Blood Season: Mike Tyson and the World of Boxing

by Phil Berger

Few stories in the real world are as dramatic as the rise and fall and rise of Mike Tyson. As former boxing correspondent for the N. Y. Times, Phil Berger had access to Tyson and his handlers as has no other journalist. He gives an intimate portrait of this superstar, someone he regards as a dangerously violent man who has as many people trying to get their hooks into him as he has millions. Berger chronicles the writers, sharpies and showmen who are the best and worst of boxing. He writes about the leading heavyweights of the years since Muhammad Ali, and of course the powers behind the sport - businessmen like Donald Trump and Don King, who are in their way as bloodthirsty and money-hungry as the fighters they manipulate. Including an update on Tyson's conviction for rape and an assessment of his postprison career.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

346 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

How Tyson, after revitalizing the heavyweight world in the mid-80s, rose and fell. Berger argues that Tyson was from a very young age a violent, person, sometimes beyond control. Instead of being shaped by good influences, he got deeper into the clutches of those trying to gouge him, like Don King, obviously. A lengthy '95 afterword talks about the rape trial and how Mike was railroaded. This is sports writing, a journalist's Story rather than a book's pace. It's badly put together (it starts and drops pieces on various fighters; the index is useless) but as informative writing (for the trial and King's utter corruption, for example), it's worth reading.

[Jim Castine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great look into the heavyweight division during the 1980s

[Hariharan Subramanian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just for Boxing lovers.