Cus D'Amato
Constantine D'Amato (
January 17,
1908 –
November 4,
1985) was a boxing manager and trainer, who handled the careers of
Floyd Patterson,
Jose Torres, and initially that of
Mike Tyson. Many modern day boxing trainers, such as
Teddy Atlas,
Kevin Rooney, and
Joe Fariello, were tutored by D'Amato.
When D'Amato was 22 he opened the Empire Sporting Club with Jack Barrow at the Gramercy Gym. D'Amato lived in the gym for years, waiting for a champion to walk in. He came close several times, but would always lose his fighters to the "connected" managers. One fighter "discovered" by D'Amato, but who went on to become
middleweight champion of the world under the helm of other trainers and managers was
Rocky Graziano.
After years of waiting, and hoping to discover a great boxer, a shy, reclusive boy walked into his gym one day and announced he wanted to be a fighter. The boy was
Floyd Patterson. Under D'Amato's training and guidance, Patterson captured the
Olympic middleweight gold medal in the
1952 Helsinki games. He then guided Patterson through the pro ranks. Patterson gained weight, and ultimately became a
heavyweight.
D'Amato skillfully maneuvered Patterson into fighting for the title vacated by the legendary
Rocky Marciano. In an elimination bout against
Archie Moore, D'Amato's fighter won the heavyweight championship of the world. D'Amato then proceeded to turn the world of boxing on its ear by taking on the IBC, which controlled boxing at the time.
D'Amato continued to skillfully handle Patterson's career and carefully selected his opponents to earn the most money with the least amount of risk. This resulted in title defenses against the likes of
Roy "Cut N' Shoot" Harris,
Brian London,
Tom McNeely and Olympic champion
Pete Rademacher, in his very first pro bout. Meanwhile legitimate challengers, like
Eddie Machen,
Zora Folley,
Cleveland Williams were by-passed. D'Amato also avoided matching Patterson with Sonny Liston, citing Liston's underworld connections, until Patterson finally overruled him and accepted the match.
D'Amato also remembered the seamy side of boxing politics, and decided to thwart the
International Boxing Club of New York (IBC). Suspicious, to the point of paranoia, D'Amato refused to match his fighter in any bout promoted by the powerful but corrupt IBC. The IBC was eventually found to be in violation of anti-trust laws and was dissolved.
Patterson and D'Amato split after the Patterson's second consecutive one round KO loss to
Sonny Liston, although his influence over the champion had begun to greatly diminish before then.
D'Amato also handled the career of Jose Torres. Torres won the
light heavyweight championship of the world.
After Patterson's and Torres's careers had ended, D'Amato worked in relative obscurity. He eventually moved to
Catskill,
New York, where he opened a gym.
It was there that he met and began to work with the future heavyweight champion,
Mike Tyson, who was in a nearby reform school.
Supposedly his first reaction when he saw Tyson sparring was to say "that's the future heavyweight champion of the world". He took Tyson under his wing and adopted him, and trained him over the next few years, teaching him all the techniques and movements a stocky heavyweight could use. Despite Tyson's size he soon became a superb heavyweight contender. D'Amato's assistant Teddy Atlas, who later became a respected trainer himself, later criticized his mentor's handling of Tyson. Atlas mentioned that publicity led the public to believe D'Amato loved Tyson like a son. However, based on what he observed, Atlas believed D'Amato only cared about Tyson becoming champion and his self-professed "love" for the up and coming young fighter was really selfish.
D'Amato died before Tyson became the youngest world heavyweight titleholder in history. Some have suggested this is one of the contributing factors to Tyson's failure to reach his maximum potential.
