling, frankly, awful about everyone involved to some degree, and awful FOR nearly everyone. I can spare no sympathy for the most overtly and brazenly exploitative, Donald Trump and Don King among them.

This is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Tyson, boxing, or the money and celebrity obsessed culture of 1980s America that inevitably led to where we are today.

[Jason Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 33 of 2025.

4.5 stars.

I’ll start off by stating that I’m a huge Tyson fan, especially 80’s Tyson in the ring!

This book is 5 stars worthy, but I knocked it down to a 4.5 for stopping the story the night of KO’g Spinks in 91 seconds.
I don’t know if there is a book 2 in the works??? But I thought that was a weird place to stop.

That being said, the book itself, and the research that into this book was GREAT!

A MUST read for any Tyson/boxing fan!

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's OK. I enjoyed Namath and Maravich more. Mark Kriegel's vocabulary expanded in this book, as did his pop culture references, and oedipal theories, distancing himself more from the reader like a helium balloon leaving earth.
I would say go back to a clearer and simpler use of language.

[Jeff Wait · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great introduction to the boxing world. Tyson is possibly the sport’s most interesting character, and when coupled with the kooky stylings of the author, it creates an extra unique (unique squared?) narrative full of awesome research and the occasional cussing. I was enraptured. It ends when he really gets huge, and now I gotta go down the Tyson rabbit hole. For someone who has never really got into boxing, I found myself pleasantly surprised.

[Shayla Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read alot of conflicting stories about Mike Tyson but this one was by far the most put together profile of him. This book spans the time of his rise from a scared, timid kid to a ferocious world champion. You can tell throughout the story that Tyson was in desperate need of a person in his corner who truly cared about his well-being but he had none of that (only leaches who made money of him and his persona). This does not excuse his boorish, dangerous behavior toward various people (especially women) but it does not go into the later parts of his journey to highlight that. The book stops at his fight with Michael Spinks in Atlantic City in 1988 but it was a solid read for a bio.

[Tie Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an impressively researched book that splits focus between Tyson (especially his complex relationship with his trainer Cus D’Amato) and the wider boxing ecosystem. Only about half of the 450 pages is devoted to Tyson with detours into promoters, commissioners, and predecessor boxers occupying half the pages.

While published this year (2025) notably skips any mention of Tyson’s stunning loss to Buster Douglass and his thoughts leading up to and following the landmark fight.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has almost become a truism to say that Boxing is the discipline that generates the finest, most compelling sportswriting. But Mark Kriegel’s high-octane, intense biography of Mike Tyson’s deeply troubled early years could justifiably hold one’s own in the company of your Mailers, Kimballs and Hausers.

“Baddest Man” takes us from the squalor and trauma of Tyson’s childhood in Brownsville, Brooklyn, his supposed ‘salvation’ through the legendary boxing trainer Cus D’Amato, and on to his meteoric rise through the heavyweight ranks to become the youngest champion in the history of the division. Kriegel’s book concludes a mere three days before Tyson’s twenty-second birthday, with the newly crowned champion one of the most famous – and perhaps notorious – people on the face of the earth.

“Baddest Man” is driven by Mark Kriegel’s kinetic, propulsive prose style, and – without too much obvious foreshadowing – he is able to convey the impending doom of Tyson’s utterly chaotic life. Kriegel is assisted in this regard by being able to draw on a cast of characters worthy of James Ellroy at his most baroque. This ensemble ranges from the vulpine promoter Don King, a certain orange-tinged, narcissistic future president, the previously-revered D‘Amato, and the New York press pack – all of whom to varying degrees enabled Tyson’s worst, basest instincts so that they could more freely profit off the fledgling fighter.

Kriegel is sympathetic to Tyson, taking time to explain his vulnerabilities and insecurities, while recognising that the ghetto kid was almost certainly doomed from the start; especially when the newly famous Mike Tyson became Middle America’s designated villain and a vessel through which it could direct so much of its fearful hate and racism.

Reading his ominous, incredible origin story, one considers it a miracle that Mike Tyson reached the age of 22, never mind his late fifties. Mark Kriegel has succeeded in retelling that story in a thrilling and mesmeric fashion. Even within an arena overflowing with stunning sportswriting, “Baddest Man” is a classic in the making.

