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"Can Mike Tyson Help Save Boxing?"

This week's guest-author is Ted Leshinski. Ted has held public relations positions with such sports-related organizations as the NHL, George Washington University Athletics and the Sports Museum of America. He currently runs a sports blog called Ted Leshinski's Sports Pub.

After viewing a documentary on Mike Tyson, Ted decided to write to him and see if he convince Mike Tyson to help save the sport that made him famous.

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Dear Mr. Tyson, 

I recently watched the critically-acclaimed documentary “Tyson” featuring you addressing, in extreme depth, the incredible rise and fall of your historic boxing career. 

The 90-minute biopic, really auto-biopic, is a simple premise where the entire focus of the film is just you sitting on a couch discussing your career with various boxing highlights, interviews and new clips peppered throughout. 

“Tyson” is the best documentary about an athlete ever made, I believe. Not because of any new information or rare boxing footage revealed but because of how brutally honest you are in the movie. I’ve been watching sports and sports media-related events for more than 30 years and I’ve never seen an athlete more open or honest about themselves. 

I have to admit that, although there’s no doubt how great and ferocious a fighter you once were, I did not like who you turned into during your career and your public image. I was often irritated and disappointed at how you handled yourself publicly, the people you surrounded yourself with and the tremendous talent you squandered. 

So the reason I enjoyed your movie so much was because - you didn’t apologize for anything. You owned up to what you did and how you handled things, but basically said to the world “I did what I did and that’s that.” 

You admitted that during your boxing career you weren’t a good man. You reflected on how you mistreated women (although continued to deny raping Desiree Washington), mishandled hundreds of millions of dollars, allowed your boxing skills to disintegrate and abused drugs and alcohol. 

You were clearly sad and remorseful throughout the interview and obviously very broken as a man. But, for maybe the first time since you became the youngest heavyweight champion at the age of 19, I admired you. 

I admired the way you made no excuses for your tragic fall from the absolute top of the sports world. I admired that you blamed no one but yourself for not training or preparing for your 1990 bout with Buster Douglas in Tokyo, your upset loss of colossal proportions. 

You even gave former manager and reputed dirt bag Don King a pass, sort of, on the loss of most of your fortune. The fact that you conceded it was wrong to track King down and pummel him after learning of his embezzlements, showed me a different Mike Tyson then the one I grew up with. 

After watching the movie, I kept thinking how surprisingly articulate and cultivating you now are. You seem grounded and painfully aware of what you made of your life and have a real sincere sense of who you are. 

One thing nobody can take away from you is your love and historical knowledge of boxing. Even as a young and up-and-coming fighter, you always referenced the greats and talked about how you aspired to one day be on their level. 

Because you are clearly at a crossroad in your post boxing career and also in life, I propose that you now focus your time and effort into improving boxing in America.

Boxing is such a great American sport and at one time as popular as baseball. But, for a number of reasons, the sport’s appeal to Americans has diminished considerably. 

America has the world’s greatest athletes yet we haven’t produced a superstar champion since you. 

Why not use your celebrity, experience and intelligence to help young boxers avoid your pitfalls and also help the sport as whole?

The name Mike Tyson will always be a powerful persona in American culture. At the age of 42 you are still a very young man with potentially thirty or forty productive years ahead of you. Why not fight to give something back to the sport you still love and respect. Why not give something back to the sport that gave you everything, only to be flushed away. 

Mr. Tyson, you owe boxing. 

It’s apparent from the movie that you feel you’ve embarrassed and hurt the sport of boxing. 

Yes, your career as a fighter is over. But a career as an activist or a representive of an improvement initiative for American boxing could begin today. 

Please, when considering and weighing your next move in life – consider helping the sport of boxing. Your name and intellect could be just what American boxing needs to get back to where it once was. 

Thank you for your time.

Regards, 

Ted Leshinski

 

If you would like to comment on this letter, Ted can be reached at ted@tedleshinskisportspr.com (please include your name and town).

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