The Fight City Podcast No. 59

Welcome to a new edition of The Fight City Podcast as heavyweight historian Hunter Breckenridge and editor Michael Carbert take a look back at the extraordinary career of Michael Gerard Tyson. And wonder what to make of his upcoming clash against Jake Paul. Check it out:

“Built like a pitbull with a matching bite, a concentration of racial tropes both admirable and frightening, Mike Tyson was a boxing archetype for a culture steeped in synthetic gangsterism. And, after emerging from prison in 1995, he re-validated the idea of an unstoppable, primal destroyer by easily winning back the title. But human beings cannot live as ideals if they are to remain human beings. With his personality fractured and with little incentive to ground himself in reality, Mike immersed himself in his public image, which functioned as a darkly attractive coping mechanism, though solitary and fleeting. Outside the ring, where hurting someone wasn’t legally palatable, being “Iron Mike” felt hollow, so drugs and sex kept him stimulated and this constant high precluded any sober reflection. Had he some time to think, perhaps he would have divested himself of fame entirely.”       –From “A Requiem For Iron Mike”