15 Years Ago In TIME

By Elizabeth L. Bland, Unmesh Kher and Lina Lofaro

Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson declared bankruptcy last week after earning an estimated $350 million in a controversial career. Even during his glory days, when TIME featured him on its cover, there were signs of trouble ahead.

The real world has recently descended on Tyson in the forms of a famous wife, a flamboyant mother-in-law, a $4.5 million mansion, a parade of luxury cars (including a dinged one worth $180,000 that he tried to give away) and a custody battle that pits the well-cologned manager Bill Cayton against the understated promoter Don King. Last August, once Tyson had all the belts, King threw a coronation for history's youngest heavyweight champion. The melancholy scene recalled King Kong crusted with what the promoter called "baubles, rubies and fabulous other doodads." Beholding the dull eyes and meek surprise under [Tyson's] lopsided crown and chinchilla cloak, King said he was reminded "of Homer's Odysseus returning to Ithaca to gather his dissembled fiefdoms." Sighs Tyson: "It's tough being the youngest anything." --TIME, June 27, 1988