Face to Face with Mike Tyson

Last April, I jumped at an opportunity to go mano-a-mano—well, in a verbal sense--with Mike Tyson. The former heavyweight boxing champion was in town with filmmaker James Toback talking up the theatrical release of the Toback-directed documentary Tyson, which Sony will issue on DVD and Blu-ray on Aug. 18. As Tyson is known to be quite knowledgeable about the history of boxing and I’m not too shabby when it comes to the last century of cinema, I figured that my first question during our short time together would combine those two topics.

VB: Okay, I wouldn’t be doing my job well if I didn’t ask you to name your favorite boxing movie.

TYSON: My favorite boxing movie is Gentleman Jim.

VB: The one about Jim Corbett, directed by Raoul Walsh.

TYSON: That’s the movie. It’s with Errol Flynn.

VB: When did you first see it?
TYSON: A long time ago. When I was kid.

VB: It made a lasting impression on you, I’m assuming?

TYSON: Yes, but it wasn’t Errol Flynn that made an impression on me. It was Ward Bond who stole the film. He plays [boxer] John L. Sullivan. I never met John L. Sullivan, but I know a lot about him. Everything I’ve read about this guy always made me think that I was a lot like him. I used to say that I could beat any many on the planet just like he would say ‘I can beat any many in the house.’

VB: I’d rather be up against the guy who takes on the house as opposed to the planet!

TYSON: This guy was for real. He became the champ in 1882, a bare-knuckle champ, when he knocked out Paddy Ryan. I read his workout manual and he really worked hard-- and he would run five miles and then walk back to where he started and then do a lot of exercise. But he was a drinker—a quintessential Irishman.

VB: You got all this from the movie?

TYSON: Yeah, and from what I read. Sullivan was a true champion. Nowadays, the champions get all commercial, But Sullivan had this pride and he knew how to conduct himself. He had the confidence of a god. He drew a color line and he wouldn’t fight black fighters. [In the movie] Errol Flynn says to him, ‘I went 61 rounds with [black fighter] Peter Jackson and you were afraid to fight him. And Sullivan says, ‘Oh yeah? If I fight Peter Jackson, it’ll last 61 seconds.’ He was the king.

VB: Did he have the kind of heavyweight career that you would have liked to have?

TYSON: I received the same kind of reign in my era that he had in his time. We were different boxers during different times, but it’s all the same when you’re the champ.—Laurence Lerman

Mike Tyson’s favorite movie about boxing, Gentleman Jim, is available on DVD from Warner.

Posted by Laurence Lerman on July 13, 2009 | Comments (0)