Iron Ambition, Mike Tyson
Iron Ambition, Mike Tyson
4 Rating(s)
List: $27.50 | Sale: $19.25
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Iron Ambition
My Life with Cus D'Amato

Author: Mike Tyson, Larry Sloman

Narrator: Adam Lazarre-White

Unabridged: 19 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/30/2017


Synopsis

From the former heavyweight champion and New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful look at the life and leadership lessons of Cus D’Amato, the legendary boxing trainer and Mike Tyson’s surrogate father.

“[Iron Ambition] spells out D'Amato's techniques for building a champion from scratch.” – Wall Street Journal
 
When Cus D’Amato first saw thirteen-year-old Mike Tyson spar in the ring, he proclaimed, “That’s the heavyweight champion of the world.” D’Amato, who had previously managed the careers of world champions Floyd Patterson and José Torres, would go on to train the young Tyson and raise him as a son. D'Amato died a year before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

In Tyson’s bestselling memoir Undisputed Truth, he recounted the role D’Amato played in his formative years, adopting him at age sixteen after his mother died and shaping him both physically and mentally after Tyson had spent years living in fear and poverty. In Iron Ambition, Tyson elaborates on the life lessons that D’Amato passed down to him, and reflects on how the trainer’s words of wisdom continue to resonate with him outside the ring. The book also chronicles Cus’s courageous fight against the mobsters who controlled boxing, revealing more than we’ve ever known about this singular cultural figure.


About The Author

Mike Tyson is the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and the first boxer ever to hold the three biggest belts in prizefighting—the WBC, WBA, and IBF world heavyweight titles—simultaneously. Tyson’s enduring appeal has launched him into a career in entertainment: he was a standout in the blockbuster films The Hangover and The Hangover Part II, and recently he has earned tremendous acclaim for his one-man show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. Tyson has launched a clothing company, Roots of Fight, and Tyrrhanic Productions, which currently has several film projects in development. In 2011 he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Kiki, and their children.   Larry “Ratso” Sloman is best known as Howard Stern’s collaborator on Private Parts and Miss America. Sloman’s recent collaborations include Mysterious Stranger, with magician David Blaine; Scar Tissue, the memoir of Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis; and Undisputed Truth with Mike Tyson. His biography of Houdini, The Secret Life of Houdini, is soon to be a major motion picture for Lionsgate.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alexander on December 17, 2019

I try to judge a book based on what the author states they are going to do. Then, I see if they deliver it. I don't go into McDonald's expecting fine dining. I don't watch Fast And The Furious expecting Citizen Kane. It's one of the most frustrating things in the world to read a negative review of a......more

Goodreads review by John Plowright on May 05, 2017

Behind every great boxer there’s a great trainer: for Joe Louis it was Jack Blackburn, for Muhammad Ali it was Angelo Dundee, and for Mike Tyson it was Constantine (‘Cus’) D’Amato. D’Amato obviously featured heavily in Tyson’s candid autobiography ‘Undisputed Truth’, written with Larry Sloman, and th......more

Goodreads review by Sau Cheung on July 02, 2019

2.5 stars. The book lost momentum each time it went back to the 50-60s and talked about Cus's time with Patterson. Might have been bearable if it was a few pages here but it was about half the book.......more

Goodreads review by Bhagat on January 03, 2024

What a phenomenal book. One of the best I’ve ever read for sure. Ive never seen a biography written simultaneously cinematically and scientifically. The references to other literature and accounts of history is unmatched. It was a privilege reading this book. I’ve learned so much and grown so much f......more

Goodreads review by Vowelor on May 31, 2017

No doubt, he is the one and only boxing legend. And, not many of us know about his relation with his trainer Cus D'Amato - a father figure for him - who not trained him for the boxing ring but for also the fight called life! Yes, that's what Iron Ambition by Mike Tyson is all about. He shares how D'A......more


Quotes

“In this tender and disturbing hybrid of memoir and biography, former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson examines one of the most unusual characters in boxing history…. Tyson’s love for Cus D’Amato is more than apparent, but it doesn’t lead him to downplay his teacher’s myriad faults.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The boxing champion, infamous for biting and beating, reveals his soft side in this memoir of his longtime mentor and trainer.... [Tyson] writes respectfully and affectionately [about Constantine 'Cus' D'Amato], though some of the old toughness hangs on.... A belated but welcome homage to a boxing legend who died shortly before Tyson's career took off. Fans of the sweet science will want to have a look."
Kirkus Reviews