Ready To Soar To The Very Top

Can Tyson withstand pressure himself? Can he take a bang? His handlers are sanguine. "I've seen him take a shot," says his trainer, Kevin Rooney. "When he was 15, he sparred with Carl [The Truth] Williams in the gym and got nailed right on the button. He walked right through it, like it was nothing." In this regard, Rooney is not the only observer to point out that Tyson's head is bolted to a 19¾-inch neck.

Despite Tyson's growing celebrity and the promise that tomorrow holds, there exists an unshakable sadness in his life. His mother died of cancer in 1982. "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: That's my boy, my youngest son! She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally."

And then there's D'Amato and the void left in Tyson's life. "I miss him terribly," Tyson says. "The many years we worked over things, and worked over things. He was my backbone. All the things we worked on, they're starting to come out so well. If he was just here to see them, he'd be so happy.

"When I'd get up in the morning, he'd make me breakfast. Now he's not around anymore. God, I'm going to do well, but when I come down to it, who really cares? I like doing my job, but I'm not happy being victorious. I fight my heart out and give it my best, but when it's over, there's no Cus to tell me how I did, no mother to show my clippings to."

At home in Catskill, Tyson keeps pigeons in a coop in the backyard. He feeds them and sets them free and watches them soar in high, quick circles. "They're my brothers and babies," he says. He eats dinner, watches fight films, goes to bed early and is up at dawn to run the roads. "Cus told me, 'Patterson was the youngest world heavyweight champion ever, 21 years and 11 months when he won the title. You'll be younger.' Cus and me, we started out with a job. I just want to finish it."