Meet “Wise”: The Mysterious Man Who Gave Mike Tyson His First Boxing Lesson

Former world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, is widely regarded as one the most iconic names in the sport of boxing. His sensational performances inside the ring and an equally colorful personality outside the ring rightfully earned him the moniker, ‘The Baddest Man on The Planet’. Tyson has often been vocal about the many inspirational figures in his life, including boxing legend Muhammad Ali. However, there was one particular individual who has seldom been mentioned. And it can even be speculated that this individual might have been his first boxing teacher.

Tyson’s autobiography Undisputed Truth was released in the year 2014. Moreover, this book co-written by Larry Sloman saw the champ talk about his life and struggles and his quest to become the world champion.

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The first chapter narrated a rather interesting incident from Tyson’s childhood. It also had a special mention of Tyson’s first boxing teacher. And it was not Cus D’Amato.

Mike Tyson channeled his inner ‘Wise’

Tyson had a hard childhood growing up in the rough Brownsville neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn. Meanwhile, it is also a known fact that the young ‘Iron’ Mike was fiercely protective of his pigeons. In the book, he opened up about an incident, from his childhood, involving his pigeons and a man named Gary Flowers. Apparently, Flowers and friends were trying to steal Tyson’s birds. This in turn prompted him to confront the man about the same. Flowers, who had a pigeon under his coat, twisted the bird’s neck and threw it at Tyson.

Tyson and his friends were shocked to witness this. In fact, they even urged the young Tyson to fight Flowers. Reminiscing the incident and his inspiration, Tyson said, “I had always been too scared to fight anyone before. But, there used to be an older guy in the neighborhood named Wise, who had been a Police Athletic League boxer. He used to smoke weed with us. And when he’d get high, he would start shadowboxing.”

While Tyson never fought ‘Wise’, he mentioned that he remembered Wise’s style of boxing. He further added, “I didn’t know what I was doing. But I threw some wild punches. And one connected and Gary went down.”

Moreover, he also revealed that he copied Wise’s skipping move while his friends applauded him.

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