Tyson Page #2

and tuck behind your gloves...

...in constant motion, no one's

gonna be able to land nothing.

Lies and deceit. Subterfuge,

that's what we deal in.

Don't ever let anyone

know your real intentions.

CUS:

Champion fighters are champion liars.

Best in the world.

ALI [ON FILM]:
Keep your camera moving

because I'm kind of fast.

[GRUNTING]

Back off of him, just keep boxing.

Who ate my ice cream?

Who ate my ice cream?

Who ate my ice cream, damn it?

[TYSON CRYING]

ATLAS:

Mike.

ROONEY:

What's up?

- Mike's mom passed away.

- Oh, jeez.

CUS:
He's gotta take a bus to Brooklyn.

Drive him into town.

ROONEY:

Sure.

What you gonna do, Mike?

You gonna move back home here?

No, man, I got a home.

[SIREN WAILING IN THE DISTANCE]

[HAMMERING]

Hi, Mike.

- Hey, Jamie.

- What are you doing?

Building a pigeon coop.

I heard about your mom.

ATLAS:

Hey, Mike.

Glad to have you back home.

Jamie.

Okay, Uncle Teddy. I gotta go.

Pigeons, huh?

My old man used to call them

flying rats.

So how was the funeral?

Yeah.

Mike...

Do you know what a professional is?

- Somebody who gets paid to...

- It's got nothing to do with money.

A professional is a guy who performs

no matter what he's feeling inside.

You understand me?

No matter what.

Here.

TYSON:
What is it?

- It's yours.

Muhammad Ali gave it to me,

and I'm giving it to you.

Take it with you

to the Junior Olympics.

[BELL DINGS]

ANNOUNCER [OVER PA]:

In the heavyweight position, we have...

ATLAS:

Come on, Mike, relax. Take it easy.

- Teddy, I'm so scared.

- What are you scared of?

- Letting Cus down.

- You ain't gonna let no one down.

You fought tougher guys than this.

Look at your opponent there.

Look at him.

You don't think he ain't scared?

Of course he is.

Come on, what does Cus say?

You remember what he said

about your fear? What did he say?

- To... To use it.

- Use it how?

- To turn my fear into fire.

- That's right.

So, what are you gonna do

when you get in that ring?

I'm gonna open up with some sevens.

Seven.

There you go. Chin down, eyes up.

Then what you gonna do?

Two. Send a two.

- And what's the next punch?

- Five.

Seven, two, five.

Seven, two, five.

Keep moving inside.

And what are you gonna do inside?

I'm gonna open up

like a son of a b*tch.

ATLAS:

All right. Let's go win a fight.

[BELL DINGS]

REFEREE:

Go!

[BOXER GRUNTING]

REFEREE:

Get in the corner!

Four! Five!

Six! Seven! Eight! Nine!

- Ten!

TYSON:
Yeah!

ATLAS:

You did it, champ.

DOCTOR:
That's it. Just stay still.

Just stay still. Don't... Don't move.

TRAINER:
Will he be all right?

DOCTOR:
He'll be fine.

Eight? What do you mean eight?

They only do three rounds in the juniors.

ATLAS:
No, no, eight seconds.

- Eight seconds!

What... What did he do,

shoot the guy?

Might as well have.

They say it's a new record.

It's all anyone's talking about.

Well, where is he now?

He's still in the ring.

They just announced it.

CUS:
Anybody talking to him?

- Sure, the ring's full of people.

Teddy, I want him back here

right now.

Back here on the next plane.

ATLAS:
But...

- Don't argue with me, Teddy, just do it!

Goddamn sharks.

CAMILLE:

Cus?

Well, uh...

- Well, Mike, you know, he...

- What about Mike?

Well, now that his mother's gone

and all that, I, uh...

I thought maybe...

- About adopting him?

- Yeah.

Sounds crazy, I know, but, uh...

What do you think?

ATLAS:
Here we are, Cus.

TYSON:
Cus. Cus.

