Mike Tyson and Sonny Liston both came out of poverty and despair…
Michael Gerard Tyson was born in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York City on June 30, 1966. Tyson's mother Virginia was described as a substance abuser who might have been a prostitute. On his birth certificate Tyson's biological father is listed as Purcell Tyson, but the man Tyson believed was his father was a pimp named Jimmy Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick abandoned the Tyson family around the time Mike was born. Mike, his brother, sister and mother lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant until a move to Brownsville came from poverty when Tyson was 10 years old.
Growing up in Brownsville was…terrible. Mike described what that neighborhood was like:
“It’s bad stuff, it’s really bad stuff, people tying people up and doing bad things to ‘em over drugs and stuff. To their family members, just real bad stuff that you don’t even want to mention … Anything you can think of someone did to abuse a human being, they did it there.”
Tyson was effectively abandoned as a child, and was on his own on the streets at 13. Indeed, by 13 Tyson had been arrested 38 times, and finally, Mike was sentenced to the Tryon School for Boys, a juvenile prison, in Johnstown, New York.
Sonny Liston was whipped and used as a farm mule by his father. This would cause him to not have a good education. When he left the farm, he tried to go to school. But, he looked like an adult by 10 years old. Bullied for looking like a old man. Due to not performing well in school, he went to the mafia. Being a criminal, he gained everything he needed. He also got arrested and he enjoyed prison. The fact is that the first 10 years of his life were a nightmare. It caused mental scars that would soon lead Liston down a dark path.
The only record of Sonny’s birthday was carved on an old tree which was cut down.
Sonny was not allowed to go to school, but worked on the land from the time he could walk - and was beaten with a whip when he didn’t work hard enough
