Baddest Man

“Remarkable . . . Do not think of this as a boxing book, but boxing does make a colorful and primal backdrop for a uniquely American book, filled with enough mentors and monsters to do any Dickens novel justice.” —Chicago Tribune

“A sweeping biography of the uniquely talented, troubled and troubling boxer, written with some of the voice-y flavor of New Journalism.” —Washington Post

“Mark Kriegel has done it again. Baddest Man is the Mike Tyson book all of us (and not just boxing fans) have been waiting for, a biography as nimble and powerful as its subject. Unforgettable.” —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life and Ali: A Life

“This book, which is a masterpiece from an author who long ago entered the pantheon of the true greats, cements Mark Kriegel as the greatest chronicler of fighting and fighters, even ahead of such lions as W. C. Heinz and William Nack and Norman Mailer. This book is literature, a wonder of the English language sentence to sentence, bound up with such deep reporting that you’ll feel at the end like you’ve crawled into Mike Tyson’s skin, tunneled into his soul, until the iron myth slips away and a man in full, broken but also intact, claws off the page.” —Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of The Barn, Pappyland, and The Cost of These Dreams

“Now comes Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson, a new book from longtime New York fight scribe Mark Kriegel. Like Tyson himself, Baddest Man is a throwback to an era of words over pictures, paragraphs over video, insight over memes. It’s not just a reminder of what Tyson once was, it’s a reminder of how good sports journalism can be . . . It’s a hell of a portrait of a singular era in boxing and in America, one whose echoes are still resonating today.” —Jay Busbee, Yahoo Sports

“Themes of race, power, and wealth are prevalent in Tyson’s life, especially when others, realizing his potential, began making decisions on his behalf. Love him or hate him, Tyson’s story is interesting, and Kriegel highlights the man behind his public persona. An obvious choice for Tyson fans and readers interested in boxing, who will appreciate Kriegel’s focus on the sport’s history and the fighters who influenced it.” —Booklist

“This sinewy biography from journalist Kriegel (The Good Son) traces Mike Tyson’s early life and career . . . [A] nuanced portrait . . . An unflinching glimpse into the formative years of a troubled boxing great.” —Publishers Weekly

“Mark Kriegel, one of America’s finest living sportswriters, has found the perfect subject in Mike Tyson, a figure of endless fascination and yet enduring mystery. Who else but Kriegel—an old-school reporter with a novelist’s touch and feel for the human condition—could peel back the decades of villainization, self-mythology, and shtick that have obscured the story of the rise of the most famous fighter since Muhammad Ali? Gritty, soaring, searing, and funny, Baddest Man is the best sports biography I have read in years.” —Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning

“In clear, tough, impassioned prose, Mark Kriegel, who understands the sausage factory of professional boxing better than anyone on earth, gives us the deep inside of Mike Tyson’s psyche, and of the needs and fantasies of all who have clung to him: the lovers, the operators, the hangers-on, the sportswriters, and us, a public feasting on what we imagine him to be.” —James Kaplan, author of 3 Shades of Blue, Sinatra: The Chairman, and Frank: The Voice

“Few events represented the grandiosity and excess of the 1980s more than a Mike Tyson prizefight. Where else could one find Don King and Donald Trump vying for the same microphone? Tyson did not craft his legend alone. Mark Kriegel delivers a book that only he can by introducing the facilitators, backslappers, and those who looked the other way to capitalize on Tyson’s rapid rise. This is an experience Kriegel lived as a reporter and one brought to life for the reader—you can smell the sweat of a decaying gym and hear the thud of a sharp Tyson body blow throughout the lively pages.” —Jonathan Abrams, New York Times bestselling author