[Taylor Brystol · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t follow boxing. I have never read a book on the sport before. I probably could have recognized the names of 5 boxers growing up and could only identify pics of 2. Ali of course, due to that iconic photo of him standing over… someone. And Tyson. As much from his Nintendo game being only one of like 6 we owned a from the tabloid covers in the checkout line. How my Mormon mother allowed Mike Tyson’s Punch Out in our house is a mystery to this day.

All of that to underscore how much I don’t know about boxing.

But over the years Tyson transcended boxing to become someone whose journey became so odd how could a psychology/sociology nut like me not be curious? How do you become a dude who bites someone’s ear off and then tattoos his face?

I still don’t know.

Because this book reads like so many other stories. Traumatic childhood creates attachment and abandonment issues. Instead of getting the kid help, adults exploit these issues and turn him into a payday.

And then the book ends. In mid-1988. He is getting backlash over his marriage and his wife had a miscarriage, but it almost a decade would pass before he really went off the rails.

And somehow, I came away with nothing more than a bunch of unsurprising details which totally fit the theme.

Oh the kid was abused? Shock. Grew up rough? Yep. Did crime to survive? Sure. Embraced prison ethos for street cred? Lots did. The adults took advantage? Huh. Boxing was full of cheats, rivalries, and underhanded dealing? You don’t say.

The only thing that felt new or interesting was the comparison of boxers and prostitutes. But a quick google search revealed I would have been familiar with this common analogy if I followed boxing at all.

Oh well. It counted towards my reading goal, so I got something out of it.

Your mileage may vary.

[Zach Koenig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, Mark Kriegel's "Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson" is not a great biography. It is over-written, it focuses as much on promoters as pugilists, and it has an utterly arbitrary endpoint (concluding after Tyson/Spinks).

At the same time, Baddest Man is one of the most unique bios you'll ever crack open. Because so much has been written about Iron Mike already, I respect Kriegel's approach of breaking down the legends to try and get to the facts. Basically, this takes the form of challenging the long-held line that Tyson was a "street kid civilized/reformed by Cus D'Amato". While not dismissing such characterizations out of hand, Kriegel lends them a lot more nuance and reality here.

Via meticulous research and interviews, Kriegel shines a light on the streets-of-Brownsville environment in which Tyson was molded. He then explains how Cus used Tyson to get back at the "boxing establishment" as much as anything benevolent towards the young man. Finally, after a run of knockout fame, Kriegel concludes with Tyson besting Spinks to become the youngest unified heavyweight champion of the world--but of course his personal life (relationship with Robin Givens, intrusion by Don King, poor management from his handlers/trainers) is set in motion to become the downfall-figure that would emerge soon enough.

A number of years ago, author Charles Leerhsen did a similar thing with Dead Ball-era baseball superstar Ty Cobb--challenging the stories/legends with cold, hard facts. That is exactly what Kriegel does with Tyson, and even despite the foibles described in my first paragraph it mostly works out for the best.

[Steve Eubanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Kriegel and I were former colleagues at Fox Sports. We sat next to each other ringside at several UFC fights and I watched him corner fighters with hard questions and a stare that said he wasn't leaving until he got answers. I also loved his book on Maravich, "Pistol" and on Joe Namath. But this is his best work yet. "Baddest Man" is more than a look at the early days of Mike Tyson - birth until age 22, before Holyfield and prison and the face tattoo - this book is close to poetry, a literary dive into a world few understand and too many dismiss out of hand.

Even if you think you know the story, you will learn a lot. The background, the characters, the lifestyle, the streets, the smarmy, greedy, ridiculously overt corruption, the hangers on, the D-list celebrity reptiles desperate for the warmth of another spotlight: Kriegel shares all with unflinching honesty.

If there is one area where my own biases got in the way, I am an old-school nonfiction writer who believes the author should avoid inserting himself. Voice and point of view are vital, but the first-person pronoun "I" jarred my noggin more than once, especially as this insertion appeared in almost every chapter. But a third of the way through, Kriegel's intentions became clear and I got over it. The work was too good not to overlook one niggling hangup.

Put this one in the category with the greats. I can't recommend it enough.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

MARK KRIEGEL - BADDEST MAN, THE MAKING OF MIKE TYSON.

My rating: 8/10.

The book dives into Mike Tyson’s world, from Brownsville’s streets to Cus D’Amato’s discipline, from the rise to champion to the chaos that came after.

