MIDO

Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelhamid (Arabic: احمد حسام حسين عبد الحميد) , also known as Mido (born February 23, 1983 in Cairo, Egypt)[1] is an Egyptian footballer, who is currently playing for Premier League club Middlesbrough as a striker.Mido started his career with El-Zamalek in Egypt in 1999. He left the club for K.A.A. Gent of Belgium in 2000, where he won the Belgian Ebony Shoe. This led to a move to Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam in 2001, where he joined Celta Vigo on loan in 2003. His next destination was Olympique de Marseille in France and left them for Italian side A.S. Roma in 2004. He joined English side Tottenham Hotspur on an 18-month loan in 2005 and eventually joined the club permanently in 2006. He left the club in 2007 to join his current club Middlesbrough.

Mido is an Egypt international, for who he has amassed 44 caps and scored 18 goals. However, his career with Egypt has been struck by controversy, having twice been banned by the national set-up.

El-Zamalek and K.A.A. Gent
Mido started his career with Egyptian club El-Zamalek in 1999.[2] He scored three goals in four appearances for Zamalek, which lead to Belgian club K.A.A. Gent signing him in 2000.[2] He won the Belgian Ebony Shoe in 2001 during his only season with the club.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York, United States) is a former American professional basketball player and current assistant coach. Typically referred to as Lew Alcindor in his younger days, he changed his name when he converted to Islam.

Considered one of the greatest players of all time, the 7ft-2in (2.18 m) Abdul-Jabbar played center for UCLA from 1965–69. Later, he played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks (1969–75) and the Los Angeles Lakers (1975–89), accumulating 38,387 points, the NBA's highest career total. He was famous for his "Skyhook" shot which defenders found virtually impossible to block. His on-court success was unprecedented; he won a record six Most Valuable Player Awards, played on six championship teams as a professional, and played on three NCAA championship teams under coach John Wooden as a collegian. His high school team won 72 consecutive games and his UCLA teams were an unmatched 88-2. After a then-record 20 professional seasons in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar retired from the game in 1989. Following his success as a professional athlete, Abdul-Jabbar has become known as a successful basketball coach, author, and part-time actor.

Contents

1 Early years
1.1 College
1.1.1 Game of the Century
1.1.2 School records
2 Professional athletics
2.1 Milwaukee Bucks
2.2 Los Angeles Lakers
2.3 Post-NBA career
3 Film career
4 Player profile
5 Sky hook
6 Professional basketball career and statistics
6.1 Teams and years
6.2 Statistics
7 Athletic honors
8 Books authored
9 Personal life
10 Appearances in the media
11 In popular culture
12 Trivia
13 See also
14 References
15 External links



Early years

He was born to Cora and Ferdinand Lewis "Al" Alcindor as an only child in Harlem, New York City, in 1947, and at birth weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5730 gm), and was twenty-four and a half inches (69 cm) long. [1] He was raised as a Roman Catholic. From an early age he began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led Power Memorial High School to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 72-game winning streak, and a 96–6 overall record. He scored 2067 points in his high school career.


College

Heavily sought by collegiate basketball programs, he played for the UCLA Bruins from 1966 to 1969 under coach John Wooden, contributing to the team's three-year record of 88 wins and only two losses (at the time freshmen were not eligible for varsity athletics). During his college career he was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969), was a three-time First Team All-American (1967-69), played on three NCAA Basketball champion teams (1967, 1968, 1969), was honored as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969), and became the first-ever Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969. In 1967, 1968 he also won USBWA College Player of the Year which later became Oscar Robertson Trophy.

The dunk was disallowed from college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Alcindor's dominance of the sport. [2]

While playing for UCLA, he suffered a scratched left cornea on January 12, 1968 at the Cal game. He would miss the next two games against Stanford and Portland. This happened right before the momentous game against Houston. His cornea later would be scratched again during his pro career and he would then wear goggles for protection.


Game of the Century

Main article: Game of the Century (college basketball)
On January 20, 1968, Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins faced the Houston Cougars in the first-ever nationally televised regular season college basketball game. In front of a record 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome, Elvin Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds--while limiting Alcindor to just 15 points--as Houston beat UCLA 71-69. The Bruins 47-game winning streak ended in what has been called the "Game of the Century". Hayes and Alcindor would have a rematch in the 1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament where UCLA would defeat Houston in the semi-finals 101-69.


School records

As of the 2006-2007 season, Abdul-Jabbar still holds a number of individual records at UCLA--remarkable, in part, because at the time freshman were ineligible for varsity basketball:

Highest career Scoring Average: 26.4
Most career Field Goals: 943
Most season Points: 870 (1967)
Highest season Scoring Average: 29.0 (1967)
Most season Field Goals: 346 (1967)
Most season Free Throw Attempts: 274 (1967)
Most single game Points: 61 and Most single game field goals: 26 (vs. Washington State, 2/25/67)

Professional athletics

Milwaukee Bucks

The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and he was picked first in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, only in their second season, who won the coin-toss for first pick over the Phoenix Suns.

Lew Alcindor's entry into the NBA was timely, as center Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was aging, at 33 years old. Alcindor's presence enabled the 1969-70 Bucks to claim second place in the NBA's Eastern Division with a 56-26 record (up from 27-55 the previous year), and he was an instant star, ranking second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (14.5 rpg), for which he was awarded the title of NBA Rookie of the Year.

With the addition of Oscar Robertson, Milwaukee went on to record a league-best 66 victories in 1970-71, including a then-record of 20 straight wins. Alcindor was awarded his first of six NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, along with his first scoring title (31.7 ppg). In the playoffs, the Bucks went 12-2 (including a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bulletts in the NBA Finals) and Alcindor was named Finals MVP. On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, he adopted the Arabic name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, meaning "noble, servant of the powerful one [i.e. of Allah]."

Abdul-Jabbar remained a dominant force for Milwaukee, repeating as scoring champion (34.8 ppg) and NBA Most Valuable Player the following year, and helping the Bucks to repeat as division leaders for four straight years. In 1973, Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in five years and was among the top five NBA players in scoring (27.0 ppg, third), rebounding (14.5 rpg, fourth), blocked shots (283, second), and field goal percentage (.539, second).

While remaining relatively injury-free throughout his NBA career, Abdul-Jabbar twice broke his hand. The first time was during a pre-season game in 1974, when he was bumped hard and got his eye scratched, which angered him enough to punch the basket support stanchion. When he returned, after missing the first 16 games of the season, he started to wear protective goggles. The second time he broke his hand was in the opening game of the 1977-78 season. Two minutes into the game, Abdul-Jabbar punched Milwaukee's Kent Benson in retaliation for an overly aggressive elbow. He was out for two months.

Although Abdul-Jabbar always spoke well of Milwaukee and its fans, after a few seasons he said that being in the Midwest did not fit his cultural needs and requested a trade to either New York or Los Angeles.


