‘Mike Tyson: The Knockout’ humanizes former heavyweight champ

Veteran ABC News journalist Byron Pitts has a simple question for those who watch “Mike Tyson: The Knockout.”

“If you could walk in Mike Tyson’s shoes for the first 30 years of his life, how might you have worn them?”

“Mike Tyson: The Knockout,” which airs on KTNV-13, isn’t so much about boxing. It’s about Tyson, the misunderstood, mercurial man who emerged from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood to become the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history — and the Baddest Man on the Planet.

The ABC News project intimately examines the 54-year-old Henderson resident’s rise, fall and redemption over two parts and four hours, revealing how he navigated the life he never expected to have.

Boxing ultimately serves as a backdrop to the way it affected Tyson’s life, as told by various journalists, athletes and entertainers whom he encountered throughout its course. The first part airs 8 p.m. Tuesday and the second part will air next week — concluding with Tyson’s candid conversation with Pitts about the man he’s become.

“What we hope to do is to give a context. A fuller context,” Pitts said. “This is a guy who comes from as hardscrabble as almost anyone you could imagine. He reached the heights of his profession and then he had a very public fall from grace. … And like a lot of us, he’s worked to cobble together a life.”

The first half of the documentary chronicles Tyson’s ascension. From a bullied boy in Brownsville into the heavyweight prodigy who at 20 knocked out Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas to capture the WBC heavyweight championship.

Original animation is spliced between archival footage and interviews. Seamless transitions make for an easy, entertaining and informative viewing experience. Part one of the project also explores the nature of fame, delving into his tumultuous marriage with actress Robin Givens and concluding with his stunning loss to Buster Douglas.

The second half examines the circumstances surrounding the July night in an Indiana hotel room, after which Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington — ultimately serving three years in prison and changing the trajectory of his future.

The project doesn’t aim to glamorize Tyson’s victories. Nor does it excuse his missteps. It simply presents Tyson for who he was and is. He was once the Baddest Man on the Planet, but those days are in the past.

He now may be the most misunderstood one.

“Mike transcends sports in some ways,” Pitts said. “Many people probably have an opinion about Mike Tyson, and I think in this documentary we reaffirm some of those opinions, and I think we may cast some new light on those opinions about a very, very complicated man.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.