Tyson was from Amboy St and Bowe from projects on Lott Avenue. Tyson’s awful childhood is well-known but Bowe’s life wasn’t tragic as well. When he was in the Olympics in Seoul, his sister got bludgeoned to death for her welfare check and his brother got diagnosed with AIDS. Bowe became estranged from his family because he said they just wanted handouts from him. And of course there was that fukked up incident when he kidnapped his family at knifepoint. Well before all the talk about NFL CTE and behavioral changes, Bowe’s lawyers used his brain damage in their defense in trial.
Brownsville is known in boxing for having talented headcases/underachievers. Shannon Briggs was hyped quite a bit when he started out and expected to be better than he was. Zab Judah never lived up to expectations. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad was an excellent fighter in a great LHW division, but was known for inconsistency and not training like he should have. He failed to make weight for the Michael Spinks rematch, and the fight got canceled, which is one of the reasons (also the Mancini-Kim tragedy) why boxing changed weigh-ins to the day before the fight. But he could fight and gave one of the best body punching displays I’ve ever seen.
Glad I’m from BK