Los Angeles Lakers

While Milwaukee was slowly improving, the Los Angeles Lakers were winning their own way. During the 1971-1972 season, the L.A. Lakers, led by Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West, won an NBA record 33 consecutive games on their way to their first championship in Los Angeles. In 1975, the Lakers acquired Abdul-Jabbar and reserve center Walt Wesley from the Bucks for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters, and rookie "blue chippers" Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. And in 1979, they would acquire 1st overall draft pick Earvin "Magic" Johnson , who would average 19.5 points and 11.2 assists in his 14 years in the NBA, with 3 MVP awards and 10,141 assists. The trade and draft paved the way for a second Abdul-Jabbar dynasty as the Lakers went on to become the most dominant team of the 1980s, appearing in the finals eight times and winning five NBA championships.

While in L.A., Abdul-Jabbar started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen. [3] He was also a pupil of the martial arts master Bruce Lee, and studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do style. [4]

In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar's house burnt down, incinerating among his belongings his beloved collection of jazz albums. Many Lakers fans started bringing him albums and other items to replace his losses, which Abdul-Jabbar found uplifting [5].

On June 28, 1989, after a record-setting twenty professional seasons, Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement. On his "retirement tour" he received standing ovations at all the games, home and away. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls that in his farewell game, many Lakers and Celtics legends participated. Every player wore Abdul-Jabbar's trademark goggles and had to try a sky hook at least once, which led to comic results. The Lakers made the NBA Finals in each of Abdul-Jabbar's final three seasons, defeating Boston in 1987, and Detroit in 1988. The Lakers lost, however, to the Pistons in a four game sweep in his final season.


Post-NBA career

Since 2005, Abdul-Jabbar has served as special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he has had on the league, he had presumed that opportunities in that realm would come easily. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen, often refusing to speak to the press, leading to the impression that he had nothing to say. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls instances when Abdul-Jabbar brushed him off when Magic (as a ballboy) asked for his autograph, Abdul-Jabbar froze out reporters who gave him a too enthusiastic handshake or even hugged him, or refused to stop reading the newspaper while giving an interview.

It is widely believed, including by Abdul-Jabbar himself, though he acknowledges his own culpability in creating that impression, that this reputation has contributed greatly to the lack of coaching opportunities that have thus far been presented to him. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and went through his career unable to realize how much impact he had on and off the court. Abdul-Jabbar said: "I didn't understand that I also had affected people that way and that's what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious and I paid a price for it.".[1] Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he has managed to obtain only low-level assistant and scouting jobs in the NBA, and a head coaching position only in a minor professional league.

Abdul-Jabbar has worked as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, helping mentor their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James, respectively. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach in 2002 of the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League (winning that league's championship that season), but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help develop the team's young center Andrew Bynum. Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.


Film career

Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar's trying his hand at acting. Abdul-Jabbar made his movie debut in Bruce Lee's 1978 film Game of Death, in which his character Hakim fought Billy Lo (played by Lee). His character was the last and most dangerous guardian that Bruce Lee's character had to face. In the extended footage of the final fight scenes of the film, which last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda which Lee's character had to fight his way up. From Lee's viewpoint, the highest level on the pagoda is where Jeet Kune Do, represented by Abdul-Jabbar himself, is found. Through the entire fight, both men not only fight with an ease hard to obtain, but they both make it known neither of them fear death.

In 1980, he played co-pilot Roger Murdock in David Zucker's comedy, Airplane! In this famous movie, Abdul-Jabbar has a memorable scene in which a little boy looks at him and remarks that he is in fact Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Staying in character, Abdul-Jabbar states that he is merely Roger Murdock, an airline co-pilot, but the boy continues to insist that he is "the greatest", but that, according to his father, he doesn't "work hard on defense" and "never really tries, except during the playoffs". This causes Abdul-Jabbar's character to blow a fuse, grab the boy and snarl he has heard "that crap since UCLA", he "busts his buns every night" and the boy should tell his old man to "drag Bill Walton and Bob Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes". When Murdock passes out later in the film, he is carried out wearing Abdul-Jabbar's goggles and yellow Lakers' shorts.

He has had numerous other TV and film appearances, often playing himself, including appearances in the hit Chevy Chase movie Fletch, the ABC sitcom Full House, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Scrubs. He also appeared in the telemovie version of Stephen King's The Stand, played himself in Slam Dunk Ernest starring Jim Varney, The Mighty Ducks II with Emilio Estevez and made a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in another David Zucker comedy, 1998's BASEketball. In addition, Kareem was the co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story.


Player profile

His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history.
— introductory line of Abdul-Jabbar's nba.com/history biography[2]
Abdul-Jabbar played the center position and is regarded as one of the best players of all time. He is the all-time leading NBA scorer with 38,387 points, having collected six titles, six regular season MVP and two Finals MVP awards, fifteen NBA First or Second Teams, a record nineteen NBA All-Star callups and averaging 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game. He is also the third all-time in registered blocks (3,189), which is even more impressive because this stat had not been recorded until the fourth year of his career (1974).

On offense, Abdul-Jabbar was an unstoppable low-post threat. In contrast to other low-post dominators like Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore or Shaquille O'Neal, Abdul-Jabbar was a relatively slender player, standing 7-2 but "only" weighing 225 lbs. However, he made up for his relative lack of bulk by showing textbook finesse and was famous for his ambidextrous skyhook shot (see below), which defenders found impossible to block. It contributed to his high .559 field goal accuracy, making him the eighth most accurate scorer of all time [6] and a feared clutch shooter. Abdul-Jabbar was also quick enough to run the "Showtime" fast break led by Magic Johnson and was well-conditioned, standing on the hardwood an average 36.8 minutes. In contrast to other big men, Abdul-Jabbar also could reasonably hit his free throws, finishing with a career 72% average.

On defense, Abdul-Jabbar maintained a dominant presence. He was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Team eleven times. He frustrated opponents with his superior shot-blocking ability, denying an average 2.6 shots a game.

As a teammate, Abdul-Jabbar exuded natural leadership and was affectionately called "Cap" or "Captain" by his colleagues. He was also known for his strict fitness regime, which made him one of the most durable players of all time. In the NBA, his 20 seasons and 1,560 games are performances surpassed only by fellow legend Robert Parish.

Abdul-Jabbar made the NBA's 35th and 50th Anniversary Teams and in 1996 was named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time.