Hey, Cus. I did it. Just like you said.

Yeah, but eight seconds.

What took you so long?

I'm proud of you, Mike.

Really proud.

ATLAS:
Come on, Mike.

Let's get this crap inside.

CUS:
I been doing some thinking

while you were away. Uh...

Well, me and Camille both, actually.

TYSON:

About what?

What would you say if, uh,

we were to become your guardians?

- Wha...? You mean like adopt me?

- Yeah, something like that.

Well, yeah. Sure.

That's fine, son.

Michael, congratulations.

TYSON:

I did it.

ATLAS:

If you blinked, you'd have missed it.

- Camille, was Cus serious about...?

- Cus is always serious.

Well, then, was he serious about

you wanting it too?

Uh-huh.

Well, then, like, um...

Then, li... Well, then, could I

call you "Mom"?

I would like that very much.

JACOBS:

So, what do you want from me?

CUS:
He needs sparring partners.

JACOBS:
What about your other fighters?

CUS:

I mean real sparring partners.

He's beaten the hell

out of all my guys.

JACOBS:
It's a risk, Cus.

Taking a new fighter today isn't cheap.

CUS:

To me, everything's a risk.

We're talking about the next

heavyweight champion of the world.

JACOBS:
You serious?

CUS:
You mark my words.

When the history of boxing

is written...

...Mike Tyson's name will be mentioned

with Dempsey, Marciano and Joe Louis.

CAYTON:

That's a pretty prestigious club, Cus.

JACOBS:

So when do we get to meet this kid?

CAMILLE:

Michael, what are you doing here?

CUS:

Mike?

Eh, come here for a minute, will you?

See this guy here?

This is the fairest guy I know

in this whole crooked business.

Jimmy Jacobs. Mike Tyson,

my son for, uh... What is it? Two weeks?

Ha-ha-ha. Mike Tyson, Jimmy Jacobs.

- Hi, Mike.

- Pleased to meet you, Mr. Jacobs.

Please, Jimmy. Always Jimmy.

Here's my partner, Bill Cayton.

Mike, I watched

your Junior Olympic fight.

Oh, that was great work.

- Thank you, Mr. Cayton.

- My pleasure, Mike.

Bill and Jimmy manage fighters, Mike.

They wouldn't be here

unless I trusted them.

JACOBS:

Yeah.

These are the friends

you wanna be surrounded by.

The kind that can keep you

out of trouble.

JACOBS:

And if you want to be champion...

...you gotta show a lot of discipline.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING

ON CAR STEREO]

Next great heavyweight

champion. Ha-ha!

Who the f***

you been talking to, man?

Is that what that white man

been telling you?

You know he blowing smoke

up your ass, right?

You know that, don't you?

Man, there's probably 10,000 of

you little ghetto niglettes out there...

...dreaming the same

f***ed-up dream.

And every one of you probably got

some drooly cracker motherf***er...

...riding his ass thinking

he's Anglo f***ing Dundee.

- It's Angelo Dundee.

- Angelo, Anglo, whatever.

Breaks my heart.

Let's go home.

This sh*t's depressing.

Yo, man, stop the car.

- Why?

- Yo, girlies, what's up?

- Come on, stop the car. They're down.

- Sh*t.

TYSON:

Yo, fly girls, where you going?

Yo, what's up?

Yo, baby, hold up.

Come on, man. Come on.

Yo, baby, can I come?

RORY:
Damn.

- Come on, Rory.

How many times you gotta strike out

before you call it a night?

Yo, wait up.

GIRL:
Come on, girl. Let's just go.

TYSON:
Hey, yo, yo.

RORY:
Man, they're running away.

TYSON:
Yo, yo, yo!

RORY:
Damn.

- I like the one on the right, man.

- Damn, you probably scaring them.

- It's fine. Yo!

GIRL:
Come on. Over here.

TYSON:
Da... What they doing?

Come on, now.

TYSON:

They must have went in here.

- They here.

RORY:
Come on. They're not here.

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