Baddest Man

The making of Mike Tyson

Mark Kriegal

$55

Hardback

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English

Ebury Spotlight
05 June 2025

Biography: sport; Boxing

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author whose coverage of Mike Tyson and his inner circle dates back to the 1980s, a magnificent noir epic about fame, race, greed, criminality, trauma, and the creation of the most feared and mesmerizing fighter in boxing history.

On a defining evening of the 1980s, Donald Trump hosted celebrities and high rollers in a Jersey Shore town to witness 21-year-old Mike Tyson knock out Michael Spinks in just 91 seconds, earning more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics combined.

Only eight years earlier, Tyson, a troubled child from Brooklyn, was taken under the wing of boxing legend Cus D'Amato in upstate New York. Their story of mutual redemption captivated novelists, screenwriters, and the emerging cable TV industry. Tyson became HBO's leading man long before Tony Soprano.

Despite the immense success, Tyson's story was more complex and darker than it appeared. Over the decades, he has been villainized, lionized, and fetishized-but never fully humanized until now. Acclaimed biographer Mark Kriegel, who first encountered Tyson as a young reporter, explores Tyson's life through what he survived rather than whom he knocked out.

Tyson, often compared to Jack Dempsey, was more akin to Sonny Liston-Black, feared, and expected to die young. What made Liston a pariah made Tyson a touchstone for a generation influenced by hip hop and gunfire. Kriegel captures not just Tyson's rise but his profound impact on the American psyche.

By: Mark Kriegal
Imprint: Ebury Spotlight
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 164mm, Spine: 46mm
Weight: 664g
ISBN: 9781529958942
ISBN 10: 1529958946
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 05 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Mark Kriegel, a former sports columnist for the New York Post and the Daily News, is a boxing analyst and essayist for ESPN. He is the author of Namath- A Biography, Pistol- The Life of Pete Maravich and The Good Son- The Life of Ray \""Boom Boom\"" Mancini. He lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife, the screenwriter Jenny Lumet.

Reviews for Baddest Man: The making of Mike Tyson

One of America’s finest living sportswriters... the best sports biography I have read in years -- Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning A masterpiece ... [this book] cements Mark Kriegel as the greatest chronicler of fighting and fighters -- Wright Thompson, , New York Times bestselling author of The Barn, Pappyland, and The Cost of These Dreams Mark Kriegel has done it again. Baddest Man is the Mike Tyson book all of us (and not just boxing fans) have been waiting for, a biography as nimble and powerful as its subject. Unforgettable -- Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life and Ali: A Life