Sky hook

Abdul-Jabbar was well known for his trademark "sky hook", a hook shot in which he bent his body like a straw in one fluid motion to raise the ball (rather just than moving the arm) and let the ball go at the highest point of his arm's arcing motion. As he stood 7 feet 2 inches tall, the sky hook was nearly impossible for a defender to block without goaltending. Only a few have blocked his legendary skyhook, one of them being Wilt Chamberlain. It was a reliable and feared offensive weapon and contributed to his high lifetime field goal percentage of .559. As a twist, he was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend. According to Abdul-Jabbar, he learned the move in fifth grade and soon learned to value it, as it was "the only shot I could use that didn't get smashed back in my face".[3]


Professional basketball career and statistics

Teams and years

1969-75 Milwaukee Bucks
1975-89 Los Angeles Lakers

Statistics
Jersey number - 33
Games played - 1560 (2nd most in NBA history)
Field goal % - 55.9 (8th highest in NBA history)
Free throw % - 72.1
Three-point % - .056
Rebounds - 17,440 (3rd most in NBA history)
Rebounds per game - 11.2 (tied for 24th highest in NBA history)
Assists - 5,660 (31st in NBA history)
Assist per game - 3.6
Steals - 1,160
Steals per game - 0.74
Blocks - 3,189 (3rd most in NBA history) (Note: blocks were not officially tabulated until the 1973-74 season)
Blocks per game - 2.57
Points per game - 24.6 (12th highest)
Holds NBA career record for:

Most points in NBA history - 38,387

Most minutes played (57,446)

Most field goals made (15,837)

Most field goals attempted (28,307)

Most All-Star selections (19)

Most All-Star games played (18)

Most playoff games played (237)

[edit] Athletic honors
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (May 15, 1995)
College:
Player of the Year (1967, 1969)
Three-time First Team All-American (1967-69)
Three-time NCAA champion (1967, 1968, 1969)
Most Outstanding Player in NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969)
Naismith College Player of the Year (1969)
National Basketball Association:
Rookie of the Year (1970)
Six-time NBA champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
Most Valuable Player (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
Sporting News NBA MVP (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
Finals Most Valuable Player (1971, 1985)
Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" (1985)
One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996)
First player in NBA history to play 20 seasons
#7 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.

Books authored

Abdul-Jabbar is also a bestselling author, the latest of his books being Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes (Publisher: Broadway 2004, ISBN 0-385-50338-5), co-written with Anthony Walton. It is the history of the 761st Battalion, an all-black armored unit that served in Europe in World War Two.

Other books:

Giant Steps, with Peter Knobler (1987) ISBN 0-553-05044-3 (The book's title is an homage to jazz great John Coltrane.)
Kareem (1990) ISBN 0-394-55927-4
Selected from Giant Steps (Writers' Voices) (1999) ISBN 0-7857-9912-5
Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement, with Alan Steinberg (1996) ISBN 0-688-13097-6
A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches, with Stephen Singular (2000) ISBN 0-688-17077-3

Personal life

Abdul-Jabbar was married to Habiba Abdul-Jabbar (nee Janice Brown), and together they had three children: daughters Habiba and Sultana and son Kareem. They were divorced in 1978. He has another son Amir with Cheryl Pistono. His last child was his son Adam, who made an appearance on the tv show "Full House" with his father. He has also previously dated Pam Grier.[4][5]

Abdul-Jabbar was known as Lew Alcindor early in his life, before he converted to Islam. He explained in an interview with Playboy magazine that he was "latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Muslims. My family was brought to America by a French planter named Alcindor, who came here from Trinidad in the 18th Century. My people were Yoruba, and their culture survived slavery (...) My father found out about that when I was a kid, and it gave me all I needed to know that, hey, I was somebody, even if nobody else knew about it. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. And that's a terrible burden on black people, because they don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.".[6]

Abdul-Jabbar was successful in suing Miami Dolphins running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar (born Sharmon Shah) because he felt Karim was sponging off the name he made famous by having the Abdul-Jabbar moniker and number 33 on Dolphins jerseys. As a result the younger Abdul-Jabbar had to change his jersey nameplate to simply 'Abdul' while playing for the Dolphins[7]. The football player had also been an athlete at UCLA.

In 1998, Abdul-Jabbar was fined by Toronto authorities for possessing marijuana. On Tuesday, July 18, 2000, he was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana after failing a field sobriety test. Abdul-Jabbar has a prescription to smoke marijuana in the state of California, the result of nausea-inducing migraine headaches [8].

Kareem Abdul Jabbar Jr. made an appearance as a "stranger" on the TV game show Identity.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of Bruce Lee's students alongside Steve McQueen and James Coburn.


Appearances in the media

Abdul-Jabbar has twice appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy!, coasting to dominant victories each time. His first appearance was against Larry King and Alexandra Paul in 1994; his second was against Martina Navratilova and Reggie Jackson in a special "athletes" edition in 1998.
[edit] In popular culture
In The Simpsons episode The Way We Weren't, Homer Simpson, as a child growing up and in an attempt to become more popular, says his name is "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar" when asked what his name is; a reference to Abdul-Jabbar's status as a cultural icon in the 1970s.
The rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers honor him in their instrumental "Salute to Kareem" and anoint him an "all-time great super super star" in their song "Magic Johnson".
Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam wrote a song about Abdul-Jabbar based on the urban myth that he lost all of his money investing in hotels for tall people. The song, entitled "Sweet Lew", appears on the band's album of B-sides, Lost Dogs. The liner notes explain that Ament was inspired to write the song after being brushed off by his boyhood idol after meeting him at a celebrity basketball game.
Appeared in an episode of the TV show Diff'rent Strokes
Appeared in an episode of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Appeared in an episode of the TV Show Everybody Loves Raymond.
Appeared in an episode of the TV show Scrubs.
Appeared in an episode of Full House.
Appeared on The Colbert Report.
Appeared in Sugar Ray's video for "When It's Over"
In the Cowboy Bebop episode Stray Dog Strut, the bounty Abdul Hakim is quite obviously modeled on Abdul-Jabbar's character 'Hakim' from "Game of Death" both in appearance and fighting style.
He is briefly mentioned in an early episode of the Slam Dunk anime, when Haruko and Ayako are talking about Rukawa, and they compare him to Abdul-Jabbar (to which a Dr. T segment ensues with a short biography on him).
In EPMD's "Never Seen Before" he is name-checked: "You go ooh and aah when I jump in my car - people treat me like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar"
In a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch on Saturday Night Live, he is mentioned in a category named "Famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's"
The band Hollywood Undead mentions Abdul-Jabbar's name in their song, "Turn off the Lights"
He is mentioned in the song "Trudgin'" by underground Los Angeles emcee FLYNN of LA Symphony: "I've been nibbled on, scribbled on, scraped and scarred/ Building character taller than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."

Gabriel Batistuta

Gabriel Omar Batistuta (born 1 February 1969), nicknamed Batigol, is a former professional footballer. The prolific Argentine striker played most of his club football at ACF Fiorentina in Italy, and he is the eighth top scorer of all time in the Italian Serie A league, with 184 goals in 318 matches between 1991 and 2003. On the international level, he is the all-time highest scorer for Argentina's national team, with 56 goals in 78 national team matches, and he represented his country at three FIFA World Cups. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the "125 Greatest Living Footballers".
When his club Fiorentina was relegated to Serie B in 1993, Batistuta stayed with the club and helped it return to the top-flight league two years later. A hero in Florence, the Fiorentina fans erected a life-size bronze statue of him in 1996, in recognition of his performances for Fiorentina. He never won the Italian league with Fiorentina, but when he moved to AS Roma in 2000, he finally won the Serie A championship to crown his career in Italy. He played his last in season in Qatar with Al-Arabi before he retired in 2005.
Currently he works as a commentator having worked for Televisa Deportes during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and for the show "La jugada".


