Dear Mike Tyson,
Today, I watched an interview where a young journalist asked you about your legacy. Your response took most by surprise, you saying you had no legacy. I’d like to tell you why you are wrong.
History will remember the very best and the very worse of who you are. But you have left your legacy in every moment that has been your life. You have been an inspiration to hundreds of little boys who were told they would never see their dreams come true. They watched you manifest your dreams through fierce determination and hard work. You were a life lesson personified. Many of us learned from you that mistakes could be made and one could come back from them. You showed millions that they do not have to be their circumstances, or their past, and could shape a future of their own making. You did that, with each punch, each knock out, each uphill battle where the masses, and the bookies, were betting against you.
I discovered my love for boxing watching you fight. My late father was a huge fan! He followed your career from Trevor Berbick to Kevin McBride and Roy Jones, Jr. My father loved the sport! He’d been a sparring partner for the heavy-weight champ, Floyd Patterson’s team. His dreams of a professional career ended with marriage and children. We would watch you and he always said that you would forever be remembered as one of the best. What an honor to know that you have not only left your signature on history, but also on the lives of so many who believed in you because you believed in yourself. That you have left so much of yourself for the rest of us to ponder and reflect on as we battle our own fights and go against the demons that sometimes seek to destroy us.
Mike, you are the epitome of what legacy should be. You are honored and cherished. You are the embodiment of our ancestors who endured enslavement and Jim Crow and who won battle after battle despite all the odds against them. You are the blueprint for our future progeny. You’ve demonstrated that you can take a loss and still stand tall. You’ve shown us that defeat is only a building block to make us bigger, better, and badder! You are a black man, in a white world, who refused to be beaten down by those who stood against you. You made us believe. You showed us courage.
With your answer, to that little girl, you didn’t give yourself the credit that you deserve, the credit that you have rightfully earned. You are a legend who will forever be cherished. And loved. You are more than dust and legacy has nothing to do with ego. Death will not erase what you’ve accomplished or the path you took through life with all its turns and roadblocks. Like it or not, you are the legacy of everything that can be accomplished. You are the legacy of hope. Be proud of that. Because we are!
