Tyson is threatened by brotherly love

13 April 2012

Like so many of his peers in the heavyweight division, Cliff Couser wants a piece of Mike Tyson. After all, getting knocked senseless in less than one minute is but a small price to pay in return for a seven-figure pay cheque, even if it does carry the risk of Tyson manoeuvring outside of the Queensbury rules before the eventuality of a knock-out blow.

A month ago, Couser was granted an appearance on the lucrative US cable station HBO, and was stopped in three rounds by America's latest hopeful, Clifford Etienne.

But losing has never prevented anyone from being granted an opportunity in the upside-down world of professional boxing and, besides, Couser has a unique selling point. He claims to be the half brother of Tyson, who fights Andrew Golota in Michigan on Friday night.

"I first met Mike when he had just got outta prison," said Couser, in the same lisping voice as the former champion. "We met at a barber's shop in Vegas and he just looked at me like he'd seen a ghost."

Tyson's mother, Lorna Smith, died in 1982. His father, James Kirkpatrick, passed away while the fighter was serving a six-year jail sentence for the rape of Desiree Washington. Kirkpatrick was a pimp. He had numerous relationships and sired a number of children but Tyson has always denied that Couser was one of them.

Couser was born in the ghetto of St Louis, Missouri, and describes his early days as ones spent watching people getting their purses snatched, their heads struck by baseball bats and "their toes drilled with nails" at the hands of thieves and disgruntled drug-dealers.

"The streets were always filled with people screaming," he said. "That's how rough it was."

During their first meeting five years ago, Tyson supposedly promised to send Couser a new pair of boxing shoes when he returned home to Southington, Ohio.

The gift never materialised and ever since then the man with the predictable nom de guerre of 'Twin Tyson' has sworn to administer revenge for this perceived snub.

"I'm mad about the way he's treated me," he said. "I love my brother, and I'm sure reality will kick in for him one day, but right now he's not respecting the side of his family which our Dad went out and had from messing with different women.

"I've got a lot of brothers from Dad's relationships and I accepted them because they proved it to me. I showed Mike my birth certificate but he has too many people getting into his head and telling him that I'm an outsider. Deep down, though, I know he accepts the truth."

Couser's story has gathered him an increasing amount of interest in recent times. Three years ago he was cast in the role of Tyson by HBO for a TV movie based on the life of promoter Don King.

Doubters could argue that his accent may have been carefully crafted by several years of practice with a hand held recorder but Couser also bears a strong facial resemblance to Tyson, with his dark, suspicious eyes and squat neck. He plays the part well. Like Tyson, Couser is a man of many contradictions.

"In the same sentence he describes how his 'brother' remains the best fighter in the world but that "I've still gotta beat some sense into him" because he loved him so much.

"People think Mike has an easy life but he doesn't," said the aspiring contender, who has won 20 of his 28 professional contests.

"On Mike's conviction for rape, I think that girl wanted to be in the fame game like (ex-wife) Robyn Givens. I guess she was totally blown away by him not wanting a serious relationship with her.

"Then, when I saw him fight Lou Savarese in June, I thought everything he did was so funny. He broke Savarese down and then he entertained the world by saying how he was gonna eat Lennox Lewis's kids. That's my brother, man!

"That's what he's gotta do. He's gotta bring back the excitement to the heavyweights."

Whether the lurid idea of a Tyson-Couser match has crossed the promoters' minds is not known but 'Team Tyson' has never balked at lining up the occasional eccentric to share the ring with its own sordid meal ticket - men like Mitch 'Blood' Green, a former Harlem gang leader who once held up a petrol station and then proceeded to fill the tanks of queuing motorists, and 'Hurricane' Peter McNeeley, a hopeless pug who made commercials for a well known pizza chain after Tyson thrashed him in 1995.

So on to Friday, when Tyson returns to action against the Pole Golota, in a macabre duel between two of the sport's greatest liabilities.

It has been carnival season for the best part of a decade with Tyson, but there has been one constant - those with a financial interest in his career continue to make excuses for his repulsive behaviour while guiding him into bouts against marketable yet outclassed foes and well, well away from world champion Lennox Lewis.

"I should be next," said Couser. "It's the right fight to make for a lot of reasons. I'll fight him and I'll beat him. Then we can be friends.

"I saw him at a Mary J Blige concert in the summer and I told him my plans. If he agrees to a blood test, then we don't need to fight. If he won't take a blood test in a hospital then I'll give him my own blood test in the ring, that's the way I feel.

"He's gotta answer to the world and he's especially gotta answer to me. Deep down I'll always love him but right now I wanna kill him."

Even in the crazy arena of prize-fighting, Cliff Couser still stands out as one strange individual. Perhaps it's genetic.

MORE ABOUT

HBO

Michigan

Mike Tyson

Tyson is threatened by brotherly love

Read More