Personal life
Batistuta was born on 1 February 1969, to slaughterhouse worker Omar Batistuta and school secretary Gloria Batistuta, in the town of Avellaneda, province of Santa Fe, Argentina, but grew up in the near city of Reconquista. He has three younger sisters, named Elisa, Alejandra, and Gabriela.
At age 16, he met Irina Fernández, his future wife, on her quinceañera, a rite of passage on her 15th birthday. She is reported to have ignored him But five years later, on December 28, 1990, they were married at Saint Roque Church. The couple moved to Florence, Italy, in 1991, and a year later their first son, Thiago, was born. Thanks to good performances in the Italian championship and with the Argentine national team, Batistuta gained fame and respect. He filmed several commercials and was invited onto numerous TV shows, but in spite of this, Batistuta always remained a low-profile family man.
In 1996, during Fiorentina's 2-1 victory at A.C. Milan, he celebrated scoring the match's decisive goal by saying Te amo, Irina ('I love you, Irina', to his wife) for the cameras. The mix of sex appeal and faithfulness cemented Batistuta's heart-throb reputation among Argentine and Italian women. In 1997, Batistuta's second son, Lucas, was born, and a third son, Joaquín, followed in 1999. In 2000, the Batistuta family moved to Rome and two years later to Milan, following Batistuta's changes of team. In 2002, after more than 10 years in Italy, the family moved to Qatar where Batistuta had accepted a lucrative celebrity playing contract with a local team, Al-Arabi.
Batistuta ended his career at Al-Arabi, retiring in March 2005, after a series of injuries that prevented him from playing. Soon afterwards he moved to Perth, Australia. In April 2006, the city's established A-league franchise, Perth Glory was put up for sale and it was reported that Batistuta was among the bidders.[1]

The player
Beginnings
As a child Batistuta preferred other sports to football. Thanks to his height he played basketball, but after Argentina's victory in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, in which he was particularly impressed by the skills of Mario Kempes, he devoted himself to football. After playing with friends on the streets and in the small Grupo Alegria club, he joined the local Platense junior team. While with Platense he was selected for the Reconquista team that won the provincial championship by beating Newell's Old Boys from Rosario. His 2 goals drew the attention of the opposition team, and he signed for them in 1988.

Professional
Batistuta signed professional forms with Newell's Old Boys Club, whose coach was Marcelo Bielsa, who would later become Batistuta's coach with the Argentine national team. Things did not come easily for Batistuta during his first year with the club. He was away from home, his family, and his girlfriend Irina, sleeping in a room at the stadium, and had a weight problem that slowed him down. At the end of that year he was loaned to a smaller team, Deportivo Italiano, of Buenos Aires, with whom he participated in the Carnevale Cup in Italy, ending as top scorer with 3 goals.
In mid-1989, Batistuta made the leap to one of Argentina's biggest clubs, River Plate, where he scored 17 goals. However, all did not run smoothly. He had numerous run-ins with coach Daniel Passarella (with whom he had later confrontations on the national squad) and he was dropped from the squad in the middle of the season.
In 1990, Batistuta signed for River's arch-rivals, Boca Juniors. Having gone so long without playing, he inititally found it hard to find his best form. However, at the beginning of 1991 Oscar Tabárez became Boca's coach, and he gave Batistuta the support and confidence to become the league's top scorer that season as Boca won the championship.
International
In 1991, Batistuta was selected to play for Argentina in the Copa América held in Chile, where he finished the tournament as top scorer with 6 goals as Argentina romped to victory. During the Copa América competition, the vice-president of Fiorentina was impressed by Batistuta's skills and signed him for the Italian club. However, the following season Fiorentina were relegated to the Serie B division, despite Batistuta's 13 season goals. The club returned to Serie A two years later, with the contribution of 16 Batistuta goals and managed by Claudio Ranieri.
In 1993, Batistuta played in his second Copa América, this time held in Ecuador, which Argentina again won. The 1994 FIFA World Cup, held in USA, was a disappointment: after a promising start Argentina were beaten by Romania in the last 16. The morale of the team was seriously affected by Diego Maradona's doping suspension. Despite the disappointing Argentine exit, Batistuta scored 4 goals in as many games.
On his return to Fiorentina, Batistuta found his best form. He was the top scorer of the 1994-95 season with 26 goals, and he broke Ezio Pascutti's 30-year-old record by scoring in all of the first 11 matches of the season. In the 1995-96 season Fiorentina won the Italian Cup and Super Coppa.
During the qualification matches for the 1998 FIFA World Cup (with former River Plate manager Passarella now coaching the Argentinean national team) Batistuta was left out of the majority of the games after falling out with the coach. Playing in the World Cup finals themselves, he scored 5 goals in that competition, before Argentina lost 2-1 to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. In the game against Jamaica, he recorded the second hat trick of his World Cup career, becoming the 4th player to achieve this (the others were Sándor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, and Gerd Müller) and the first to score a hat trick in 2 World Cups.
After failure to win the Italian championship with Fiorentina, Batistuta started considering a transfer to a bigger team. In an effort to keep Batistuta, Fiorentina hired Giovanni Trapattoni as coach and promised to do everything to win the Scudetto. After an excellent start to the season, Batistuta suffered an injury that kept him out of action for more than a month. Losing momentum, Fiorentina lost the lead and finished the season in third place, which gave them the chance to participate in the Champions League in the following season.

Good-bye to Fiorentina
Batistuta stayed at Fiorentina for the 1999-00 season, tempted by the chance of winning both the Scudetto and the Champions League. After a promising start in both competitions, the team only reached seventh in the league and were eliminated in the second round group phase. The following season, he was transferred to A.S. Roma in a deal worth 35 million US dollars. Although a knee injury restricted his number of appearances, he scored 20 goals for A.S. Roma in his first season. He finally realized his dream of winning a major trophy as Roma clinched the Scudetto for the first time since 1983. The following season with A.S. Roma he changed his shirt number to "20" in reference to the number of goals he had scored during the Scudetto winning campaign. He also wore his age on the back of his Roma jersey in 2002, #33.
After a good series of performances by Argentina in the qualification matches for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, hopes were high that the South Americans - now managed by Marcelo Bielsa - could win the trophy, and Batistuta announced that he planned to quit the national team at the end of the tournament, which Argentina aimed to win. But Argentina's "group of death" saw the team fall at the first hurdle, as poor results against Nigeria, England, and Sweden meant that the team was knocked out in the opening round for the first time since 1962.
Back in Italy, Batistuta failed to find form with Roma and was loaned out to Internazionale; however, he failed to make an impression and departed for Qatar. In Qatar, he broke the recored of most goals scored that was held by Qatari Legend Mansour Mouftah with an amazing 24 goals. He was awarded for being the top scorer in all Arab leagues in 2004 with a Golden Boot.[citation needed]
He has also been linked to the Argentina national football team job with Diego Maradona

Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard Tyson, born on June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York, (USA) is a semi-retired professional boxer and former World Heavyweight Champion. The youngest man to win a heavyweight title belt, he was rated in 1999 by Ring magazine as the fourteenth greatest heavyweight of all time. He was nicknamed "Iron" Mike Tyson, Kid Dynamite, and The Baddest Man on the Planet. Tyson unified the belts in the splintered heavyweight division in the mid-eighties and quickly disposed of all rival contenders.