What stands out is the contradictions: vulnerability and violence, genius and recklessness, discipline as both salvation and prison. Kriegel doesn’t give us a caricature, he gives us a man who could be unstoppable in the ring but undone by life outside it.

Tyson once said: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The book shows what that really means, not just for boxing, but for life.

For leaders, the lesson is clear. Talent without structure unravels. Drive without direction burns out. And the hardest fights are rarely with competitors, they’re with ourselves.

Reading Tyson reminds me: strength isn’t just about force. It’s about channeling chaos into discipline, a fight we all face in different ways.

#LeadershipLegacySeries #Leadership #Books #Reflection

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't need to be a fan of boxing or of Mike Tyson to appreciate this well-written book. Kriegel has covered Mike Tyson and his inner circle since the 1980s and begins the book with a statement about Mike's mom who was a prison guard when she was carrying him. The prologue begins with his daughter playing tennis, a dad looking on from the bleachers. The author presents the multi-faceted sides of Tyson, monster in the ring, scared boy with a childhood that many wouldn't survive, and includes the machine and industry that exploited the champion fighter. The author compares boxers to prostitutes - people pay to watch two bodies being used. It's a long book but I was never bored as the author brings humanity to Tyson and his life story.

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars actually. I’m not much of a boxing fan and had not previously read other books about Tyson. I only read this because a close friend strongly recommended it. The research that went into this book was impressive, and I learned a lot about the world of boxing.

However, there was something about the author’s writing that I found off-putting. Especially at the beginning, he would go back and forth chronologically and among the multitude of characters in the story. At times, he would try to be cute and interject himself into the story. I think the book could have used stronger editing.

Nevertheless, despite my dislikes, it is an impressive depiction of a very complicated individual and a sport with a well deserved negative reputation.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at Tyson’s early career, but I was surprised you actually learn more about his trainers, handlers, promoters, and all the other grifters that show up throughout this book in an attempt to capitalize on Iron Mike’s meteoric rise. You can tell the author was very plugged in to the NY boxing scene by the way he writes and references other NY writers and characters. The book also stops right after the Spinks fight in 1988, and I was looking for more insight on later parts of his career (though I know it can be found elsewhere).

[Alexander H***l · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written and well-researched biography of Mike Tyson’s early life. At first, I didn’t fully appreciate the focus on the people surrounding Tyson, but once I understood how influential—or detrimental—these individuals were to him, it became an important component.

The parts about Don King were kind of wild. This was a revealing quote about Kings character.

“The great books didn’t set King straight so much as provoke his ambition”

The authors of those books include Socrates, Plato, Fredrick Douglas, Kahil Gibran, etc.

[Josh Drimmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was skeptical of this book a) because the author's THE GOOD SON about Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini was a little blah and b) because the material is so well-covered. But this is far-ranging, thorough, gripping stuff. The fall of Tyson is well-covered by books like THE LAST GREAT FIGHT and A SAVAGE BUSINESS, both of which I highly recommend, yet I'm really looking forward to Kriegel's take on it too, in a promised second volume.

[Jim Castine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had my doubts when picking up this book. a reporter from ESPN is writing a biography? and honestly, how much more about Tyson could I learn?
fantastically written. interviews with multiple people close to Tyson as he rose to prominence.
I was obsessed when I was ten years old, and this book showed me the behind the scenes of all those things i saw on tv.
a must for Tyson fans and boxing fans alike

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dynamiye biography of Mike Tyson with behind the scenes (and sometimes explosive) content on Cus D'Amato, Don King, Jose Torres, Al Sharpton, and so many more great figures of boxing. Kriegel is channeling George Kimball, Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, and A.J. Liebling in these pages while also staking a claim for himself as a top-notch boxing writer. I could not put this book down. It's an essential read for any fan of boxing.

[Scotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that this book didn't re-hash the most overtold Tyson stories. It hints at the Evander Holyfield fights, but it really only covers pre-Mike up to the Tyson vs. Spinks fight. And while it is still very much a Mike Tyson biography, it does a good job of illustrating the important figures in Tyson's life, such as Cus D'Amato, Teddy Atlas, Jimmy Jacobs, Don King, etc. Kriegel has a very unique and fitting writing voice for this particular era and atmosphere.