Iron Ambition: My Life with Cus D'Amato

From the former heavyweight champion and New York Times–bestselling author comes a powerful look at the life and leadership lessons of Cus D’Amato, the legendary boxing trainer and Mike Tyson’s surrogate father.

"[Iron Ambition] spells out D'Amato's techniques for building a champion from scratch." – Wall Street Journal
 
When 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 world champions Floyd Patterson and José Torres, would go on to train the young Tyson and raise him as a son. D'Amato died a year before Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.
     In Tyson’s bestselling memoir Undisputed Truth, he recounted the role D’Amato played in his formative years, adopting him at age sixteen after his mother died and shaping him both physically and mentally after Tyson had spent years living in fear and poverty. In Iron Ambition, Tyson elaborates on the life lessons that D’Amato passed down to him, and reflects on how the trainer’s words of wisdom continue to resonate with him outside the ring. The book also chronicles Cus’s courageous fight against the mobsters who controlled boxing, revealing more than we’ve ever known about this singular cultural figure.

• Undisputed Truth
• The Cus D'Amato Mind: Learn The Simple Secrets That Took Boxers Like Mike Tyson To Greatness
• Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense
• Cus D'Amato: Life Lessons On Will, Skill, Discipline & Psychological Warfare From Mike Tyson's Mentor
• Footwork Wins Fights: The Footwork of Boxing, Kickboxing, Martial Arts & MMA
• The Greatest: My Own Story
• Ali: A Life
• In This Corner . . . !: Forty-two World Champions Tell Their Stories
• Box Like the Pros
• Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring: A Son's Struggle to Become a Man