During his prime Tyson was considered unbeatable, but his once-dominant career was undermined by personal problems, lack of preparation, and periods of imprisonment. After being released from his first prison sentence, Mike made a heavily anticipated comeback but failed to reclaim his previous dominance. Though eventually regaining a title belt, it was the period prior to 1990 when he primarily made his mark as a fighter. The second half of his career was largely overshadowed by controversy.

Early years

Tyson was raised in the notorious Brownsville section of Brooklyn to parents Lorna Smith Tyson and Jimmy Kirkpatrick. His early childhood was marked by strife and unhappiness and also cancer, his mother had to fend for the entire family following the departure of their father when Mike was only two years old. On the streets of Brownsville he was constantly picked on and abused by older children, later gaining a reputation as a youth who would savagely beat those who ridiculed his high-pitched, lisping voice. As a youth, he was constantly in trouble with the police over petty crime and thuggery, passed in and out of juvenile detention centers, and was expelled from junior high school for fighting. While in a juvenile detention center in New York, Tyson was discovered by a guard named Bobby Stewart, who noted his raw boxing ability and awesome potential for the ring. Tyson was an outstanding physical specimen, Stewart trained him for a few months, then introduced him to the legendary Cus D'Amato.

Rise to stardom

Mike Tyson made his professional debut on March 6, 1985, in Albany, New York, a match which he won by a first round knockout over Hector Mercedes. He fought frequently in his first two years as a professional, staying undefeated and winning his first 19 fights by knockout, 14 of which came in the first round. His quality of opposition gradually increased to journeyman fighters and borderline contenders, and his win streak attracted much media attention, leading to his being billed as the next great heavyweight champion.

Tyson's first nationally televised bout took place on February 16, 1986 at Houston Field House in Troy, NY against journeyman heavyweight Jesse Ferguson. Tyson knocked down Ferguson with an uppercut in the fifth round that reportedly broke Ferguson's nose. (Life Magazine) During the sixth round, Ferguson began to hold and clinch Tyson in an apparent attempt to prolong the fight. After admonishing Ferguson several times to obey his commands to break the clinches and box, the referee eventually stopped the fight near the middle of the sixth round and Tyson was declared the winner by TKO.

On November 22, 1986, Tyson was given his first title shot, fighting Trevor Berbick for the WBC heavyweight title. Tyson won the title by second round technical knockout, and at the age of 20 years and 4 months became the youngest heavyweight champion ever. Floyd Patterson still holds the record as the youngest lineal champ.

Tyson aged 20 was around 222 lb (101 kg) with approximately 5.5 percent body fat, and was stocky for his height of 5'10" (1.78 m). Feared for his brute strength, many fighters were too scared to hit him and this was backed up by his incredible hand speed, accuracy, coordination, and extremely powerful hits and timing. Perhaps what was most overlooked was Tyson's defensive abilities. Holding his hands high in the Peek-a-Boo style taught by his mentor Cus D'Amato, he would slip and weave out of the way of the opponent's punches while closing the distance to deliver his own devastating attacks.

Expectations for the young champion were extremely high, and he embarked on an ambitious campaign to fight all the top heavyweights in the world. In 1987, Tyson defended his title against James 'Bonecrusher' Smith on March 7 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won by unanimous decision and added Smith's WBA title to his existing belt. 'Tyson mania' in the media was becoming rampant. He beat Pinklon Thomas in May with a knockout in the sixth round. On August 1 he took the IBF title from Tony Tucker. He became the first heavyweight to own all three major belts (WBA, WBC, IBF) at the same time. His only other fight in 1987 was in October against the 1984 Olympic champion Tyrell Biggs, a great performance from Tyson which ended with a victory by knockout in the seventh round.

Tyson had three fights in 1988. He faced an aged but still game Larry Holmes on January 22, and defeated the legendary former champion by fourth round knockout. This would be the only knockout loss Holmes would suffer in 75 professional bouts. Tyson then fought contender Tony Tubbs in Tokyo in March, fitting in an easy two-round victory amid promotional and marketing work.

On June 27, 1988, Tyson met Michael Spinks. Spinks, who had taken the heavyweight championship away from Larry Holmes via a fifteen round decision in 1985, had never lost his title in the ring. The IBF title which he had won from Holmes had been stripped from him, but many (including Ring magazine) considered him to have a legitimate claim to being the true heavyweight champion. Tyson cleared up all confusion by brutally knocking him out at 1:31 of the first round. This fight is often regarded as the pinnacle of Tyson's career.


Controversy

During this time period, Tyson's problems outside boxing were also starting to gain prominence. His marriage to Robin Givens was heading for divorce, and his future contract was being fought over by Don King and Bill Cayton. In late 1988, Tyson fired longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, the man many credit for honing Tyson's craft after the death of D'Amato in November 1985. Without Rooney, Tyson's skills slowly deteriorated and he became more prone to looking for the one-punch knockout, rather than utilizing the fierce combinations that brought him to stardom. He also began to headhunt, neglecting to attack the opponent's body first. In addition, he lost his fabulous defensive skills and began to barrel straight in toward the opponent, neglecting to jab and slip his way in. In 1989, Tyson had only two fights amid personal turmoil. He faced the popular British boxer Frank Bruno in February in a below-par fight, and managed a one round knockout of Carl Williams in July.

In 1989 Tyson was granted an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University in Ohio. Many in the academic community expressed displeasure at this (as well as at the practice of giving honorary doctorates to celebrities in general), claiming that it cheapened the value of such awards, particularly for those who had worked years in their fields to earn them [1].

By 1990 Tyson seemed to have lost direction, and his personal life and training habits were in disarray. In a fight on February 11 he lost his championship to James "Buster" Douglas in Tokyo. On paper it looked like an easy victory for Tyson, but Douglas was at an emotional peak after losing his mother to a stroke three weeks prior to the fight, and fought the fight of his life. Tyson failed to find a way past Douglas's lightning fast jab that had a thirteen-inch reach advantage over his own. Tyson did send Douglas to the floor in the eighth round, catching him with an uppercut, but Douglas recovered sufficiently to hand Tyson a heavy beating in the later rounds. After the fight Tyson and his corner complained that Douglas had received longer than ten to get to his feet. Thirty-five seconds within the start of the 10th round, Douglas unleashed a combination of blows that sent Tyson to the canvas for the first time in his career. He was counted out by referee Octavio Meyran. The sight of the then 37-0 undefeated champion rolling around on the floor trying to put his mouthpiece back in was an image that contrasted deeply with many boxing fans' perceptions of Tyson up to that point.

