Next month, on November 4, it will be 39 years since Cus D’Amato left this world. The generational teacher, the trainer of trainers and world champions, passed away roughly eight months after his most famous pupil made his professional debut.

On November 15, Mike Tyson will step into the ring again to face Jake Paul. Despite a few reservations surrounding it, the fight has gained significant hype—a clash between a former heavyweight champion, a bona fide boxing great, and a young YouTuber-turned-boxer. Understandably, there is a renewed interest in the fighters’ past, especially that of Mike Tyson. Much of his professional career and private life have been well documented. Nevertheless, given that Cus D’Amato’s remembrance is approaching, a few fans might want to learn a bit more about the legendary trainer, who at one point advised Muhammad Ali as well. It’s a different story how ‘The Greatest’ used that counsel to catapult his career to historic proportions.

Reason behind Cus D’Amato’s death

Cus D’Amato had been an amateur boxer whose professional dreams were clipped during street fights. Nonetheless, he achieved mainstream recognition as a trainer following Floyd Patterson‘s exploits. ‘The Gentleman of Boxing’ owed much of his success to D’Amato’s peek-a-boo style.

Long after Patterson, Cus D’Amato trained other boxers who achieved both regional and international fame. Reportedly, he was in semi-retirement, running a boxing gym in Catskill, Albany, when he came across a troubled teenager, Michael Gerard Tyson. The sharp eyes of D’Amato caught the youngster’s natural gift for boxing. D’Amato legally adopted Tyson when he was sixteen and started training him. Like Floyd Patterson before him, Mike Tyson also became a keen practitioner of the trainer’s peculiar style of fighting.

Following a slew of amateur championships, on March 6, 1985, at New York’s Plaza Convention Center, ‘Iron’ Mike fought his professional bout. The nineteen-year-old debutant knocked out his opponent, Hector Mercedes, in the opening round. The pattern continued till James Tillis took him the whole distance. Sadly, a few months after the Mercedes fight, on November 4, 1985, Constantine ‘Cus’ D’Amato, then 77, passed away at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He was suffering from pneumonia.

On November 22, 1986, some two weeks after D’Amato’s first remembrance, Tyson created history when he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. As he recalled his long-time association with D’Amato, Floyd Patterson reportedly said, “There will never be another manager or person who cares about his fighters the way Cus did.” And Patterson wasn’t the only person who felt that way. Anyone who had the privilege of being closely associated with D’Amato shared similar views.

How would life be with Cus D’Amato, reveals Mike Tyson

Cus D’Amato’s death seemingly left a searing vacuum in Mike Tyson’s life. He reached the pinnacle of boxing. However, challenges—especially those plaguing his personal life—took a heavy toll, eventually throwing his life into chaos. As he looked back, ‘Iron’ Mike once recalled how his life might have followed another path had Cus D’Amato been there by his side.

Speaking to VLAD TV some four years ago, Tyson admitted that his life would have been ‘totally different’. “Because Cus was really… controlling. He’s just… he’d have been very happy though… I would’ve been really commercialized. Cus always wanted somebody like that,” he said. Mike Tyson shared how D’Amato was a stickler for discipline and values. Years after he saw his wealth reaching monumental heights, in 2003 Mike Tyson was forced to declare himself bankrupt. So he revealed that under D’Amato’s guidance, he wouldn’t have been through financial pitfalls.

While he was acknowledged for his business acumen, Cus D’Amato earned a reputation over the years as a man with a big heart. He always ensured to help the needy. Floyd Patterson had once said, “Cus cared more about his fighters than money. He gave money away like it was just giving somebody a drink of water. He wasn’t a greedy person. His main concern was his fighters.”

When the prestigious Boxing Writers Association of America instituted an award in Cus D’Amato’s memory, Mike Tyson became its first recipient. After his passing, the legendary trainer was interred in Catskill.

Why, after Mike Tyson, no other fighter picked up the peek-a-boo style?