One Life.
Cus D’Amato
Boxing trainer
19081985
His Words Made Mike Tyson Cry at 13
8 sourcesTranscriptRead while listening
The story in brief
Cus D’Amato was born in the Bronx in 1908. At 12, a street fight with a grown man left his right eye blind for years, so he could never box as a professional. Instead he ran a gym up a dark Manhattan stairway, teaching boys for free. Many tough kids froze at the door at the top. In 1949 a shy 14-year-old, once sent to a reform school, opened it: Floyd Patterson.
After Patterson won Olympic gold at 17, boxing’s mob-backed monopoly demanded half of Cus’s stake in him, and Cus refused. In 1956, at 21, Patterson became the youngest heavyweight champion yet. Defying the monopoly left Cus in debt and his fighters short of fights. Patterson later broke with him, saying Cus had tried to dominate him. In 1980, in the village of Catskill, a reform-school counsellor brought Cus a 13-year-old: Mike Tyson. The counsellor said Cus called him the future heavyweight champion, and the boy cried. When the boy’s mother died, Cus became his guardian. One trainer said Cus even hid the boy’s trouble at school.
Cus died in 1985, aged 77, when Tyson was 19 and unbeaten. A year later, at 20, Tyson broke Patterson’s record and dedicated the fight “to my great guardian, Cus D’Amato.”
In his own words
First thing I want to know about a kid is whether he can open that door.
I told him that before he was through he would… become the youngest heavyweight champion of all time and would be the greatest fighter of all time.
Fear is like a fire. If you control it… it is our friend. But if you don’t control it, fire, and fear, will destroy you.
Sources (8)
- Martin Kane, “The Man the System Could Not Beat”, Sports Illustrated, 10 December 1956
- “Cus D’Amato: A Very Simple Tiger”, Sports Illustrated, 21 April 1958
- “Svengali Returns”, Sports Illustrated, 12 April 1965
- Associated Press obituary, “Boxing Manager Cus D’Amato Dies at 77”, Los Angeles Times, 6 November 1985
- Pete Hamill, “Up the Stairs with Cus D’Amato”, The Village Voice, 19 November 1985
- Teddy Atlas’s interview on NPR Weekend Edition, 2006
- Mike Tyson with Larry Sloman, Iron Ambition: My Life with Cus D’Amato (2017), Sports Illustrated excerpt
- Mike Tyson’s interview with David Greene, NPR Morning Edition, 30 May 2017, with audio of the 1986 HBO broadcast
Updated October 5, 2026.
Transcript
Mike Tyson came out of a reform school. So did another boy.
Before they turned 22, both were heavyweight champion of the world, and both came through one man's door.
So what did their teacher see in them?
At 12, Cus D'Amato made a grown bully run. But the fight blinded one eye for years, so he could never turn professional.
Instead, he ran a gym up a dark stairway, teaching boys for free. Many tough kids froze at the door at the top.
"First thing I want to know about a kid," Cus said, "is whether he can open that door."
A shy 14-year-old, once sent to a reform school, opened it: Floyd Patterson.
Boxing's bosses, backed by the mob, wanted a share of Floyd's money. Cus said no.
Before the title fight, Cus slept across Floyd's door, in case the mob tried something.
At 21, Floyd became the youngest heavyweight champion ever.
But fighting the mob left Cus with no money, and then Floyd left him.
Floyd said Cus tried to control him. For a month, Cus said, he banged on Floyd's door almost every day. It never opened.
He started over in a small town, above the police station. At 72, a reform-school counsellor brought him a 13-year-old.
The boy sparred until his nose bled, and wouldn't stop.
The counsellor said Cus told him: "That is the heavyweight champion of the world, and possibly the universe." The boy cried. It was Mike Tyson.
Cus took him in, and when the boy's mother died, became his guardian.
For this boy, Cus held every door open. A trainer said Cus even hid the boy's trouble at school.
Cus died at 77. Tyson was 19, and unbeaten.
A year later, at 20, Tyson broke Floyd's record, and dedicated the fight "to my great guardian, Cus D'Amato."
Twice, Cus saw a champion in a shy boy at his door. He lived to see it once.