In 1991 Tyson fought Donovan "Razor" Ruddock twice, once in March and again in June. These fights were notable because of Tyson's bizarre "jailhouse" talk towards his opponent. He told Ruddock, "Everyone knows you're a transvestite and you love me. I'm gonna make you my girlfriend. I can't wait to get my hands on a pretty thing like you." There was some controversy over the first fight which Tyson won in the seventh round; many believe the referee, Richard Steele, stopped the fight prematurely. Tyson won the rematch comprehensively in a unanimous points decision. Ruddock would suffer a broken jaw in the process.

Rape conviction, prison, and aftermath

In 1992, Tyson went on trial in Indiana after being arrested there in 1991 for the rape of Miss Black Rhode Island, Desiree Washington, in an Indianapolis hotel room. Tyson was convicted on the charge of rape on February 10, 1992, despite bookmakers' 5-to-1 odds that he would be acquitted [2].

He was given a sentence of six years and was released in May 1995 after serving three years. Under Indiana law, a defendant convicted of a felony must begin serving his prison sentence immediately after the sentence is imposed. While in prison, Tyson converted to Islam and changed his name to Mike "Abdul Azez" Tyson.

Tyson did not fight again until 1995. After two comeback bouts against Peter McNeeley and Buster Mathis Jr., he regained one belt by easily winning the WBC title from Frank Bruno in March 1996 in three rounds. In September 1996 Tyson won back the WBA title in 93 seconds from Bruce Seldon, having paid Lennox Lewis $4 million to "step aside". Seldon was subjected to much ridicule for his first round loss to Tyson because he seemed to go down and out from a light punch. Rapper Tupac Shakur was murdered after this fight.

The Holyfield Fight

On June 28, 1997, Tyson fought Evander Holyfield with Mills Lane as the referee, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was dubbed "The Sound and the Fury," the $100-million rematch between these titans, since Holyfield had knocked Tyson out 8 months earlier in his second loss ever, and the rematch was drawing more attention than the first bout, with Tyson getting $30 million, Holyfield $35 million, and pay per view fees set at $49.95. Problems started when a clash of heads in the second round opened a three-inch cut over Tyson's right eye. Tyson had repeatedly complained about head butting in the first bout between the two. A time-out was called briefly, but since there was no indication that Holyfield had intentionally fouled Tyson, no point deduction was taken from Holyfield. Tyson continued the second round with blood trickling into his eye. As the third round was about to begin, Tyson came out of his corner without his mouthpiece, but Lane noticed this and ordered Tyson back to his corner to get his mouthpiece. The two got back into position and the fight resumed. Tyson rushed hard at Holyfield, catching him with a solid right and then a combination. Suddenly, with 40 seconds left in the 3rd round, the fight took an unexpected turn. Holyfield got Tyson in a clinch, and Tyson rolled his head above Holyfield's shoulder. He then bit Holyfield's right ear, severing it. Holyfield pushed Tyson away and started hopping up and down in pain, spinning around in a circle holding his ear.

Lane abruptly called for a time-out, Holyfield turned to walk to his corner, and Tyson ran up to Holyfield and pushed his back, startling both the crowd and Holyfield who fell into the ropes. Lane quickly moved Tyson and directed Holyfield back to his corner as Tyson walked calmly back to his. The fight was delayed for several minutes as Lane told Tyson he was penalizing him with a two-point deduction. A physician examined Holyfield's ear and determined he could continue to fight.

The fight resumed with 30 seconds left in the round. The two fought into another clinch. Tyson craned his neck around again and bit Holyfield's left ear with 22 seconds left. Holyfield threw his hands around to get out of the clinch and jumped back as Tyson waved his arms in a "come on" motion. Lane did not stop the fight this time, so the two men continued fighting until time expired. The men walked back to their respective corners when the fight was then stopped. After the fight was stopped, Tyson tried to get at Holyfield and Holyfield's trainer Brooks while they were still in their corner. Tyson took swings at anyone who got in his way, including a police officer, until he was finally held back into his corner. Announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. read the unprecedented decision: "Referee Mills Lane has disqualified Mike Tyson for biting Evander Holyfield on both of his ears."

Later, Tyson was walking back to his locker room when a fan tossed a full bottle of water in Tyson's direction. Tyson climbed over a temporary railing and up into the stands, made obscene gestures to the crowd, and made his way up the side of a stairway before he was dragged to his locker room. Tyson was suspended and his license withheld.

Tyson justified his behavior when he later told reporters that he was forced to retaliate because Holyfield was not penalized for intentionally butting him several times.

“ Holyfield butted me in the first round and then he butted me again in the second round. As soon as he butted me I watched him. He looked right at me and came right at me. He kept on going down and coming up, then charged into me, and no one warned him. No one took any point from him. What am I supposed to do? This is my career; I can't continue getting butted like that. I've got children to raise and he keeps butting me, tryna get me, stopped on cuts I gotta retaliate. Listen, Holyfield's not the tough warrior everyone says he is. He got a little nick on his ear and he quit. I got one eye, he's got ears, he's not impaired. I got one eye, big deal, if he take one, I got another one. He didn't wanna fight; I'm ready to fight him right now... He didn't want to fight, regardless on what I did...he been buttin me for two fights (Tyson points to his eye) Look at me, man, look at me. I gotta go home and my kids are gonna be scared of me now, look at me!" ”


Decline

In January 1999 Tyson returned to the ring to fight the South African Francois Botha and while Botha initially controlled the fight, Tyson attempted to break Botha's arms during a tie-up. Nonetheless, Tyson landed a straight right-hand in the fifth round that knocked Botha out.

On February 5 Tyson was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve 2 years probation and perform 200 hours of community service for assaulting two people after a car accident on August 31, 1998. He served nine months of that sentence. After his release he fought Orlin Norris on October 23, 1999. Tyson knocked Norris down with a left hook he threw after the bell sounded ending the first round. Norris injured his knee when he went down and said he was unable to continue the fight. The bout was ruled a no contest.

In 2000 Tyson had three fights. The first was staged at the MEN Arena, Manchester, England against Julius Francis. Following controversy as to whether Tyson should be allowed into the country, he knocked out Francis in the second round. He also fought Lou Savarese in June 2000 in Glasgow, winning in the first round. The entire fight only lasted 38 seconds. Tyson continued punching after the referee had stopped the fight, knocking him to the floor as he tried to separate the boxers. In October Tyson fought the similarly controversial Andrew Golota, winning in round three after Golota refused to carry on, the result was later changed to no contest after Tyson tested positive for marijuana. Tyson fought only once in 2001, beating Brian Nielsen in Copenhagen with a seventh round TKO.

