Before Mike Tyson became a heavyweight legend and the youngest champion ever, he honed his skills in illegal fights watched by gangsters in unlicensed “smokers”.

Mike Tyson’s first in-ring fighting experiences were in illegal fights in New York City gyms, watched by mobsters and drug dealers – the first of which ended with a teenage “Iron Mike” standing on the his opponent’s chest stunned in celebration.

Young Tyson got into hundreds of street fights and was arrested many times as a child. However, when he was first discovered by Bobby Stewart, who recommended him to legendary trainer Cus D’Amato, he had little genuine boxing experience.

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In the summer of 1981, Tyson was competing in licensed amateur competition at the Junior Olympics. But before that, D’Amato knew that fighting and tutoring in the gym wasn’t going to help Tyson catch up — he needed to know what it was like to be in a real competitive boxing fight.

So when Tyson was around 13 or 14, Cus started sending him and trainer Teddy Atlas to compete in unlicensed ‘smokers’ – so called because the air was so thick with cigarette smoke that it was even difficult to see the opponent through the ring. for you. Unsurprisingly, none of these fights have been approved by a professional or amateur board, and they don’t appear on any official records.

“Smokers were unauthorized access, which basically meant they were lawless,” Tyson explains in his autobiography, Undisputed Truth. “There were no paramedics or paramedics waiting outside. If the crowd didn’t like your performance, they didn’t boo, they just fought to show how it was done.

The first of those fights for Tyson took place at a “hell” gym in the Bronx, owned by a veteran D’Amato knew. Surreal, considering that Tyson was soon to become one of the most intimidating heavyweights of all time, he was so scared before his first fight that he nearly pulled out.

“I was so scared I almost left,” Tyson later said. “Even after all the fights, I was still totally intimidated to fight anyone in the ring.”

The problem Tyson faced was that all of his street fights came with taunt and beef. Now he was stepping into the freezing ring against someone he had never met. In fact, it turned out to be a burly Puerto Rican who, at around 18, was significantly older than Tyson was in his early teens.

After collecting himself and stepping into the ring for the first time in a competitive match, Tyson recalled, “We fought hard for two rounds, but in the third round I knocked him down in the bottom rope. and I followed with another shot that literally knocked his mouthpiece back six rows into the crowd. He was cold.

However, the punishment and humiliation didn’t end there for Tyson’s beaten opponent. “I didn’t know how to celebrate, so I stepped on him,” said the ecstatic winner. “I raised my arms in the air and stepped on the lying mother.”

Naturally, this was not well received by the referee, as even unlicensed boxing competitions have certain limitations. The referee chided Tyson, “Let him go! What the fuck are you doing stepping on this guy? »

However, the young teenager had at least pleased the person he most wanted to impress. Atlas was able to phone D’Amato and tell him the good news that his heavyweight protege had won by stoppage.

Cus knew the raw newbie needed a lot more seasoning in the ring, though — including how to celebrate a win without standing on an opponent’s chest — and smokers kept coming, alongside official amateur fights from Tyson.

The notorious hot-headed Atlas and budding teenage demolitions expert drove all over the Northeastern United States, participating in unauthorized fights in front of local crowds betting on the action in front of them.

Tyson was still small but he was remarkably muscular and powerful even at a young age, so the pair would lie about his age in order to make a competitive fight against an older opponent. “There weren’t a lot of 14-year-olds weighing 200 pounds,” Tyson explained.

Brooklinite’s official amateur career was rather mixed. His search-and-destroy style – honed by D’Amato in the gym and under the eye of Atlas in unlicensed fights – was always better suited to the professional ranks.

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Tyson won two Junior Olympic gold medals, a New York Golden Gloves title and once scored a barely believable eight-second knockout along the way. However, he was outclassed twice by Henry Tillman (whom he would crush in one round when they met as professionals) and was extremely frustrated at not qualifying for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Yet Tyson made his professional debut a year later at the age of 18, then became the world’s youngest heavyweight champion at 20. At 21, he became the division’s lineal and undisputed ruler when he annihilated Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in 1988.

As Tyson recalls, however, his devastating transition to professional boxing wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if he hadn’t been thrown into the shark tank of those unsanctioned gym wars, where he honed his style and builds his confidence against bigger and older people. enemies.

“Those smokers meant so much to me, way more to me than the rest of the kids,” he said after his career ended. “The way I saw it, I was born in hell and every time I won a fight it was a step out of it.”

“If I hadn’t had those smokers, I probably would have died in the sewer.”