James Toback's documentary portrait of the controversial boxer "Iron" Mike Tyson is as dramatic as any Greek tragedy. From his humble beginnings in Brooklyn where Tyson was bullied for his lisping high pitched voice, to being champion of the heavyweight boxing arena, to his incarceration for rape. Toback uses a mixture of original interviews and archival footage and photographs, to allow Mike Tyson to tell his own story, without inhibition and with eloquence and a surprising vulnerability. Part self analysis and part self promotion, Tyson reveals that the fury which made Tyson one of the greatest boxers that ever lived was also what destroyed his career, landing him in jail and contributing to one of the most controversial incidents in modern professional sport, when he bit off part of his opponents ear.

Criticism can be leveled at Toback that his portrait is one-sided (none of Tyson's contemporaries or critics appear in the film), it is none the less powerful in its depiction of a man who came from nothing to rise to unlimited heights, before being destroyed by his own hubris.