Tyson sought to fight Lennox Lewis in 2002 in Nevada, but the Nevada boxing commission refused him a license to box as he was facing possible sexual assault charges. Tyson made inflammatory remarks to Lewis prior to the eventual bout stating, "I want your heart, I wanna eat his children, praise be to Allah". A mass brawl on January 22, 2002 at a press conference in New York to publicize the planned event finally removed any chance of a Nevada fight. The fight actually occurred on June 8 in Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis dominated the fight and knocked out Tyson in the eighth round. Tyson stated that the loss was due to not being allowed enough warm up fights leading up to the fight, due to Lewis insisting on the date.

On February 22, 2003, Tyson beat fringe contender Clifford Etienne 49 seconds into round one, once again in Memphis. The pre-fight was marred by rumors of Tyson's lack of fitness and that he took time out from training to party in Las Vegas and get a new facial tattoo. This would be Tyson's final professional victory in the ring.

In August 2003, after years of financial struggles, Tyson finally filed for bankruptcy. His bank balance was said to have been only $5,000. In 2003, amid all his economic troubles, he was named by Ring Magazine at number 16, right behind Sonny Liston, among the 100 greatest punchers of all time.

On July 31, 2004, Tyson faced the unregarded Englishman Danny Williams in another comeback fight staged in Louisville, Kentucky. Tyson dominated the opening two rounds. The third round was more even, with Williams getting in some clean blows and also a few illegal ones, for which he was penalized. In the fourth round Tyson was surprisingly knocked out. It transpired that Tyson was trying to fight on one leg, having torn a ligament in his other knee in the first round. This was Tyson's fifth career defeat. He underwent surgery for the ligament four days after the fight. His manager Shelly Finkel claimed that Tyson was unable to throw meaningful right-hand punches after the knee injury.

On June 11, 2005, Tyson stunned the boxing world by quitting before the start of the seventh round in a close bout against journeyman Kevin McBride. After losing the third of his last four fights, Tyson said he would quit boxing because he hasn't "got the fighting guts or the heart anymore." (BBC Sport).


After professional boxing

Tyson has stayed in the limelight by promoting various websites and companies. In April 2005, he joined a group of strippers on the roof of a strip club in New York to promote skill gaming site FortuneFun.com. Tyson has also endorsed online gaming site Casino Fortune. In June 2004, sportswriter Max Kellerman suggested that Tyson should move out of boxing and into product endorsement, as this had worked well for former boxer George Foreman. In the past Tyson had shunned endorsements, accusing other athletes of putting on a false front to obtain them.

On the front page of USA Today on June 3, 2005, Tyson was quoted as saying: "My whole life has been a waste - I've been a failure." He continued: "I just want to escape. I'm really embarrassed with myself and my life. I want to be a missionary. I think I could do that while keeping my dignity without letting people know they chased me out of the country. I want to get this part of my life over as soon as possible. In this country nothing good is going to come of me. People put me so high; I wanted to tear that image down."

Tyson now spends much of his time tending to his coop of around 350 pigeons in Phoenix, Arizona [3]. He shares his house with his pug, Meatball.

Japanese mixed martial arts organization PRIDE Fighting Championships signed Tyson on August 23, 2006. He is slated to make appearances at PRIDE fight cards and promotional events. [4] In a press conference held on December 30, 2006, however, Nobuyuki Sakakibara--CEO of Pride FC's parent company Dream Stage Entertainment--released a statement which called Tyson's relationship with Pride FC and Dreamstage Entertainment into serious doubt following Tyson's latest arrest. Stating that Dreamstage representatives had been "speaking with Tyson's management ... since Tyson has admitted that he was in possession of cocaine," Sakakibara called into question as to "whether he [Tyson] can honor our contract with him and whether we should continue the contract at all" [5]

On September 28, 2006 Tyson announced "The Mike Tyson World Tour" in which he would fight in a series of four round exhibition matches in the US, Europe and Asia. The first of these matches was held in Ohio on October 20, 2006, against Corey Sanders in Youngstown, Ohio. The explicit purpose of the tour is to help ease Mike Tyson's spiraling debts.[6]

On December 29, 2006, Tyson was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona on suspicion of DUI and felony drug possession after he nearly crashed into a police SUV shortly after leaving a night club. In a police probable cause statement filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, "He (Tyson) admitted to using (drugs) today and stated he is an addict and has a problem". Tyson was released from jail without bond and is scheduled to appear before a preliminary hearing on January 16, 2007. [7]


Marriage and children

Tyson has 7 children: Gena, D'Amato, Mikey, Rayna, Amir, Miguel, and Exodus.

First marriage was to actress Robin Givens from February 7, 1988 - February 14, 1989.

Rayna (born February 14, 1996) and Amir (August 5, 1997) are from his second marriage to Monica Turner. Monica Turner is a pediatric resident at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC. She is also the sister of Michael Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland and former Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate.

Tyson admits paternity of a girl born in July 1990 to Kimberly Scarborough of New York .

Trivia

In 1989 Tyson was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award.
Tyson was good friends with rapper Tupac Shakur, and often came out for a fight with a Tupac rap as his ringwalk music (most common song "Ambitionz Az A Ridah"). Shakur had been in attendance at a Tyson fight on the night he was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.
Ottawa Senators goaltender Ray Emery had a picture of Tyson on his goalie mask, before he was told by Senators management that this was unacceptable due to Tyson's reputation.
Tyson's well hyped and short bout with Peter McNeeley served as obvious inspiration for the parody film of that phase of Tyson's career, The Great White Hype, with a caricature of Tyson played by Damon Wayans and a caricature of Don King played by Samuel L. Jackson.
Tyson has a hobby of collecting pigeons, he has cared for pigeons throughout his life.[8]
In 2005, Tyson briefly dated UK Big Brother 7 Housemate Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.
Rap artist 50 Cent purchased Mike Tyson's 48,000-square-foot mansion in Farmington, Connecticut for $4.1 million on September 21, 2003 [9].
ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons makes frequent references to "The Tyson Zone" (named after Tyson), which is a status an athlete or celebrity reaches when their behavior becomes so outrageous that one would believe most any story or anecdote about the person, no matter how seemingly bizarre. [10]
During a game in the 2003 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Tyson held up a sign that said, "Free Kobe!", showing his support for LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant in his impending rape trial.

