Iron Ambition ─ My Life With Cus D'Amato

From the former heavyweight champion and New York Times bestselling memoirist, an intimate and revealing look at the life and leadership lessons of Cus D'Amato, the legendary boxing trainer and Mike Tyson's surrogate father.

When legendary boxing trainer Cus D'Amato first saw thirteen year old Mike Tyson spar in the ring, he proclaimed, "That's the heavyweight champion of the world." D'Amato, who had previously managed the careers of Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres, would go on to train the young boxer for several years, and died a few months before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

In Tyson's best-selling memoir Undisputed Truth, he recounted the role D'Amato played in his formative years, legally adopting him at age sixteen after his mother died and shaping him both physically and mentally after years of living in fear and poverty. Here, Tyson elaborates on the life lessons that D'Amato passed down, and reflects on how the trainer's words of wisdom continue to resonate with him outside the ring.

Mike Tyson is the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, and the first boxer ever to hold the three biggest belts in prizefighting—the WBC, WBA, and IBF world heavyweight titles—simultaneously. Tyson’s enduring appeal has launched him into a career in entertainment: he was a standout in the blockbuster films The Hangover and The Hangover Part II, and recently he has earned tremendous acclaim for his one-man show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. Tyson has launched a clothing company, Roots of Fight, and Tyrrhanic Productions, which currently has several film projects in development. In 2011 he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. He lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Kiki, and their children.

Larry “Ratso” Sloman is best known as Howard Stern’s collaborator on Private Parts and Miss America. Sloman’s recent collaborations include Mysterious Stranger, with magician David Blaine; Scar Tissue, the memoir of Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis; and Undisputed Truth with Mike Tyson. His biography of Houdini, The Secret Life of Houdini, is soon to be a major motion picture for Lionsgate.