As World Boxing Association (WBA) Champion Mike Tyson turns 53 years old, the WBA family highly recommends for reading material “Undisputed Truth” by Mike Tyson himself and Larry Sloman. Love him or hate him Tyson is an icon that transcends the sporting world and this brutally honest narrative of his life story does something that not many books actually accomplish: it bares the heart and soul of a man for all to see.
The good, the bad, and the downright ugly are all there for you to read in a manner that is quite frankly refreshing. Typically, with biographies you are only reading one side or the other; you have the ones that reveal bad events turned into learning lessons on one side, and on the other side you have positive heroic tales filled with motivating life lessons.
With this book, you simply get everything – even downright head scratching honesty that despite reading 600+ pages leaves you wondering if you really know the man yet. Perhaps that is the point; unpredictability in a world where typically everyone is so sure they know everything.
The sheer size of the book may scare some people away but fear not; the pages turn very fast as you are left wondering just exactly where you will go next in the mind of Iron Mike.
You are transported from all the way back in his youth as a boy who was scared of his own shadow to the world’s most feared fighter – who bares his insecurities for all to see – to the drug induced craziness of a man fighting multiple addictions before they kill him.
As odd as it may sound; don’t pick this one up just for entertainment because although it does the job well that is not the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book seems to be to show that everyone has their demons to fight and that we should not be afraid to face them out in the open.
As Iron Mike tells us; he is simply a man, and a very flawed one, and perhaps it is those flaws that create an indelible mark on the world if one simply accepts who he is. Mike; you created a roller-coaster that is right up there with the Mickey Walker’s and Jack Dempsey’s of the past.