Cameos and parodies

Special enforcer Tyson, standing beside Stone Cold Steve Austin, after helping him to win the WWE ChampionshipIn the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa, Mike Tyson, who was rumored to be in negotiations to fight Tarver, was used to verbally assault Dixon outside the ring before the match.
Mike Tyson was the special enforcer for a World Wrestling Entertainment match at WrestleMania XIV on March 29, 1998, in which he pretended to be a member of D-Generation X and ended up punching out Shawn Michaels after making the 3 count for Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the WWE Championship from Michaels.
In Scary Movie 4, during a flashback scene (A boxing match not so subtly disguised as a Million Dollar Baby spoof) involving lead character Cindy (Anna Faris), her opponent is a buff female boxer who resembles Tyson; at the conclusion of the fight, proceeds to bite off the ears of every spectator and official within the boxing stadium. This is clearly a reference to the incident involving Tyson and Holyfield.
In The Simpsons, boxer (and convicted felon) Drederick Tatum is clearly modelled on Mike Tyson.
Tyson made a cameo appearance on 1980's TV sitcom Who's The Boss at one point, during a scene when Tony Danza is impersonating Tyson's infamous voice. Tyson rings the doorbell as a neighbour and asks who the person who's been making fun of him.
In 1987, Nintendo released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, an NES game based on the arcade game Punch-Out!!, although there was later a version released in 1990 that replaced Mike Tyson with a fictional character, "Mr. Dream", after Nintendo's license with Tyson expired. Defeating Tyson (through mini-boxer Lil' Mac) is extremely difficult, as he can knock Mac down with a single "lightning punch", modeled after the real-life Tyson's devastating right upper-cut.
In 1992 a second Nintendo game featuring Mike Tyson entitled "Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch" was to be released as a sequel to Mike Tysons's Punch-Out!!. However, due to the Desiree Washington case the project was scrapped and the game was eventually released as Power Punch II with Mike Tyson in the game being replaced with a character named Mark Tyler.
In 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince scored a #23 R&B/#58 Pop hit with "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", in which the Fresh Prince envisages himself taking on the heavyweight champion (and taking a beating in the process). Tyson appears as himself in the song's music video.
In the Japanese version of Capcom's Street Fighter II series, Balrog is called Mike Bison, as a parody of Mike Tyson, possibly with the full name of "Michael Gerard Bison". Capcom USA switched the names of the Shadaloo Grandmasters around for the American versions in order to avoid a potential lawsuit from Mike Tyson. In Street Fighter Alpha 3 one of Balrog's victory phrases is "If you fight me like that again I'll have to bite your ear off!"
Tyson made a special cameo appearance in Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, where he played an extremely peaceful man meditating in a park.
In 1998 Tyson featured on an underground rap hit, "Second Round K.O" by Canibus. Tyson gives the rapper advice over how to defeat his lyrical opponent (rapper LL Cool J).
In 1999 he made another movie cameo appearance, playing himself in James Toback's Black and White, a serious look at race, sex and hip hop music in Manhattan. Tyson appears in When Will I Be Loved, another film by Black and White's director James Issa Toback, in 2004.
Tyson collaborates with R&B artist Ginuwine in his 2003 album "The Senior" in which Tyson gives Ginuwine his "stamp of approval" in the introduction of the album.
In a Snickers commercial from the early 2000s, an unnamed boxer is seen sitting in his locker room, seemingly afraid to go out for the fight. He sits with his gloves next to his face and after some prodding by his coach, he pulls his gloves away to reveal a large set of ears and proclaims "I'm not going out there!" This commercial parodies the infamous "Holyfield Fight" where Tyson bit his opponent's ears.

Laila Ali

Statistics

Real name Laila Ali

Nickname She bee Stingin

Weight Super Middleweight

Nationality American

Birth date December 30, 1977

Birth place Miami Beach, Florida, USA

Style Orthodox

Boxing record

Total fights 22

Wins 22

Wins by KO 19

Losses 0

Draws 0

No contests 0

Laila Ali (born in Miami Beach, December 30, 1977), is the daughter of the boxer Muhammad Ali and Veronica Porsche Ali.

Laila, who is a personal trainer in Los Angeles, surprised the boxing world in 1999 by announcing she would try her hand at women's boxing.



Biography

To much fanfare, she made her debut on October 8 of that year, knocking out April Fowler in the first round. She rallied off 8 wins in a row, and many among boxing's fans started talking about wanting to see her and George Foreman's daughter, Freeda Foreman, or Joe Frazier's daughter, Jackie Frazier-Lyde square off in a boxing ring. On the evening of June 8, 2001, Ali and Frazier finally met, in a fight that became the first time a women's boxing fight was the main event of a Pay Per View event in history, a fight which was also nicknamed Ali/Frazier IV in allusion to their fathers' famous fight trilogy, and fight which was part of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame induction weekend's activities. Ali won by judge's decision.

Ali won by an eight-round majority decision, and then took off almost one year, returning 364 days later, to beat Shirvelle Williams by a six-round decision. She won the IBA title with a two-round knockout of Suzzette Taylor, on August 17 at Las Vegas, and on November 9, she retained that title and added the WIBA and IWBF belts, by unifying the crown with an eight-round knockout win over her division's other world champion, Valerie Mahfood in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On June 21, 2003, Ali retained the title in a rematch with Mahfood, knocking her out in six rounds. It was announced, on June 30, that she would fight Christy Martin on August 23. She beat Martin by a knockout in four rounds.

Laila Ali would have begun 2004 by fighting Gwendolyn O'Neil of Guyana, at Abuja, Nigeria. The fight was cancelled, however, when Ali's camp learned no airline had flights scheduled to Nigeria on the date she wanted to arrive there.

On July 17 of that year, she retained her world title, knocking out Nikki Eplion after four rounds. Ali dropped Eplion four times before the fight was stopped.

Thirteen days later, she stopped Monica Nunez in nine rounds, as part of the undercard where Mike Tyson was surprisingly knocked out by fringe contender Danny Williams, at her father's native city of Louisville, Kentucky.

On September 24, 2004, she added the IWBF Light Heavyweight title to her resume by beating O'Neal, the fighter against whom she had had to cancel a fight previously, by a knockout in three rounds, at Atlanta, Georgia.

Returning to Atlanta on February 11, 2005, Laila Ali scored a commanding and decisive eighth round technical knockout over Cassandra Geigger, in a scheduled 10-round fight.

On June 11, 2005, as the undercard in the Tyson-Kevin McBride fight, Laila Ali pounded Erin Toughill into submission in round three to remain undefeated, and became the second woman to win a World Boxing Council title (Jackie Nava was the first), in addition to defending her WIBA crown. Erin was outclassed in 1:59 of the third round. Toughill, her face bleeding profusely, took approximately 20 consecutive punches in her corner, before referee Joseph Cooper stepped in to end the fight.

On December 17, 2005, in Berlin, Germany, Laila fought and defeated Åsa Sandell by TKO in the fifth round, marking her 22nd win.

While a guest on Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith on June 7, 2006, Ali announced that she would be making a world tour, and said that she would be looking forward to fight Ann Wolfe on an October 2006 date. The fight with Ann Wolfe never materialized and instead on November 11, 2006 Laila fought and defeated Shelley Burton by TKO in the fourth round.



Career

IWBF World Super middleweight 2nd champion
WIBA World Super middleweight 2nd champion
WBC Female World Super middleweight 1st champion
Laila Ali was supposed to fight Gwendolyn O’Neil in Cape Town, South Africa, on August 5, 2006, but she pulled out amidst allegations of fraud. In addition, the local promoter couldn't raise the final $325,000 installment of her $525,000 purse. The SA government is investigating the fraud allegations, according to an exposé in the Sunday Times newspaper.

Trivia

Laila Ali is currently dating former professional football player Curtis Conway.

She stands 5' 10 with a reach of 70.5”.